Showing posts with label National Trust for Historic Preservation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label National Trust for Historic Preservation. Show all posts

Thursday, July 15, 2021

Largest Preservation Fund in American History to Save African American Landmarks Announces $3M in 2021 Grants

Today, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, announced its support for projects totaling $3 million that will help preserve African American landmarks. With $50 million of funding, the Action Fund is the largest preservation effort ever undertaken to support the longevity of African American historic sites. Today’s announcement represents the largest single disbursement in the Action Fund’s four-year history.

Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, said, “The recipients of this funding exemplify centuries of African American resilience, activism, and achievement. Some of their stories are known, and some are yet untold. Together they help document the true, complex history of our nation.

By preserving these places and telling their stories, preservationists can help craft a more accurate American identity and inspire a commitment to justice.”

The Action Fund has grown at a blistering pace since its inception in 2017. In just 3 years it had raised nearly $30 million due to primary support from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and The JPB Foundation.

This year the fund nearly doubled in size due to a significant gift by philanthropists MacKenzie Scott and Dan Jewett who announced a $20 million grant to the Action Fund. This gift acknowledges the power of preservation as a form of equity and asserts the importance of African American history as a vital force in the American cultural landscape. Scott joins this year’s lead funder The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation with additional gifts from The William R. Kenan, Jr. Charitable Trust, President and Mrs. George W. Bush, the Chapman Foundation, and an anonymous donation in memory of Ahmaud Arbery.

“The Action Fund has become the largest resource in American history dedicated to the preservation of African American architectural landmarks,” said Lonnie Bunch, the first African American and first historian to serve as Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. “These grants will positively impact 40 communities nationwide and result in the creation of a visible, preserved legacy of African American contributions. Through the leadership of Brent Leggs, the Fund is creating a lasting historical record, which demonstrates that African American narratives are integral to our nation and our shared future.

Since its inception in 2017 as a response to the conflict in Charlottesville, Virginia, surrounding a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, the Action Fund has supported 105 places through its national grant program for a total investment of $7.3 million.

“We are delighted that the Action Fund continues to affirm the centrality of Black voices and experiences to historical preservation in the United States, and to broaden public awareness of the significance of these landmarks,” said Elizabeth Alexander, president of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. “The 2021 grantees—which range from museums and public libraries to theaters, historic churches, and universities—represent vital cultural sites that enrich our cities, small towns, and rural communities, and that serve as a testament to the fortitude and ingenuity of the African Americans who created them.”

By supporting the longevity of the homes of well-known opera singer Marian Anderson in Philadelphia and the first Black girl millionairess Sarah Rector in Kansas City, the legacies of Asbury United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C., and the Georgia B. Williams birthing center for Black women in Georgia, the Action Fund saves the landmarks that tell timeless stories about the ways African Americans faced their fate with courage, ingenuity, creativity, and genius. These stories help shift the narrative around the value of Black life and correct the inaccuracy of omission in the American story.

This year’s grants were given across four categories: capacity building, project planning, capital, and programming and interpretation. To learn more about the Action Fund and the 2021 grantees, go to www.savingplaces.org/actionfund.

