Updates - grants for churches, Hopewell WH nomination submitted

World Heritage Initiative

Department of History

Atlanta, Georgia

January 2022 Updates

Funding for Historic African American Churches

Historic Black churches have a new source for funding, thanks to a $20 million Lilly Endowment grant to the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. The Preserving Black Churches Project seeks to challenge Black churches and congregations to use historic preservation to address the needs of their institution, its cultural assets and heritage. The Action Fund will provide grants and technical assistance for single and multi-year projects that leverage historic preservation as a tool for equity and reconciliation. The funds can be used to celebrate historic Black churches with active Congregations as well as those with new uses as centers of civic pride and cultural value.

Brown Chapel AME Church, Selma, AL

West Hunter Street Baptist Church, Atlanta, GA

Beulah AME Church, Farmville, VA

And remember there is also the National Fund for Sacred Places, a joint program of the National Trust and Partners for Sacred Places. This program has been supporting African American churches with grants and technical service since 2016. With a new website it is now easier to learn about this important program and apply for a grant.

Heritage Ohio submits Hopewell Ceremonial Mounds World Heritage nomination dossier

Congratulations to Jennifer Aultman, Todd Kleismit and the hardworking staff at Heritage Ohio, who after years of consulting with National Park Service Office of International Affairs Chief Stephen Morris and Phyllis Ellin submitted to the World Heritage Centre in Paris its nomination dossier of the Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks. Pending the outcome of an intensive review by the International Council on Monuments and Sites, the dossier would then be made available for the World Heritage Committee at its summer 2023 session to consider for inscription on the World Heritage List. Bonne Chance to the nominators and the nomination!

U.S. Civil Rights Movement Sites Symposium at GSU

Remember to register for the April 21-22, 2022 U.S. Civil Rights Movement Sites Symposium scheduled in person at Georgia State University in Atlanta. This two-day event will feature two keynote presentations, one on interpreting history at civil rights sites by Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries of Ohio State University and the other on the importance of African American historic preservation by Brent Leggs of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust. Held in conjunction with the U.S. Civil Rights Trail Marketing Alliance, the meeting will provide an opportunity for attendees to network with heads of state departments of tourism along with stakeholders and property owners of the historic places associated with the movement.

More details will follow in a future eblast along with a link to a group rate at the Marriott Residential Suites Downtown, located just one block from the GSU College of Law where the Symposium will take place.

This project is funded in part by:

The African American Civil Rights program of the Historic Preservation Fund,

National Park Service, Department of the Interior. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material do not constitute endorsement or necessarily reflect the views of the Department of the Interior or U.S. Government; and

Grants from the African American Fund and the Southern Intervention Fund of the

National Trust for Historic Preservation.

Questions? Comments?

Visit: worldheritage.gsu.edu.

Project Director Glenn T. Eskew: gteskew@gsu.edu or 404.413.6354

Project Manager Anne H. Farrisee: afarrisee@gsu.edu or 404.413.6353