Washington D.C. – Today, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell (AL-07) announced over $2.8 million in funding from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Grant Program that is being awarded to preserve historic sites in Alabama related to Civil Rights and the African American struggle for equality.

“I am beyond thrilled that over $2.8 million in funding from the National Park Service is being invested into Alabama to preserve the living history of the Civil Rights Movement,” said Rep. Sewell. “As Representative of America’s Civil Rights district, I have always fought to secure funding for the preservation of these historic sites as they are critical to ensuring that America’s story lives on. Every year when my colleagues and I join together to commemorate the pilgrimage of the Civil Rights Movement, we are reminded that history is elusive. It is incumbent upon all of us to ensure that our history is preserved and protected for generations to come.”

The National Park Service has awarded the following grants, which total $2,836,313, for historic sites in Alabama:

• $500,000 to the Saint Paul United Methodist Church for preservation, restoration, and repair
• $500,000 to the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church for preservation and rehabilitation
• $236,313 to the Elmore Bolling Foundation for the restoration and preservation of the historic Lowndesboro School
• $500,000 to the Lincolnite Club, Inc. for phase II structural repairs, window restoration, and building systems replacement of the historic Lincoln Normal School Gymnasium
• $50,000 to the Alabama Historical Commission for the Freedom Rides Museum exterior exhibit and window displays
• $500,000 to the Alabama Historical Commission for the phase III rehabilitation of the Moore Building
• $50,000 to the Selma Center For Non-Violence, Truth And Reconciliation for the Voting Rights Movement Education Project: Engaging history through digital and physical educational resources
• $500,000 to the Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL Legacy Foundation Inc. for the critical complete re-roofing of gabled and domed roofs

“The Reverend Arthur Price, Jr. and the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church is honored to be named a recipient of the National Park Service African American Civil Rights Grant,” said the Reverend Arthur Price, Jr. “This grant will help us to continue the preservation and restoration of the Historic Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Parsonage. We are grateful to Congresswoman Terri Sewell for her diligent work in making sure we were aware of this grant program. We count it a privilege to continue to show the world God’s redemptive power in the midst of human struggle and the tragedies endured here in Birmingham during the Civil Rights Movement.”

“I’m thankful to Congresswoman Sewell for her support in obtaining this significant and generous grant for the preservation and restoration of the extant 19th Century Freedmen’s Bureau Lowndesboro School,” said Josephine Bolling McCall, Board President of the Elmore Bolling Foundation. “Just as this school was a beacon of hope for the first post-slavery generation of Black children when it was founded in 1868 by Mansfield Tyler, a former slave, it is my hope that the investment in our work by the NPS Civil Rights Project will produce a signature effort to not only restore and preserve the history and memories of this era but to also create a concrete reminder of our important and honorable past. By the 1960s, schools for African-American children, starved for funds by school districts controlled by whites, were systematically demolished, but the Lowndesboro School survived and we are now honored that this grant will allow us to tell the long history of African Americans striving for education in Lowndes County and throughout the South. This investment by NPS in our preservation project will create opportunities for educational, economic and cultural advancement in Lowndes County and will also serve to revitalize this region by promoting further investments and by bringing a lost history to future generations of Americans. " 

“As Historic Tabernacle  Baptist Church Selma celebrates its 99-years old edifice, we, Pastor Otis Dion Culliver and the Tabernacle Family and Friends, are overjoyed that our historic edifice will now be preserved and restored to her original beauty," said Dr. Verdell Lett Dawson, Board Chairman of Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL Legacy Foundation, Inc.  

“The Mission of the Lincolnite Club is to preserve, revitalize and perpetuate the legacy of the Historic Lincoln School of Marion Alabama,” said Tom Miree, Trustee and former President of the Lincolnite Club. “The Phase 2 Gym Grant is a major step toward repurposing the gym as a multi-purpose Community Center for all ages.”

“This competitive grant program is just one of the many ways the National Park Service is working to preserve and interpret the lesser-known facets of our nation’s shared history,” said NPS Deputy Director Shawn Benge. “From physical restoration projects to surveys, documentation, and education, this years’ grant funds will help many of our State, Tribal, local, and non-profit partners advance their preservation goals.”

The National Park Service’s Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) uses revenue from federal oil leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, assisting with a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars to mitigate the loss of a nonrenewable resource by benefitting the preservation of other irreplaceable resources.

Established in 1977, the HPF is authorized at $150 million per year through 2023 and has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to States, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. Administered by the NPS, HPF funds are appropriated annually by Congress to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural resources.

More information can be found here.