Photo: Getty Images
National Parks Service (NPS) is pumping $16 million into historical spaces linked to Black civil rights.
On Wednesday (May 11), NPS announced that it would allocate $16.2 million in African American civil rights grants, Newsone reports. The money will fund 44 projects across 15 states in an effort to "support the continued preservation of sites and history related to the long struggle for equality."
Grant recipients this year include Miami's Masjid al-Ansar mosque, a past safe haven for Black Muslims who contributed to civil rights campaigns, and Alabama's Schooner Clotilda, one of the last slave slips that forcibly transported Africans to the U.S. Additionally, the funds will go to conservation projects in Selma and a homage to the Black trailblazers of Tulsa's Greenwood District.
This comes as an expansion of NPS' prior efforts and funding to HBCUs. Previously, the government agency also awarded grant money to New Jersey's Hinchliffe Stadium, one of the last-standing Negro League baseball stadiums.
Chuck Sams, NPS Director, said in a statement, “The African American Civil Rights grants are critical to helping preserve and interpret a more comprehensive narrative of the people, places, and events associated with the African American Civil Rights movement."
Sams continued, “Sites like Hinchliffe Stadium are rare, and they provide a tangible reminder of this complex history. It was exciting to see the ongoing preservation work at a site that bore witness to more than 20 baseball Hall of Famers in its time and has inspired generations to follow in the footsteps of their heroes.”
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