30 African American Historic Sites Receive $3 Million in Preservation Funding

• This year's grantees are stewarding historic sites that represent Black American life through modern architecture, education, sports, and Black women's achievement.
• The Action Fund has supported 304 Black heritage sites with a total investment of $27M since 2018.
• Images of the 2024 grantees are available here.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, today announced $3 million in grant funding to protect and preserve 30 sites representing Black history. With more than $140 million raised since its founding in 2017, the Action Fund is the largest resource dedicated to the preservation of African American historic places.

"The National Grant Program represents the Action Fund's enduring commitment to telling the full American story - one that makes room for Black resilience, creativity, and achievement," said Brent Leggs, Executive Director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. "History is crucial to our nation's understanding of where we've come from, who we are today, and how we envision our future. These grants will support critical preservation efforts to revitalize and sustain tangible links to our shared past that we hope will inspire future generations."

This work would not be possible without the Action Fund's key philanthropic partners who share a commitment to social justice through preservation and education. The Mellon Foundation has been a longstanding supporter of the Action Fund and the National Grant Program, and several of this year's grantees will be receiving the financial resources they need to complete capital projects, build organizational capacity, and more as a result of the Mellon Foundation's contribution of $1.5 million.

"Preserving African American culture is central to preserving and understanding American culture writ large," said Elizabeth Alexander, President of the Mellon Foundation. "This new suite of Action Fund grants will provide crucial financial and strategic support to sites that further illuminate the Black voices and visions that make up our shared American past. We at Mellon are pleased to support this effort to ensure that all of us can continue to learn and experience these essential histories in our public spaces."

In addition to the Mellon Foundation, the Action Fund is grateful for the generous contributions of the Ford Foundation and the Robert D. L. Gardiner Foundation to the National Grant Program.

This year's awardees include the second round of Conserving Black Modernism grants, a program designed to protect and promote the work of African American architects. These sites will receive $1.2 million in preservation funding through the Action Fund with support from the Getty Foundation.

"We're thrilled to support a second iteration of grants for the Conserving Black Modernism program," said Joan Weinstein, director of the Getty Foundation. "This program both expands our understanding of modernist architecture in the United States and celebrates the unique contributions of pioneering African American architects who have long been overlooked."

With amounts ranging from $50K to $150K, this year's Action Fund grants will support preservation efforts across four categories:

• Building Capital: Supporting the restoration and rehabilitation of cultural assets important to Black history
• Increasing Organizational Capacity: Providing leadership staff positions within nonprofits stewarding Black heritage sites
• Project Planning and Development: Funding planning activities tied to the development of preservation plans, feasibility studies, historic site reports, National Register designations, and fundraising
• Programming and Education: Advancing storytelling through public education, exhibits, and creative interpretation

A site list including details about all of this year's grantees, and a media kit with hi-res photographs, are available here.

About the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund
In November 2017, the National Trust for Historic Preservation launched its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (AACHAF) to make an important and lasting contribution to the American landscape by preserving sites of Black activism, achievement, and resilience. Since 2017, it has raised over $140 million and supported 304 grantees nationwide. The AACHAF's work is guided by the Founding Executive Director, Brent Leggs, and an esteemed National Advisory Council that includes thought leaders in the arts, academia, business, government, philanthropy, and preservation.

Learn more about the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund at savingplaces.org/actionfund.

About the National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation protects historic landscapes and buildings representing our country's diverse cultural experience by taking direct action and inspiring broad public support. Chartered by Congress in 1949 as a privately funded organization and committed to honoring the histories of all Americans, the National Trust collaborates with partners and allies to save places, educate the public, and use preservation to address urgent challenges and serve communities today.

Learn more about the National Trust for Historic Preservation at savingplaces.org.

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2024 National Grant Program Grantees

Please see below for Conserving Black Modernism grantees

California

• Los Angeles, CA: Alpha Gamma Omega House (Chapter, Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority) / The Ivy Heritage Foundation, Inc
  The Alpha Gamma Omega Chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority was founded in 1927. The chapter purchased its house in the historic West Adams district of Los Angeles in 1960, making it the first chapter in Southern California to own a home. Originally constructed in 1911, funding will support mechanical system upgrades to ensure the structure can continue being used by its members for years to come.