2021 African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Grantees

  • Alabama African American Civil Rights Consortium (Birmingham, Alabama) The Alabama African American Civil Rights Heritage Sites Consortium will create the position of Manager for External Relations to lead fundraising and communications and build its capacity to serve the state's civil rights sites.
  • Save Harlem Now! (New York City, New York) Save Harlem Now! will hire its first paid Executive Director to provide administrative, management, and organizational support to further its mission to protect Harlem's built environment and preserve its history.
  • 4theVille (St. Louis, Missouri) 4theVille will hire its first Executive Director to advance efforts to preserve The Ville neighborhood’s legacy and increase awareness and support of its landmarks and history.
  • Houston Freedman’s Town Conservancy (Houston, Texas) In 1865, formerly enslaved persons established the community of Freedman’s Town at the end of the Civil War. The Houston Freedman’s Town Conservancy will hire a Manager of Learning and Engagement to share Freedman’s Town’s vision with key stakeholders and manage communications and community engagement.
  • African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard (West Tisbury, Massachusetts) The African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard will hire a Director of Research and Outreach to research and relay the significance of the island's historic homes to Black mobility, security, and community.
  • Historic Athens (Athens, Georgia) Historic Athens will create a new, full-time Director of Engagement and African American Heritage within Historic Athens that prioritizes public programming, community engagement, and preservation planning for the African American historic resources and community of Athens, Georgia.
  • Indiana Landmarks (Indianapolis, Indiana) Indiana Landmarks will create a new position to act as director of its African American Heritage Program that will identify African American historic sites and work with local constituents to preserve the places, tell their stories, and plan for their futures.
  • Black American West Museum and Heritage Center (Denver, Colorado) Located in the former home of Dr. Justina Ford, the first African American doctor in Colorado, the Black American West Museum tells the stories of Black cowboys and early Black American communities and histories in the West. This grant will provide board training that shares the best governance practices for a viable, vibrant, and sustainable museum.
  • Walnut Cove Colored School (Walnut Cove, North Carolina) To honor the 100-year legacy of the Walnut Cove Colored School, built in 1921 as a five-classroom Rosenwald School, a long-term strategic plan will be developed for its continued preservation.
  • City of Sacramento (Sacramento, California) A citywide historic context and survey will be conducted to identify and interpret places that focus on the Black American experience in Sacramento from the city’s early history to the recent past.
  • Cherokee State Resort Historical Park (Hardin, Kentucky) Cherokee, the first segregated state park and recreational site for Black Americans in the South, was established in 1951 and operated until 1964. Abandoned until 2002, today the park is used for weddings and other recreational activities. Funding will be used for interpretative signage and programming to tell its story.
  • Para la Naturaleza (San Juan, Puerto Rico) Cultural and conservation organization Para la Naturaleza will work with and engage local descendant communities to conduct research to strengthen interpretation of Hacienda La Esperanza’s enslaved persons and their story after abolition, as well as spark future dialogue about slavery’s legacy in Puerto Rico.
  • History Colorado (Denver, Colorado) History Colorado will plan, design, and implement a statewide African American Heritage Trail program that includes digital and place-based markers showcasing African American historical destinations and stories.
  • Fort Monroe Foundation (Fort Monroe, Virginia) Fort Monroe will develop a comprehensive and well-designed interpretive plan to ensure a deeper understanding of the historical 1619 landing of the first Africans, who were enslaved by the Spanish and then taken by English privateers to the British Colonies at Point Comfort.
  • Asbury United Methodist Church (Washington, D.C.) Asbury UMC is notable for its association with the 1848 Pearl Incident, the largest nonviolent mass escape of enslaved persons in U.S. history, and more recently known as the site where trespassing protestors burned the church’s Black Lives Matter banner in 2020. The grant will enable repairs to the church’s wood windows and Bell Tower masonry as well as repointing and cleaning for its stone facade.
  • Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ (Chicago, Illinois) Emmett Till’s murder at the hands of two white men catalyzed the Civil Rights Movement. Roberts Temple is significant for its association with Mamie Till Mobley and Emmett Till as the site of Till’s 1955 funeral. Critical structural stabilization of the 1922 church will be completed.
  • Hotel Metropolitan Purple Room, City of Paducah (Paducah, Kentucky) The Hotel Metropolitan opened in 1909, serving Black travelers when lodging was segregated, and was later listed in the Green Book. It hosted notables such as Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington, and Thurgood Marshall, and its Purple Room was an after-hours gathering space for musicians traveling on the “Chitlin’ Circuit” who would often play for residents and patrons alike. Restoration of the Purple Room will allow it to be used as a gathering space once more.
  • The League of Women for Community Service (Boston, Massachusetts) This project will restore the entry portico of the 1857 brownstone headquarters of the League of Women for Community Service, a historic Black women’s organization. It provided rooms to Black women college students who were not allowed to stay in dormitories due to segregation, such as Coretta Scott King when she attended the Boston Conservatory. Scott King was also courted here by her future husband Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who lived down the street.
  • Sarah Rector Mansion (Kansas City, Missouri) Built in 1896, the Sarah Rector Mansion is the former home of the "first Black girl millionaire in America" after she acquired an oil-rich parcel of land as a descendant of grandparents enslaved by the Muskogee Nation in Oklahoma. Currently in disrepair, it needs stabilization for future use and programming.
  • Karamu House (Cleveland, Ohio) The apartment residence of poet and playwright Langston Hughes at Karamu House, America’s oldest producing African American theater, will be restored for use as short-term housing for emerging artists of color to be artists-in-residence.
  • Threatt Filling Station (Luther, Oklahoma) Constructed c. 1915 and still family-owned, the Threatt Filling Station was likely the first and only Black-owned and -operated gas station on Route 66. A refuge for Black travelers during the Jim Crow era, its farm also reportedly served as a safe haven for families fleeing the 1921 Greenwood Massacre in Tulsa. The filling station will be restored for use as an interpretive and visitor’s center.
