The Funding Will Support 27 Historic Sites and Organizations Through the Action Fund’s National Grant Program and Its Conserving Black Modernism Initiative
The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is investing $3 million to preserve 27 historic sites and organizations that document Black life, achievement and resistance across the United States.
The funding will support places connected to the civil rights movement, education, faith, women’s leadership, architecture and Black cultural heritage through the Action Fund’s National Grant Program and Conserving Black Modernism Initiative. Both programs are managed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“This year’s grants are investments in communities that are preserving the full American story,” Brent Leggs, president and CEO of the National Trust and founder of the Action Fund, said in a statement.
The National Grant Program will distribute about $2.26 million among 22 projects working to protect sites tied to Black history and community life.
Recipients include the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, the Eliza Freeman House in Connecticut and the Mississippi home of educator Dr. Jane Ellen McAllister, the first Black woman to earn a doctorate in education from Columbia University.
As reported by PR News Wire, Funding will also support the preservation of Thelma’s Cafe inside West Virginia’s Hotel Thelma, a Green Book-era site once visited by performers including Etta James, Sam Cooke, Little Richard and Tina Turner.
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Detroit’s Association of Women’s Clubs building was also selected. The historic property was recently included on the National Trust’s 2026 list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places.
The Action Fund’s announcement continues its broader mission of preserving locations that reflect Black activism, innovation, resilience and achievement. Since its founding in 2017, the organization has raised more than $200 million and supported more than 430 preservation projects nationwide.
The organization previously helped restore the childhood home of singer and civil rights activist Nina Simone, another effort to protect Black cultural landmarks from deterioration or redevelopment. Read more about the restoration of Nina Simone’s childhood home in the San Antonio Observer.
Initiative Highlights Black Modernist Architects
The Conserving Black Modernism Initiative will provide another $750,000 to five projects that highlight the work and influence of Black Modernist architects.
Selected properties include Park Johnson Hall at Fisk University, the Martin Luther King Jr. Humanities Center at Texas Southern University and St. Mark AME Zion Church in Indiana.
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The initiative will also support Northeastern University’s Southwest Corridor Project and Milwaukee’s Central City Plaza.
Action Fund Co-Director Tiffany Tolbert said continued financial investment and community leadership are essential to ensuring that Black historic sites survive for future generations.
The grants arrive as the United States marks its 250th anniversary in 2026. Action Fund leaders said protecting Black landmarks is necessary to tell a fuller account of the country’s history — one that includes the communities, institutions and leaders too often left outside the traditional record.
