The National Trust Honors MLK With $4 Million in Grants to Preserve Historic Black Churches
The National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund has announced its first round of Preserving Black Churches grants totaling $4 million in awards to 35 churches.
The grantees are spread throughout the country, with recipients in cities pivotal to Black history like Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, Chicago, and New York City, as well as in locations with less national recognition of their Black history such as Anchorage, Alaska, and Manzanola, Colorado.
The Action Fund launched its Preserving Black Church project—a $20 million initiative funded by Lilly Endowment Inc., to help historic Black churches and congregations reimagine, redesign and deploy historic preservation to protect the cultural assets and legacies they steward, tell their stories of resiliency and hope, and carry their missions into the future—in the wake of the 2021 tornado that severely damaged St. James AME in Mayfield, Kentucky. With more than $80 million in funding, the Action Fund is the largest U.S. resource dedicated to the preservation of African American historic places.
“We received 1,266 funding proposals from fantastic churches across the country during this round of grant giving and it really speaks to the significant need of Black churches for new sources of preservation funding,” says Brent Leggs, Senior Vice President of the National Trust and Executive Director of the Action Fund.
“What’s exciting about this first round of Preserving Black Churches grantees is that this is the action fund’s largest gift to date. Our decision to announce today was driven by our desire to honor the life and impact of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who among many things was a visionary preacher who leveraged the pulpit to fuel the fight for freedom and justice in America.”
Though there’s no specific formula to determine grantees, the fund takes into account very clear preservation threats including deferred maintenance, climate change, insufficient funds, aging congregations, demolition, and water infiltration and contamination.
Geographical and historical diversity are considered as well. While Black churches, such as the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama, played an integral role in the Civil Rights movement, these institutions and their congregants have shaped American culture since its founding. For example, the congregation of grantee Mother AME Zion Church in Harlem dates back to 1774, and First Bryan Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, another grantee, has been in continuous service for 234 years.
Learn more about the Preserving Black Churches program and see the full list of grantees and preservation grant categories here.
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