The initiative to avoid wasting historic Black church buildings has aided 108 congregations since 2023.
March 2, 2025
Black church buildings throughout the nation just lately have been awarded greater than $8 million in grants, a part of an effort to protect buildings that performed important roles in Black historical past.
The grants, starting from $50,000 to $500,000 and totaling $8.5 million, have been introduced on Feb. 24 and went to 30 church buildings. They have been awarded by the African American Cultural Heritage Motion Fund, a program operated by the nonprofit Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation, with assist from Lilly Endowment Inc.
Since its inception in 2023, the $60 million Preserving Black Church buildings initiative has labored with 108 congregations and invested $19.5 million, stated Brent Leggs, the chief director of the fund and a senior vp on the Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation.
“We needed to leverage the instruments of historic preservation to make sure the long-term viability and sustainability of those historic landmarks which might be essential in understanding the material of American life and historical past,” Mr. Leggs stated.
The Nationwide Belief for Historic Preservation calls Black church buildings “the oldest establishments created and managed by African Individuals.” However lately, congregation numbers have declined, with many church buildings struggling to draw youthful individuals. The grants are geared toward addressing “pressing preservation challenges corresponding to demolition threats, deferred upkeep, and structural points, along with offering essential assets to assist congregations strengthen their stewardship plans, improve asset administration, and develop fund-raising capability nationwide,” in response to a information launch.
The grants have been issued to church buildings in 19 states, from Alabama to California. A few of the church buildings have been stops alongside the Underground Railroad, whereas others have been pivotal through the civil rights motion.
A $500,000 grant will assist the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit set up a brand new roof and restore water harm. The church was commissioned in 1961 by the Rev. C.L. Franklin, the daddy of Aretha Franklin. Planning for the Stroll to Freedom, a march of civil rights activists by means of Detroit in 1963, passed off there, in response to the information launch.
“The church itself is simply held in excessive regard within the metropolis of Detroit,” stated Dr. James Weathers, a member of the church’s board of trustees. “And for us to have a church that’s held in that kind of regard, to have of us are available there and see it trying in disrepair, was only a disgrace, and it was actually embarrassing.”
The A.M.E. Zion Church Inc., headquartered in Charlotte, N.C., acquired an identical grant of $500,000. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion (A.M.E.Z.) church is a Christian denomination organized in 1821, with notable members together with Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Reality and Frederick Douglass.
The grant has helped set up a denomination-wide preservation endowment, which will likely be obtainable to the roughly 1,600 A.M.E.Z. church buildings throughout the nation, stated Rev. Dr. Eleazar Merriweather, the group’s government director of church progress and growth. It received’t be sufficient to assist each single church, he stated, however it would assist these which might be going by means of “hardship.”
“This fund could be there to assist assist them by means of their powerful instances, if you’ll, or difficult instances,” Rev. Merriweather stated.
