$3.6 million in federal funding split for Alabama civil rights preservation projects

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The Clotilda, Selma’s Brown Chapel AME Church, Birmingham’s Saint Paul United Methodist Church and Montgomery’s Freedom Rides Museum are among the recipients for more than $3.6 million in federal grants to speed preservation efforts.

The money comes from the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Grant Program and is funded by the Historic Preservation Fund. This month the program announced more than $16 million in grants, including projects to restore historic homes, churches and preserve the stories of Black Americans.

The grants for Alabama include:

  • $500,000 to Birmingham’s Saint Paul United Methodist Church for preservation, restoration, and repair.
  • $50,000 to the Birmingham Black Radio Museum for the permanent exhibit at the Carver Theatre.
  • $499,799 to Auburn University for stabilization and exterior rehabilitation of the Tankersley Rosenwald School in Hope Hull, built in 1922 to educate Black Alabamians.
  • $469,500 to the Alabama Historical Commission for stabilization and preservation of the Schooner Clotilda in Mobile, the last-known U.S. slave ship. Its wreckage was identified at a site near Mobile in 2019.
  • $500,000 to the Mount Zion Center Foundation in Montgomery for the rehabilitation of the Mount Zion AME Zion Church Memorial Annex.
  • $50,000 to the Alabama Historical Commission for the Freedom Rides Museum interior exhibit plan in Montgomery.
  • $50,000 to the City of Montgomery for the civil engineering of “The Civil Rights Movement in Montgomery, Alabama: The Planned Destruction of a Prosperous African American Community.”
  • $46,588 to Auburn University for “Memory and the March: Oral Histories with Selma’s Foot Soldiers.”
  • $500,000 to the Historic Brown Chapel AME Church Preservation Society for the preservation of Selma’s endangered Historic Brown Chapel AME Church.
  • $500,000 to the Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church Selma AL Legacy Foundation for systems and accessibility upgrades to Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church.
  • $499,521 to the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth & Reconciliation for rehabilitation of the Historic Sullivan Building for use as a community and culture center.

U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, D-Birmingham, said she was “thrilled” with the announcement.

“As the Representative of America’s Civil Rights district, I’m proud to lead the congressional effort every year to increase funding for the National Park Service Civil Rights Historic Preservation Grant Program to ensure that America’s civil rights history lives on,” Sewell said. “This is a big win for the State of Alabama and the many Foot Soldiers and Freedom Fighters on whose shoulders we stand.”

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