  • National Marian Anderson Historical Society and Museum (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) Known for her stirring performance on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in 1939, singer Marian Anderson’s home in Philadelphia will undergo restoration to its exterior, including replacing deteriorating bricks, roof, and windows.
  • New Granada Theater, Hill CDC (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Constructed in 1928 by Black American architect Louis Bellinger, the Art Deco New Granada Theater and its ballroom were fixtures of Pittsburgh’s jazz era scene with performers such as Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington, who was declared the “King of Jazz” there. Facade restorations will enable it to be included in a redevelopment project that will revitalize the Hill District and its Centre Avenue commercial and cultural corridor, anchored by Black artists and Black-owned businesses.
  • Huston-Tillotson University (Austin, Texas) Constructed in 1914 by Black students trained on campus at this historically black college and university, the Old Administration Building’s windows and rotten wood will be removed and replaced. It still serves as a campus administration building and as a visitor’s center for the city of Austin.
  • Hampton University (Hampton, Virginia) On the second floor of Clarke Hall, a 1913 building on Hampton's campus and this historically black university, artist Charles White's 1943 mural “The Contribution of the Negro to Democracy in America” is painted. Installing a HVAC system will help towards maintaining an environment for its future conservation.
  • Firestation 23, Byrd Barr Place (Seattle, Washington) Firestation 23, built in 1909, is an important anchor within Seattle’s historic Black community of Central District. Repairing the building’s windows, repointing its masonry, and installing seismic bracing will allow it to hold cultural programs in a safe, ADA-accessible facility.
  • Robbins Historical Society and Museum (Robbins, Illinois) Once the restoration and abatement work is completed, the Midcentury Modern SB Fuller Mansion will house the Robbins Historical Society and Museum, highlighting the city’s African American community and the history of Robbins Airport, the first to be owned and operated by African Americans and first training site for Black pilots, serving as a model for the Tuskegee Airmen program.
  • Mount Zion Baptist Church (Athens, Ohio) Historic Mount Zion Church, the last remaining Black-owned-and-built historic building along the Southeastern Ohio River Valley’s Underground Railroad corridor, will be restored and repurposed as a regional Black artistic, cultural, and economic hub.
  • People’s AME Zion Church, The People’s Community Development Corporation (Syracuse, New York) Built in 1910-11 and designed by Wallace Rayfield, the second licensed Black American architect in the U.S., the People's AME Zion Church—Syracuse’s oldest standing African American church structure—needs restoration and stabilization of its exterior.
  • Hayti Heritage Center, St. Joseph’s Historic Foundation (Durham, North Carolina) The Hayti Heritage Center, a cultural arts and arts education venue, is housed in the historic St. Joseph’s AME Church, constructed in 1891. The grant will help repair its stained-glass windows, doors, and original wooden pews.
  • Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home (Camilla, Georgia) Midwives were critical to the health of Black mothers in the Jim Crow era when hospitals were segregated or nonexistent in some areas. This grant will help rehabilitate the Georgia B. Williams Nursing Home (birthing center) and create a Southern African-American Midwife Museum, interpretive center, and multi-use space.
  • North Carolina African American Heritage Commission (Raleigh, North Carolina) The North Carolina African American Heritage Commission, working in conjunction with the South Carolina African American Heritage Commission, will document and map Green Book sites in both states, developing a model for a national Green Book sites marker and digital mapping program.
  • Montpelier Descendants Committee (Orange, Virginia) The Montpelier Descendants Committee will create a master project plan for their Arc of Enslaved Communities project, a descendant-led framework for the research, interpretation, physical discovery, and promotion of sites and projects centered on the contributions of the enslaved in Virginia during the Founding era.
  • Prince Hall Masonic Lodge (Atlanta, Georgia) Part of the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Park, the Prince Hall Masonic Lodge is the former headquarters of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, where Martin Luther King, Jr. maintained an office. The Lodge was also the location of a Madam C.J. Walker Beauty School and WERD, the first African American-owned and -programmed radio station. The grant will provide funding for a preservation plan to guide future restoration of the building’s character and condition.
  • Descendants of Olivewood Cemetery (Houston, Texas) A historic African American cemetery in need of environmental justice, Olivewood Cemetery is subject to flooding and erosion due to commercial development runoff that has destroyed a number of burial plots. A master drainage plan will be created to mitigate further damage.
  • Palmer Pharmacy Building, Bluegrass Trust for Historic Preservation (Lexington, Kentucky) The Palmer Pharmacy Building will have a feasibility study and business plan created for reuse by social service and philanthropic organizations to carry on pioneering Black pharmacist Dr. Zirl A. Palmer’s legacy of community service.
  • Oakland Public Library (Oakland, California) The African American Museum and Library at Oakland needs structural repairs to its aging facility in order to protect the significant collection of documents related to Black history in California and the West.
  • Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society (Sapelo, Georgia) Developers and gentrification have long threatened Gullah Geechee land and cultural heritage. This grant will help seed a new emergency fund—known as the Gullah Geechee Legal Defense Fund—to assist Gullah property owners with retaining land ownership and fight forced sales from rising taxes and speculative investors.
  • St. Simon’s African American Heritage Coalition (St. Simon’s, Georgia) To stimulate heritage-based economic development by Gullah Geechee residents, a new entrepreneurial training program will be developed to educate descendants in historical interpretation, culinary arts, and architectural rehabilitation.
  • National Negro Opera Company (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) Founded in 1941 by Mary Cardwell Dawson, the National Negro Opera Company was the first Black-owned opera company in America. Funds will be used to develop a feasibility study and business plan to define programming options and earned revenue models that activate reuse and sustain operations at this unique landmark.

