2018 Recipients

African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

Grants from the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund are designed to advance ongoing preservation activities for historic places such as sites, museums, and landscapes representing African American cultural heritage. The fund supports Capital Projects, Organizational Capacity Building, Project Planning, and Programming and Interpretation.

In 2018, the first cohort of 16 grantees received grants totaling $1,100,000. More information about each project can be found below. 

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City of Birmingham

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Location: Birmingham, AL
Project Type: Project Planning
Amount: $100,000
Project Title: Historic Structure Reports for Birmingham African American Historic Resources
Project Description: Historic structure reports for resources associated with the Birmingham Civil Rights National Monument, established in 2017. 

Dunbar Coalition, Inc. 

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Location: Tucson, AZ
Project Type: Capital Project
Amount: $75,000
Project Title: Mountain View Officers Club Hands-On Preservation Experience (HOPE) Crew Project 
Project Description: Explore, understand, and document surviving historic materials and existing conditions at the Mountain View Officers Club.  

Office of Historic Alexandria 

Hamnett_Place_Credit_Rob_Larson.jpgLocation: Alexandria, VA
Project Type: Project Planning
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: Planning Grant for Freedom House Museum 
Project Description: Explore the current and future use, viability, and preservation of the Freedom House Museum, in partnership with the building owner/operator, the Northern Virginia Urban League. 

The Mary and Eliza Freeman Center for History and Community, Inc.  

Hamnett_Place_Credit_Rob_Larson.jpgLocation: Bridgeport, CT
Project Type: Project Planning
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: Stabilization of the Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses
Project Description: Architectural and engineering costs for stabilization of the Mary & Eliza Freeman Houses. 

Friends of the Coltrane Home 

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Location: Huntington, NY
Project Type: Organizational Capacity 
Amount: $75,000
Project Title: Coltrane Home Capacity Building 
Project Description: Hire an interim director to lead the restoration of the home of two great African American musicians and create a new historic site that will inspire a love of music, creativity, and good will. 

Preservation Virginia

Hamnett_Place_Credit_Rob_Larson.jpgLocation: Richmond, VA
Project Type: Project Planning
Amount: $75,000
Project Title: Shockoe Bottom: An Economic Analysis of Equitable Revitalization and Memorial Park Commemoration
Project Description: An economic study of plans for Shockhoe Bottom that marry a memorial park and equitable economic revitalization.

Daisy Wilson Artist Community, Inc. 

Hamnett_Place_Credit_Rob_Larson.jpgLocation: Pittsburgh, PA
Project Type: Programming and Interpretation
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: August Wilson House-Interpretive Exhibit Design 
Project Description: Design an array of interpretive exhibits that tell the multifaceted story of August Wilson and the Hill District Community that inspired his plays. 

National Association of Colored Women's Clubs Inc., and Youth Affiliates 

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Location: Washington, DC
Project Type: Capital Project
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: Capital Improvements for Headquarters 
Project Description: Planning and improvements for the National Association of Colored Women's Club headquarter building in Washington, DC. 

Roxbury Cultural District 

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Location: Roxbury, MA
Project Type: Organizational Capacity
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: Roxbury Cultural District Capacity Building 
Project Description: Hire the organization's first paid staff member to increase the organization’s capacity to preserve, interpret, and share the district’s story.

Society for the Preservation of Weeksville & Bedford-Stuyvesant History

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Location: Brooklyn, NY
Project Type: Organizational Capacity
Amount: $75,000
Project Title: Preserving for Future Generations
Project Description: Hire a Preservation Manager who will oversee maintenance and construction activities, create a manual, and report on preservation needs of the property.

South Side Community Art Center

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Location: Chicago, IL
Project Type: Capital Project 
Amount: $75,000
Project Title: South Side Community Art Center Historic Window Restoration
Project Description: Rehabilitation of historic windows at South Side Community Art Center, the first step in a comprehensive preservation plan.

The Madison County Education Foundation

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Location: Marshall, NC
Project Type: Capital Project
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: The Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald School, Completion of Building Rehabilitation
Project Description: Complete rehabilitation of the Mars Hill Anderson Rosenwald school, including interior and exterior improvements, utilities, and handicap parking stalls.

Tuskegee University Department of Architecture 

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Location: Tuskegee, AL
Project Type: Capital Project
Amount: $150,000
Project Title: Preserving Booker T. Washington's Mission - "Learn to do by doing"
Project Description: Develop a Center for Craft Training and Historic Preservation, integrating craft training and building restoration, with the objective of renovating the Willcox E building.

Wilfandel Club, Inc.

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Location: Los Angeles, CA
Project Type: Capital Project
Amount: $75,000
Project Title: Wilfandel Preservation and Restoration Project
Project Description: A capital grant to make plumbing, electric and foundation upgrades to the club's property in order to continue their history of community service.

University of Nebraska Center for Great Plains Studies

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Location: Lincoln, NE
Project Type: Programming and Interpretation
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: Preserving African American Homesteader Sites in the Great Plains
Project Description: Preserve the memory of six Black homesteader sites by mobilizing descendants, using historical markers, and starting a crowdsourced National Park Service digital archive.

Yosemite National Park 

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Location: Yosemite, CA
Project Type: Programming and Interpretation
Amount: $50,000
Project Title: Yosemite Buffalo Soldier History Visibility Program- Public Education and Interpretation
Project Description: Public education and interpretation of the Buffalo Soldiers at Yosemite National Park, where African Americans served as some of the first "park rangers" in the world.

AACHAF 2018 Grant Map