Two historically African American cemeteries are all that remain of the Reconstruction-era Freemantown and Shelton Family settlements founded by formerly enslaved people in Mount Berry, Georgia from 1870 to the 1920s. The sites are now part of Berry College’s Mountain Campus. Funding will support site surveys, condition assessments, and the development of a comprehensive preservation plan to protect these sacred spaces.

Constructed in 1892-94, Gibbs Cottage is the oldest remaining structure dating from Florida A&M University's founding in 1887. The cottage served as the home of Thomas Gibbs, a Black Florida state legislator who introduced the bill that established the institution. Funding will support a conditions assessment, feasibility study, and future preservation planning for the site.

Founded by free and self-emancipated Black Americans in 1829, Brooklyn, Illinois was one of the earliest freedom settlements in the United States. After decades of redevelopment in the surrounding area, the site was in danger of being lost and was put on the Landmarks Illinois Most Endangered Places List in 2023. Funding will support community interpretation and programming that uses archaeology as a way to share Historic Brooklyn's story.

Constructed in 1911 by four lodges of the Colored Knights of Pythias fraternal order, the Tudor Revival-style structure served as a cultural hub for Black businesses and the Indianapolis community. Decades of deferred maintenance leaves the building in need of critical repairs. Funding will support the replacement of its roof, the next stage of a building-wide rehabilitation plan that seeks to restore it as a center of culture and economic empowerment.

The town of Glendora lies a mile from Graball Landing, where 14-year-old Emmett Till's body was retrieved from the Tallahatchie River in 1955. Funding will support a town-wide preservation and innovative, forward-looking plan to evaluate Glendora as a gateway to the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument, which includes Graball Landing, the Tallahatchie County Courthouse, and the Mississippi Blues Trail.

Harlem's historic Apollo Theater is known worldwide for launching the careers of Black performers from Billie Holiday to H.E.R. since its opening in 1914. Building on the National Trust Community Investment Corporation’s tax credit financing partnership with Apollo Theater, funding will support the first comprehensive restoration of the theater space and the modernization of the building's mechanical systems.

Lewis Latimer served in the Union Army during the Civil War before becoming a draftsman and inventor. He contributed to the design and patent of the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell and the incandescent lightbulb with Thomas Edison. Today, his home in Flushing, Queens, New York is a museum dedicated to his legacy. Funding will support the museum's development of a financial sustainability plan to ensure long-term operations and programming.

Sylvester Manor was established as a plantation on Indigenous land in 1651. Connected to the Sylvester family's sugar trade in Barbados, enslaved Africans were brought to the manor on Shelter Island where they cultivated crops and constructed several buildings. Today, the site is an educational farm dedicated to telling the plantation's full history. Funding will support the manor house's attic preservation project and work to further explore the material culture and craftsmanship of the enslaved Black people who lived there.

Built in 1931 by entrepreneurs Hathyel L. and Percy H. James, and named after their daughter, the Jewel Theater was a center of Oklahoma City's Black community at a time when most other arts venues were segregated. The theater eventually closed its doors in the late 1960s. Today, the aftermath of urban redevelopment and decades of underinvestment have left the city's last historically Black theater in need of urgent repair. Funding will support the stabilization and restoration of the building's exterior.

Letitia Carson was born into slavery in Kentucky between 1814-1818. In 1845, she emigrated to Oregon with her husband, an Irish immigrant, where they owned a 680-acre homestead in the Soap Creek Valley. Oregon State University's Letitia Carson Legacy Project seeks to preserve Carson's history and that of the earliest generation of Black settlers in Oregon. Funding will support the project's interpretive planning efforts to design public programs and site visits.

Memphis' historically Black Klondike Smokey City neighborhood was once home to Tom Lee, a Black man who saved 32 people when a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers boat capsized in the Mississippi River in 1925. In appreciation of his bravery, a small brick house was built for him in the neighborhood, where he lived until he passed away in 1952. Funding will support a preservation and financial sustainability plan for the restoration of the Tom Lee House as a cultural center dedicated to his, and the neighborhood's, history.

Established in 1923 and active until the early 1940s, Woodville School was one of over 5,000 educational institutions founded for Black children by Booker T. Washington and Julius Rosenwald. Funding will support the Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation’s development of interactive, interpretative exhibits on-site that will be accessible to all students and visitors.

McKinley Morganfield, known as Muddy Waters, is considered one of the fathers of Chicago Blues music. The home he purchased in the city’s North Kenwood neighborhood became a hub for local musicians and is a designated Chicago Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The building now houses the Muddy Waters Mojo Museum, where funding will support the family-led institution’s long-term master planning and visioning to guide their stewardship of this music legend’s legacy.

