The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund of the National Trust for Historic Preservation has announced another round of funding totaling $4 million that will be put towards preserving Black churches in 22 states across the country.

The program’s second round of funding for the two-year-old Preserving Black Churches initiative will help maintain the legacies of 31 churches.

Black churches in the United States are at the center of the country's lifelong fight for democratic reforms and are a key character in the story of African American's survival and resilience in America. As the historian and advisor to the Action Fund, Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., explained, “Black churches have been at the forefront of meaningful democratic reform since this nation’s founding. They’re a living testament to the resilience of our ancestors in the face of unimaginably daunting challenges.”

“The heart of our spiritual world is the Black church. These places of worship, these sacred cultural centers, must exist for future generations to understand who we were as a people,” Dr. Gates added.

Grants range from between $50,000 and $200,000 and will be used to restore the structures while resolving deferred maintenance costs and providing financial assistance to underfunded congregations. 

The full list of funded projects in each category can be viewed here.

“We created the Preserving Black Churches program to ensure the historic Black church’s legacy is told and secured. That these cultural assets can continue to foster community resilience and drive meaningful change in our society,” Brent Leggs, the executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, said in a statement. “We couldn’t be more excited to honor our second round of grantees and ensure that African Americans — and our entire nation — can enjoy an empowered future built on the inspiring foundations of our past.”

Leggs has been instrumental in helping to guide the National Trust away from biases in the field that have led to many smaller structures, such as churches and praise houses, to be left by the wayside. Efforts to preserve other important historical sites are also underway. The Action Fund has now provided over $9.8 million in grants to more than 80 churches through Preserving Black Churches since 2022.