(RNS) — Thirty traditionally Black church buildings and initiatives, together with these with ties to Civil Rights leaders who led church buildings and protests throughout the US, are receiving grants totaling $8.5 million from the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation.
The awards are a part of the third annual Preserving Black Church buildings grant program that focuses on historic African American websites throughout the nation and assists them in avoiding demolition, paying for upkeep and fixing structural issues.
“We’re honored to help the continued legacies of those church buildings, which have stood on the forefront of social progress for generations,” mentioned Brent Leggs, govt director of the belief’s African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund, in a Monday (Feb. 24) assertion. “This $8.5 million funding marks a important step in safeguarding traditionally Black church buildings as enduring symbols of religion, power and group management. By preserving them, we be certain that their highly effective presence continues to reside on of their communities and encourage future generations.”
Among the many recipients of the grants, which vary from $50,000 to $500,000, is The Historic Bethel Baptist Church Group in Birmingham, Alabama. It was led by the Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, who died in 2011 and was identified for preventing in opposition to segregation in his metropolis. The funding can be used to assist increase programming to characteristic augmented actuality and visible interpretation to help guests in studying in regards to the church’s position within the Civil Rights Motion, in line with the Preserving Black Church buildings information launch asserting the funding.
One other Alabama church, First Congregational Church of Marion, which was previously led by the Rev. Andrew Younger, will obtain a grant to assist stabilize the constructing’s steeple, amongst different repairs. Younger later turned president of the Nationwide Council of Church buildings and the primary African American U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, and lately eulogized former President Jimmy Carter at Washington Nationwide Cathedral in January.
West Hunter Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta. (Photograph by Audrey Watkins)
West Hunter Avenue Baptist Church in Atlanta, as soon as led by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy, who died in 1990 and was a co-founder of the Southern Christian Management Convention with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., will obtain funds to help within the hiring of a preservation supervisor for restoration initiatives on the church.
RELATED: Dozens of Black church buildings obtain complete of $4 million for historic preservation
The belief’s African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund has raised greater than $150 million to protect historic African American websites. The Preserving Black Church buildings program particularly, supported by Lilly Endowment, has raised a complete of $60 million to guard the legacies and property of the historic buildings.
Two 2025 recipients are receiving bigger grants than in earlier years.
The African Methodist Episcopal Zion denomination, a traditionally Black denomination primarily based in Charlotte, North Carolina, obtained $500,000 to create a denomination-wide preservation endowment to help in historic preservation of its church buildings throughout the nation. Its members have included abolitionists Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass and Sojourner Fact.
The Cleveland Restoration Society was allotted $300,000 for its Historic Black Church Initiative. A few of Cleveland’s church buildings have been areas for organizing efforts led by Malcolm X, King and different leaders of the Civil Rights Motion. A number of of the church buildings have a long time of deferred upkeep and structural points.
The opposite recipients embrace Detroit’s New Bethel Baptist Church, the place singer Aretha Franklin recorded her first J.V.B. Data songs as an adolescent; Quinn Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Frederick, Maryland, which was a protected home for the Underground Railroad; and St. Alphonsus Liguori “Rock” Catholic Church in St. Louis, which was visited by the Rev. Augustus Tolton, the primary ordained African American Roman Catholic priest within the U.S.
Cleveland Restoration Society, Cory United Methodist, Cleveland. (Photograph by Cleveland Restoration Society)
Further recipients are:
St. Paul United Methodist Church, Birmingham, Alabama
Glide Memorial Church (GLIDE Basis), San Francisco
Zoar Methodist Episcopal Church (Mates of Zoar, Inc.), Odessa, Delaware
First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Athens Inc., Athens, Georgia
St. James AME Church, Columbus, Georgia
Ninth Avenue Missionary Baptist Church, Lawrence, Kansas
Saint John African Methodist Episcopal Church, Frankfort, Kentucky
Antioch Baptist Church, Shreveport, Louisiana
Anna Bell Chapel A.M.E. Church (New Haven Preservation Society), New Haven, Missouri
AME Zion Church of Kingston, Kingston, New York
Dickerson Chapel AME Church (Preservation Hillsborough), Hillsborough, North Carolina
St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church (Famicos Basis), Cleveland
Campbell African Methodist Episcopal Church of Media, Pennsylvania
Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Lancaster, Pennsylvania
Soapstone Baptist Church, Marietta, South Carolina
New Tabernacle Fourth Baptist Church, Charleston, South Carolina
Taveau Church (Preservation South Carolina), Moncks Nook, South Carolina
Historic Pickett Chapel (Wilson County Black Historical past Committee), Lebanon, Tennessee
Dabney Hill Missionary Baptist Church, Inc., Snook Hill, Texas
Boynton Chapel Methodist Church, Houston
Mount Carmel Missionary Baptist Church, Milwaukee
New Salem Baptist Church (Preservation Alliance of West Virginia, Inc.), Elkins, West Virginia
Faith Information Service receives funding from Lilly Endowment by way of the Faith Information Basis.
RELATED: 35 Black church buildings to obtain complete of $4 million for preservation work