Georgia

• Thomasville, GA: Imperial Hotel / Jack Hadley Black History Memorabilia, Inc.
  The Imperial Hotel was established by Harvey and Dorothy Lewis Thompson, a Black couple, in 1949 and remained in business until 1969. The hotel was listed as a Green Book site in 1954, marking it as a safe haven for Black travelers during segregation. Funding will support the installation of an interior metal skeleton that will reinforce and stabilize the hotel's walls.
• Midland, GA: Pierce Chapel African Cemetery / Hamilton Hood Foundation
  The Pierce Chapel African Cemetery, established circa 1828, is one of the oldest burial grounds for enslaved people from several plantations in the region. The cemetery has experienced severe damage over the years and was on the National Trust's "11 Most Endangered Places in America" list in 2023. Funding will support project planning and establish a roadmap to preserve the landscape and the community's history.

Idaho

• Boise, ID: Erma Hayman House / City of Boise Department of Arts & History
  Erma Hayman (1907-2002) lived in Boise for most of her life, purchasing the house that now bears her name in the city's River Street neighborhood in 1948. The Erma Hayman House now serves as a cultural center dedicated to uplifting the community's Black and working-class history through preservation efforts and public programming. Funding will support the employment of a community coordinator at the house to increase its organizational capacity.

Illinois

• Chicago, IL: Wabash Avenue YMCA / The Renaissance Collaborative, Inc.
  The Wabash Avenue YMCA was a thriving center of Chicago's Black community from the building's completion in 1913. The branch closed in 1970, however the Renaissance Collaborative, now headquartered in the building, and the Black Metropolis NHA Commission have partnered to expand local history tours centering the Wabash Y. Funding will support the incorporation of visual exhibits and the development of youth-oriented tours.

Kansas

• Bogue, KS: Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum / Nicodemus Historical Society & Museum
  Nicodemus is one of the United States' oldest surviving Black-founded communities and will be celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding in 2027. The advocacy and memory-keeping work of the Nicodemus Historical Society has been crucial to its preservation. Funding will support the hiring of additional staff to build the society's organizational and philanthropic development capacity.

Kentucky

• Louisville, KY: Chickasaw Park / Louisville Olmsted Parks Conservancy, Inc.
  Chickasaw Park is believed to be the only landscape designed by Frederick Law Olmsted's firm that was specifically for African Americans. Designed in 1923 and completed in 1930, the formerly segregated park has been home to the West Louisville Tennis Club and was visited by Althea Gibson, the first Black woman to win at Wimbledon. Funding will support public interpretation and education programs around the park's tennis courts and their history.

Maryland

• Centreville, MD: Kennard High School at the Kennard African American Cultural Heritage Center & Museum / Kennard Alumni Association, Inc.
  Kennard High School opened as a segregated school for Black children in 1936 and was named after Lucretia Kennard, a life-long educator and leader in the Centreville community. The school is now part of the Kennard African American Cultural Heritage Center & Museum. Funding will cover the first two years of costs to employ an executive director to manage the museum's operations, development, and programs.
• Gaithersburg, MD: Gaithersburg Community Museum / Gaithersburg Community Museum
  The Metropolitan Grove community was founded by formerly enslaved African Americans and remained intact through the early 20th century. Much of the original building stock was lost to redevelopment efforts during the Urban Renewal period. Funding will support the Gaithersburg Community Museum's effort to conduct research and fabricate historic marker signage to ensure Metropolitan Grove is remembered.

Minnesota

• Minneapolis, MN: Camp Katharine Parsons Nature House / Phyllis Wheatley Community Center
  The Phyllis Wheatley Community Center (PWCC) established Camp Katherine Parsons in 1956 to give Minneapolis-area Black youth an opportunity to enjoy nature, learn new life skills, and feel empowered to achieve their goals. Funding will support the PWCC's restoration of the Nature House on the 106-acre property, enabling it to reopen and host programs for a new generation of children and families.

