WASHINGTON – Ten historic sites associated with the preservation of civil rights history in America will receive a combined $3.27 million in National Park Service History of Equal Rights Grants. These competitive grants support physical preservation work and preservation planning activities, including historic building repair and rehabilitation, architectural planning, and land surveys.

“The History of Equal Rights Grant program helps preserve sites where communities came together to advance civil rights,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams. “These funds support our State, Tribal, and local governments and nonprofit partners in telling a more complete story of the road to equal rights for all Americans.” 

This years’ grants will support the preservation of sites like the LeMoyne House in Washington County, Pennsylvania, center of Dr. LeMoyne’s activity with the Abolition Movement and the Underground Railroad, and Cincinnati’s Potter’s Field, the city’s former indigent burial ground from 1852 to 1981.

Congress appropriated funding for the History of Equal Rights Grant Program in FY2021 through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF). The HPF uses revenue from federal oil and gas leases on the Outer Continental Shelf, assisting with a broad range of preservation projects without expending tax dollars, with the intent to mitigate the loss of a nonrenewable resource to benefit the preservation of other irreplaceable resources. 

Established in 1977, the HPF is authorized at $150 million per year through 2023 and has provided more than $2 billion in historic preservation grants to states, Tribes, local governments, and nonprofit organizations. Administered by the NPS, HPF funds may be appropriated by Congress to support a variety of historic preservation projects to help preserve the nation’s cultural resources.

For more information about NPS historic preservation programs and grants, please visit nps.gov/stlpg