Just in time for Thanksgiving, the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced a new source of grants, the African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, that we hope will help save some of Mississippi’s historic places,
https://savingplaces.org/african-american-cultural-heritage#.WhJOv0qnHIV
We owe it to ourselves, our ancestors, and our future generations to preserve—and share—the full American story. Sometimes preserving that story means working through a difficult past to create a more inclusive future. Sometimes it means amplifying the voices of those who historically have been silenced. No matter the approach, we believe every American should be able to see themselves, their history, and their potential in both our collective story and our national landscape.
To encourage this growing movement, the National Trust and its partners have stepped forward to create the African-American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Our mission: to draw attention to the remarkable stories that evoke centuries of African-American activism and achievement, and to tell our nation’s full history.
Support the Action Fund
Indeed, the stories and places of African-American culture and heritage have always existed, but too often have not been fully acknowledged for the integral role they play in the fabric of American society.
We are committed to crafting a narrative that expands our view of history and, ultimately, begins to reconstruct our national identity, while inspiring a new generation of activists to advocate for our diverse historic places.
We will use the Action Fund to provide grants to African-American historic sites and empower youth through Hands-On Preservation Experience (HOPE Crew). We will research preservation’s impact on contemporary urban issues that disproportionately affect communities of color, while advocating for underrepresented groups. And through it all, we will continue to work on the ground with communities and cities to protect significant historic places and elevate their stories through our National Treasures program.
The Action Fund marks a major step forward in how we save and sustain historic African-American places. We invite you to join us.
Here are just a few of the wealth of African American historic places worth saving in Mississippi.
![St. James C.M.E. Church [Outreach of Faith & Fellowship Church], Seventh Street (1949)](https://misspreservation.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/hattiesburg-tornado-2013014.jpg "Hattiesburg Tornado 2013014")
Categories: African American History, Grants, Historic Preservation
Preservation in Mississippi 
This was a good way to begin my Monday morning!
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Also good to note that several of these sites are receiving national recognition by being included in the new Special Resource Study that the National Park Service is just beginning (and maybe more) –
1) the home of the late civil rights activist Medgar Evers, located at 2332 Margaret Walker Alexander Drive, Jackson, Mississippi;
2) the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, located at 100 North Court Street, Sumner Mississippi;
3) the site of Bryant’s Store, located at the intersection of County Road 518 and County Road 24, Money, Mississippi;
4) the site of the former office of Dr. Gilbert Mason, Sr., located at 670 Division Street, Biloxi, Mississippi; and
5) the Old Neshoba County Jail, located at 422 Myrtle Avenue, East, Philadelphia, Mississippi.
And that the Medgar Evers House was recently recommended by the Secretary of the Interior as a new National Monument.
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