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About the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a multi-year initiative of the National Trust for Historic Preservation in partnership with the Ford Foundation, The JPB Foundation, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and other partners, working to make an important and lasting contribution to our cultural landscape by elevating the stories and places of African American achievement and activism. Visit savingplaces.org/actionfund.

Friday, July 17, 2020

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund Awards 27 Grants Awarded To African American Historic Sites

On July 16, 2020, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced more than $1.6 million in grants to 27 sites and organizations through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, notes, “The recipients of this funding exemplify centuries of African American resilience, activism, and achievement, some known and some yet untold, that tell the complex story of American history in the United States. With urgency and intention, the nation must value the link between architecture and racial justice, and should fund these and other cultural assets to ensure their protection and preservation.”

Over the past two years, the National Trust has funded 65 historic African American places and invested more than $4.3 million to help preserve landscapes and buildings imbued with Black life, humanity, and cultural heritage. This year’s funds, provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, were awarded to key places and organizations that help the Action Fund protect and restore African American historic sites. Grants are given across four categories: capacity building, project planning, capital, and programming and interpretation.

Below, read the full list of grantees:

Africatown Heritage Preservation Foundation (Mobile, Alabama)

Clayborn Temple Clayborn Reborn (Memphis, Tennessee)

Tenth Street Historic District, Tenth Street Residential Organization (Dallas, Texas)

Paul Robeson House and Museum, West Philadelphia Cultural Alliance (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

Maxville Heritage Interpretive Center (Joseph, Oregon)

While We Are Still Here (Harlem, New York City, New York)

Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network John G. Riley Museum (Tallahassee, Florida)

Georgia African American Historic Preservation Network Georgia Historic Preservation Division

Banneker-Douglass Museum Foundation Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture (Annapolis, Maryland)

Historic Vernon Chapel AME Church Tulsa, Oklahoma)

Historic McDonough 19 Principal’s Office Leona Tate Foundation for Change, Inc. (New Orleans, Louisiana)

May’s Lick Rosenwald School Mason County Fiscal Court (Maysville, Kentucky)

Historic Dennis Farm House Dennis Farm Charitable Land Trust (Brooklyn Township, Pennsylvania)

National Center of Afro-American Artists at Abbotsford (Roxbury, Massachusetts)

Muddy Waters House Muddy Waters Mojo Museum, Inc. (Chicago, Illinois)

Omaha Star Publishing Company Omaha Economic Development Corp. (Omaha, Nebraska)

Founder’s Church of Religious Science (Los Angeles, California)

Historic Brockway Center and Historic Lyons Mansion Oklahoma City Urban Renewal Authority (Oklahoma City, Oklahoma)

Historic Mitchelville Freedom Park (Hilton Head Island, South Carolina)

The Commonwealth Planning Project Sweet Water Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)

The Clifton House (Baltimore, Maryland)

Mapping C’ville Jefferson School African American Heritage Center (Charlottesville, Virginia)

Association of African American Museums (AAAM) (Washington, D.C.)