Revolutionary War Major and enslaver Richard Bibb lived in an early 1800s Palladian-style townhouse in what is now the historic district of Russellville, Kentucky. Following Bibb’s death, he deeded 1,200 acres of land to nearly 100 individuals he had formerly enslaved. These freed people established a community there called Bibbtown. Today, descendants of this community lead the SEEK Museum, which operates from the Bibb House, actively preserving and interpreting the full histories of Bibbtown and its founders. Funding will support collaborative stewardship planning with descendants to expand preservation, interpretation, and management of the Bibbtown church and cemetery.

The Custom House in Chestertown, Maryland was originally home to Thomas Ringgold, one of Maryland’s most infamous slave trading agents. It also became the site of a major civil rights victory when Josephine Carr, a free Black woman, won a lawsuit forcing the integration of Maryland’s steamboats and other public transportation. It is also a historically important site for Black Chesapeake maritime history. Funding will support descendant-led work to expand interpretation, placemaking, and preservation that will engage community members and visitors with the site’s full history.

Originally founded as the Highlander Folk School in 1932, the Highlander Research and Education Center was closely tied to the Civil Rights Movement, providing training to leaders including Rosa Parks, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., John Lewis, and others. After recent reclamation of its original site and property by community advocates, funding will support stewardship planning for the long-term conservation of the center's buildings and its future as a hub for social activism.

Olivewood Cemetery dates from 1875 and is the first incorporated African American cemetery in Houston. After suffering years of underinvestment, flooding, and overgrowth, Descendants of Olivewood Inc. formed with the goal of restoring and protecting the site as a source of intergenerational historical, cultural, and educational connection. Funding will support descendants with long-term governance, management, and preservation planning efforts.

Dr. Jackson “JW” Clemmons and Mrs. Lydia Monroe Clemmons purchased their late-1700s era farmhouse in Vermont in 1962. Over the years, they ran an African art import and mail-order business, one of the first in the country, from the property. The site is now part of the Vermont African American Heritage Trail and houses an exhibit of the Clemmons’ personal art collection. Funding will support family-led stewardship planning to ensure the site’s future public programming and capital project goals.

The Dr. James & Janie Washington Cultural Center is in Seattle's Central District, the historical center of the city’s Black community. Dr. James Washington Jr. was a Black painter and sculptor who, after working as an artist for the Works Progress Administration, migrated with his nurse wife Janie from Mississippi to Seattle in 1944. James continued exhibiting his artwork, finding community in the Northwest School art movement, and working from the studio behind his and Janie’s home. In 1997, the Washingtons created a trust and willed their estate to the James and Janie Washington Foundation with a mission to continue their work and legacy. Building on family-led estate planning, funding will support descendant-led stewardship planning for the organization and site.

Founders Church of Religious Science was established by Dr. Ernest Holmes in 1932. In the late 1950s, the congregation commissioned Paul R. Williams, the first Black member of the American Institute of Architects, to design its new building. Williams created a sleek, elliptical design in reinforced concrete, drawing on geometric forms that represented Holmes’ teachings. The nearly 20,000 sq. ft. building was dedicated in 1960. Grant funding will support an accessibility and interpretation plan, enabling more efficient use of the building and opportunities for creative storytelling of the church’s architectural legacy.

The Administration Building at the Interdenominational Theological Center is the oldest building on the center’s campus, completed in 1961. It was designed by Edward C. Miller, the first licensed Black Architect in the state of Georgia. Funding will support a Historic Structures Report, building assessments, a reuse study, and greater historical documentation of Miller’s groundbreaking career.

First Church of Deliverance was founded by Clarence Henry Cobbs in 1904, and moved into its current building, redesigned in 1939 by Walter T. Bailey. Bailey was the first licensed Black architect in Illinois. First Church of Deliverance’s main building was an innovative adaptive reuse project, repurposing a former hat factory, and is clad in glazed terracotta tiles. Funding will support the first comprehensive Preservation Plan for the church campus, including the main church building, the Maggie Drummond Community Center & Day Care, and the children’s church building.

The 2500 New Hackensack Building was completed on Vassar College’s campus in 1963 and designed by Jeh Vincent Johnson, co-founder of the National Organization of Minority Architects. The building is also exemplary of Black architects’ contributions to the Modernist style, featuring a minimalist brick, steel, and glass construction. Grant funds will support a Facilities Management and Preservation Plan and support deeper engagement with and interpretation of Johnson’s legacy on campus.

The University of Oregon’s McKenzie Hall was designed in 1968 by DeNorval Unthank Jr., the first Black graduate of the university’s architecture school. Grant funding will support a Preservation and Interpretation Plan to recognize Unthank's contribution to the campus’ design through an interpretive display in the building and inform the future conservation of McKenzie Hall as an historic resource.