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Protecting and promoting Black history through a $3M grant program

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund announcing a $3.8 million grant.

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two historically Black sites in Charlotte are on a list with 38 other heritage sites across the United States that will be preserved.  

In recognition of Juneteenth next week, the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is using $3.8 million to support that initiative.

The grant focuses on two specific avenues for preservation. The fund wants to conserve modernist structures designed by Black architects and preserve HBCUs across the United States.

There are four sites across the Carolinas with two right in our own backyard.

The Morgan School and First Baptist Church, the oldest Black Baptist church in Charlotte designed by Harvey Gantt, are the sites in the Charlotte area.

The Slave Dwelling Project in Ladson, South Carolina, will preserve the dwellings of the enslaved and educate communities on the history through public events.  

Morris College in Sumter is also on the list. The college provided formal educational opportunities that date back to 1924.

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Theirno Thiam, the dean of the College of Liberal Arts at Johnson C. Smith University, says this important step will protect and promote undervalued places that are uniquely American history. 

"You can't understand American history unless you understand Black history," Thiam said. "It is so deeply intertwined and those places are absolute symbols of what we consider to be American history."

Thiam says these churches, schools, and symbols of the Black press are institutions that he calls the triad. It's an important weave of culture and history that shouldn't be erased.

"No institutions have done more for African Americans and I call it the triad," Thiam said. "That means churches, higher education institutions of learning, and the Black press are being invested in, and it's money well spent!"

Since 2017, the Action Fund has received more than 5,500 funding proposals requesting $655 million. So far, only 242 projects have been supported through an investment of $20 million. 

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