Lewis Latimer House Museum (Flushing, New York)

Montana State Historic Preservation Office Montana Historical Society (statewide)

Sweet Auburn Works (Atlanta, Georgia)

AACHAF Vision Grant: City of Minneapolis (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Saturday, July 06, 2019

National Trust Awards $1.6 Million in Grants to Help Preserve African American History

Harriet Tubman Home
On July 5, 2019, the National Trust for Historic Preservation announced more than $1.6 million in grants to 22 sites and organizations through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund.

In his announcement at 2019's Essence Festival, Brent Leggs, executive director of the Action Fund, underscored the importance of this work, noting, "The recipients of this funding shine a light on once lived stories and Black culture, some familiar and some yet untold, that weave together the complex story of American history in the United States."

This year’s funds, provided by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, were awarded to key places and organizations that help the Action Fund achieve its mission of protecting, restoring, and interpreting African American historic sites and uncovering hidden narratives of African Americans and their contribution to the American story. Grants are given across four categories: capacity building, project planning, capital, and programming and interpretation.

Read the full list of grantees below:

African Meeting House, Museum of African American History (Boston, Massachusetts)

The oldest extant black church in America was built in 1806 as a gathering place central to the abolitionist movement, early legal battles for education equity, and other struggles for justice. Today, it inspires all generations to embrace and interpret the authentic stories of New Englanders of African descent. Designed by architect Richard Upjohn and constructed in 1835, the school was the first public education facility for free Black children in Boston.

Alabama Historical Commission, Black Heritage Council (Alabama)

The Alabama Black Heritage Council is the only statewide organization in Alabama with the mission to preserve African American historic places. Celebrating its 35th anniversary this year, the organization supports communities to interpret, document, and preserve the diverse stories and places across the state.

Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church, (Barrington, Massachusetts)

NAACP co-founder and civil rights trailblazer W.E.B. Du Bois considered this unassuming wood frame church the “crucible” in which his vision was born. The vacant church also carries the legacies of religious and cultural heritage for African Americans in 19th- and 20th-century rural New England.

Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, (Charleston, South Carolina)

This pillar of Charleston’s African American community, built in 1891, was the tragic scene of the racially motivated 2015 shooting of nine Black parishioners. The Gothic-style church, which is still in use but in need of major structural repairs, hosts the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation south of Baltimore.

Emmett and Mamie Till Interpretive Center, Emmett Till Memorial Commission (Sumner, Mississippi)

The center, located in the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, interprets Emmett Till’s murder and the courageous response by his mother, Mamie Till-Mobley. Her sacrifice and heroism in the face of tragedy ignited the Civil Rights Movement and was a calling cry for racial justice.

Explored Landscapes of Afro-Virginia, Virginia Humanities (Virginia)

Virginia Humanities will establish and staff a statewide African American historic preservation advocacy and resource team to expand interpretation of the historic places and people affiliated with African American life in rural and urban Virginia.

The Forum, Urban Juncture Foundation (Chicago, Illinois)

As the oldest community meeting and performance hall in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, the Forum has been vacant for nearly twenty years and was an essential gathering place for arts and cultural leaders, like Nat King Cole and B.B. King, who drove the Chicago Black Renaissance of the early 20th century.

God’s Little Acre, The Preservation Society of Newport County (Newport, Rhode Island)

The largest and most intact Colonial-era African burial ground in the country, where the story of slavery and the European Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade is told, brings life to the stories of creative survival and perseverance by the first Africans of Newport.

Harriett Tubman Home, (Auburn, New York)

In 1857, the famed abolitionist and freedom fighter Harriet Tubman purchased this homestead, now the Harriet Tubman National Historical Park. The historic site documents over 50 years of Tubman’s work and comprises three properties: a home for the aged, infirmary, and Tubman’s residence.