Mississippi

• Jackson, MS: Unita Blackwell Freedom House / The Lighthouse
  The Unita Blackwell Freedom House is named after the state's first female mayor. Blackwell (1933-2019) was a civil rights activist and served as an advisor to six U.S. presidents. The Freedom House was her primary residence during her lifetime, and grant funding will support the structural rehabilitation of the home, enabling it to host community leadership training and events for Black girls in the Mississippi Delta region.
• Water Valley, MS: Alonzo Chatmon's Juke Joint / The Mt. Zion Memorial Fund for Blues Music and Justice
  The historic, Black-owned Alonzo Chatmon's Juke Joint is part of Mississippi's rich Blues history. Chatmon was a musician himself, and led the Mississippi Sheiks, a well-known music group in the 1930's. Funding will support a pre-preservation study of the building, and other Black-owned historic structures related to Blues recording artists in the state.

New Jersey

• Scotch Plains, NJ: Shady Rest Golf and Country Club / Preserve Shady Rest Committee
  The Shady Rest Golf and Country Club, established in 1921, was the first Black-owned and operated country club in the nation. It hosted the first American-born professional golfer John Shippen Jr. (1879-1968), a Black man whose father was born into slavery. Black luminaries such as W.E.B. Du Bois and singer Ella Fitzgerald also frequented the club. Funding will support an inclusive master plan to guide preservation and interpretation activities on the property.

New York

• Harlem, NY: New Amsterdam Musical Association Building / New Amsterdam Musical Association
  The New Amsterdam Musical Association is the oldest Black-founded musical organization in the U.S., founded in 1904. The association's building has served as a community support and performance space for Black musicians for over 100 years. Funding will support restoration efforts to address safety issues associated with the facade, windows, and electrical system.
• Bronx, NY: Woodlawn Cemetery / Woodlawn Conservancy Inc.
  Woodlawn Cemetery is a National Historic Landmark and resting place for many Black luminaries including Ralphe Bunche, a Nobel Peace Prize and Presidential Medal of Freedom awardee, the entrepreneur and millionaire Madam C.J. Walker, and Ivan Bynoe, a Tuskegee Airman and war hero. Funding will support the Woodlawn Conservancy's hire of a consultant to develop "Where Harlem Rests," a series of tours highlighting the notable Black individuals buried there.
• Brooklyn, NY: Lefferts Historic House / Prospect Park Alliance
  The Lefferts Historic House is one of the Flatbush area's few remaining farmhouses and dates back to the 18th century. According to census records, the Leffert family enslaved at least twenty-five African Americans who lived and worked on the property. Funding will support the restoration of the house's North kitchen wing for programming that will center the lived experiences of these individuals.

Ohio

• Cincinnati, OH: Cincinnati Preservation Association's "Greater Cincinnati Black and African American Historic Context Study" / Cincinnati Preservation Association
  Cincinnati was a significant migratory destination for free and formerly enslaved African Americans starting in the 1800's. Grant funding will support the city's efforts to more deeply engage with its local and regional Black history. A consultant will be hired to develop a "Black and African American Context Study."

Pennsylvania

• Chadds Ford, Kennett Township, PA: Kennett Underground Railroad Center (KURC) / Brandywine Valley Scenic Byway Commission
  As part of efforts to chart and preserve Underground Railroad routes, Kennett Township has partnered with the Kennett Underground Railroad Center to rehabilitate a historic property that once served as a "Station" on formerly enslaved Africans' journey to freedom. Funding will support a comprehensive assessment, plan, and cost estimates for the structure and support educational programming about events that occurred "Just Over the Line" in Chester County.

South Carolina

• Chester, SC: The Brainerd Institute / Brainerd Institute Heritage
  The Brainerd Institute was founded by the Presbyterian Church in 1866 as an elite educational institution for Black students. The school graduated its last class in 1939. Decades later, the acclaimed poet Vivian Ayers, a member of that final class, is leading efforts to restore and reactivate the campus. Funding will support the hire of expert consultants to develop a master plan to offer cultural, arts, and literacy programs at the institute once more.

Tennessee

• Nashville, TN: George W. Hubbard House of Meharry Medical College / Friends Of Hubbard House
  Designed by McKissack and McKissack, one of the oldest Black-owned architectural firms in the U.S., the George W. Hubbard House was completed in 1921 and named for the founder and first president of Meharry Medical College. The house is located on the historically African American college's campus where funding will support the stabilization of its exterior, the first phase of a broader rehabilitation effort.