Historic Evergreen Cemetery, Enrichment Foundation (Richmond, Virginia)

The overgrown Historic Evergreen Cemetery is the final resting place of business executives and political activists Maggie L. Walker and John Mitchell, Jr. It currently serves descendant families and the general public as a memorial park, historic site, and 60-acre monument to African American resilience and achievement from the Civil War era through the early 21st century.

Historic Westside Las Vegas, Nevada Preservation Foundation (Las Vegas, Nevada)

The Historic Westside Las Vegas is an African American segregation-era community that experienced substantial disinvestment after national desegregation efforts. While locally recognized as historically significant, none of the area’s historic districts have been nominated and no complete survey of the full Historic Westside has yet been undertaken.

Hutchinson House, Edisto Island Open Land Trust (Edisto Island, South Carolina)

Currently in a state of deterioration, this rare, intact freedman’s home was built by Henry Hutchinson, son of the formerly enslaved Union soldier James Hutchinson, as a wedding gift for his wife, Rosa Swinton. The home is part of a collection of 14 properties on Edisto Island that tell the stories of African Americans and Gullah Geechee culture between the 17th and 19th centuries, including during the Reconstruction period.

Langston Hughes House, I, Too, Art Collective (Harlem, New York)

Langston Hughes, one of the foremost figures of the Harlem Renaissance, spent the last 20 years of his life at this Harlem brownstone. The home is emerging as a community space that empowers artists and writers to create new works through a diverse array of programming opportunities.

McGee Avenue Baptist Church, Stuart Street Apartments, Bay Area Community Land Trust (Berkeley, California)

Established in 1918 as the first African American Baptist church community in the area, this church moved to its McGee Avenue location in 1933. The church aims to transform its Stuart Street Apartments into an affordable housing co-op that will empower one of the oldest African American communities in Berkeley to preserve cultural heritage through housing.

Morris Brown College's Fountain Hall, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (Atlanta, Georgia)

With its distinctive tower situated at the top of Atlanta’s “Diamond Hill,” Fountain Hall housed W.E.B. Du Bois’ office, where he wrote his seminal work, The Souls of Black Folk. Located on Atlanta’s Westside, this vacant and deteriorating structure is the oldest surviving building associated with Atlanta University, one of the first Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in the South.

Oregon Black Pioneers Corporation, (Oregon)

This 26-year-old organization is dedicated to preserving the history of African Americans in the state, telling stories that are often elusive in traditional narratives, and educating the public through research, oral presentations, exhibits, and publications.

Pauli Murray Home and Center for History and Social Justice, (Durham, North Carolina)

In addition to supporting the life and legacy of Rev. Dr. Pauli Murray, a 20th-century African American human rights activist, lawyer, feminist, poet, Episcopal priest, and member of the LGBTQ community, this home is located in a historically working-class, African American community and is being restored in her honor.

Satchel Page House, Historic Kansas City Foundation (Kansas City, Missouri)

In 2018, a fire critically compromised the home of famed Negro League pitcher and National Baseball Hall of Fame inductee Satchel Paige. The home is now in need of stabilization and planning for its future use.

South Carolina African American Heritage Foundation, (South Carolina)

Recently celebrating its 25th anniversary, this commission supports statewide efforts to promote and preserve sites of African American history across South Carolina. The organization seeks to develop financially sustainable approaches to preserve and increase its public engagement.

Texas Endangered Historic Black Settlements & Cemeteries, Texas Freedom Colonies Project (Texas)

Formerly enslaved people established Freedom Colonies after the Civil War to create once flourishing and self-sufficient communities. The colonies’ historically significant cemeteries, landscapes, and buildings are unrecognized and contain unrecorded heritage.

Treme Neighborhood Revival Grants Program, Preservation Resource Center of New Orleans (New Orleans)

New Orleans’ Treme neighborhood is considered one of the oldest African American neighborhoods in the country, but a rapid rise in real estate values has put long-time residents at risk. This microgrants programs will enable homeowners to maintain and make preservation-friendly repairs to their homes.

Wright Building, Greater Union Life Center, Inc. (DeLand, Florida)

Built in 1920, this building served as a grocery and general store for African Americans in segregated Florida. Black-owned business pioneer James Wright, who had ties to Booker T. Washington, empowered local Black entrepreneurs by leasing retail spaces on the second floor. The building will soon be restored to its original purpose of fostering economic development for the Black community.