Texas

• Houston, TX: Simms/Gray-Lewis Cottage / Rutherford B.H. Yates Museum
  Isabella Simms, a Black woman and domestic servant, purchased the lots at 1216 and 1218 Wilson St. in Houston just nine years after the Civil War ended. In 1907, Lincoln R. Jones, a Black contractor, designed and built what would come to be known as the Simms/Gray-Lewis Cottage, named for its owners. Today, this structure is a city-designated protected landmark. Funding will support its rehabilitation as a gift shop, gallery, and tour office for Freedmen's Town Houston.

Virginia

• Richmond, VA: The Pine Grove Washington-Rosenwald School / AMMD Pine Grove Project
  The Pine Grove Washington-Rosenwald School was established in 1917 as one of a series of schools founded by the education reformer Booker T. Washington and the Jewish philanthropist Julius Rosenwald. The school functioned as an educational institution and community center for generations. Funding will support research efforts to record oral histories and document the archival and ethnographic landscape of the historic Pine Grove community.

Conserving Black Modernism Program

District of Columbia

• The Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University, DC: Ira Aldridge Theater / Chadwick A. Boseman College of Fine Arts at Howard University
  The Ira Aldridge Theater was named for a famed 19th century African American actor best known for his performances of Shakespeare. The theater was designed by acclaimed Black architects Hilyard Robinson and Paul R. Williams, and completed in 1961 as part of Howard University's campus. Funding will support a historic structures report and an interpretation plan.
• DC: Masjid Mohammad, Nations Mosque / Masjid Muhammad, Inc.
  Completed in 1960, Masjid Muhammad, Nations Mosque was designed by David R. Byrd. The building represents one of the oldest Black Muslim congregations in the United States. Funding will support engineering and environmental studies for the building's planned LEED-certified expansion, in addition to limited capital improvements.

Georgia

• Atlanta, GA: Claude B. Dansby, Benjamin G. Brawley, and John H. Wheeler Halls at Morehouse College / Morehouse College
  Leon Allain, a prominent Black architect in the Atlanta area, designed Claude B. Dansby, Benjamin G. Brawley, and John H. Wheeler halls at Morehouse College through the early 1970s. Funding will support building assessments and a historic structures report for the three sites.

Mississippi

• West Point, MS: Kenneth G. Neigh Dormitory Complex at the former Mary Holmes Community College / Dream Center Golden Triangle
  Designed by the acclaimed Black architect J. Max Bond Jr. and completed in 1970, the Kenneth G. Neigh Dormitory Complex is currently in an advanced state of deterioration as Mary Holmes Community College has been closed since 2005. Funding will support an adaptive reuse feasibility study for the complex focused on transitional housing.

New York

• Buffalo, NY: Robert T. Coles Home and Studio / Frank Lloyd Wright's Martin House
  Robert T. Coles, the first Black Chancellor of the American Institute of Architects, designed and built his House and Studio in 1961. The two-story building is composed of prefabricated units set back in a garden and courtyard. Funding will support a historic structures report and a reuse and feasibility study.

• Buffalo, NY: John F. Kennedy Community Center / Preservation Buffalo Niagara
  The JFK Recreation Center was designed by Robert T. Coles as his thesis project at MIT and completed in 1963. The building currently hosts a range of nonprofits and multi-generational community activities. Funding will support a comprehensive preservation plan.

Tennessee

• Memphis, TN: Universal Life Insurance Company Building / South Memphis Renewal Community Development Corporation
  Designed in 1947 by McKissack and McKissack, one of the oldest Black-owned architectural firms in the United States, the Universal Life Insurance Company Building was completed in 1949. Funding will support a cultural interpretation plan and repairs to certain sections of the building.

Virginia

• Petersburg, VA: Azurest South, Amaza Lee Meredith Home and Studio / Virginia State University Alumni Association
  Azurest South, completed in 1934, is the home and studio designed by the pioneering Black architect Amaza Lee Meredith. Located on the Virginia State University campus, where she established the Fine Arts program and lived with her partner Dr. Edna Meade Colson, the home is a colorful example of the International Style. Funding will support the implementation of a conservation management plan for the building.

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