'It's an answered prayer': Historic Black churches get grants for needed repairs
WASHINGTON ‒ Time has taken its toll on some of the stained-glass windows and hand-stenciled ceiling beams at Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco. The 96-year-old historic Black church is in desperate need of repair.
But with a newly awarded $500,000 grant, the church plans to fix the water-damaged roof, repair and replace some stain-glass windows, restore the beams and spruce up the original wooden pews.
“We are long overdue for more than just patching, but for serious restoration and repair,’’ said Marvin K. White, senior minister at Glide Memorial Church. “What I hope it will do is let people see this is worth investing in.”
Glide Memorial is one of 30 historic Black churches awarded a grant from The National Trust for Historic Preservation’s African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund for repairs, maintenance and to support some programs.
The grants, which range from $50,000 to $500,000, are part of a $8.5 million program announced Monday and the Action Fund’s third round of awards for historic Black churches.
The funds come as faith leaders, activists and historians push back against efforts to restrict the teaching of Black history and pull back support for preservation of some historic sites.
“It is our mission to tell the full history and support local organizations and protect our nation's historic infrastructure,’’ said Brent Leggs, executive director of the African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and senior vice president of the National Trust, a privately funded, nonprofit. “In this moment, we hope to see more communities and funders embrace the preservation of Black history as American history and as a shared national responsibility.’’
Several faith leaders, including White, said restoring their houses of worship also help churches continue to provide critical programs and fight for social justice.
“I think it'll go a long way to let the community know that we are here and we're thinking about what it means to be an anchor and survive this moment,’’ White said.
Black churches provide ‘links between the past and the present’
The urgency to fund preservation projects at historic Black churches has long been an issue, Leggs said. Over the years, the Action Fund, with support from the Lilly Endowment Inc., has awarded nearly $20 million in grants to 108 historically Black churches across the country.
Some grants will fix steeples, replace stained-glass windows and create interactive exhibits.
“We needed to accelerate the scale of our investment to respond to these needs and to sustain the links between the past and the present,’’ Leggs said.
The grants could be a lifeline for Black churches struggling with dwindling congregations, a lack of resources and aging infrastructures, said Jason Williams, professor of Justice Studies at Montclair State University in New Jersey.
“There are some that are holding on by a thread,’’ Williams said. “This money is going to do some really good work for them.”
In Charlotte, North Carolina where the A.M.E. Zion Church is headquartered, the organization will get a $500,000 grant to establish an endowment to fund capital improvements for its 1,600 churches across the country. The organization hopes to get private donations to match the grant.
The funds will go a long way to help more churches with repairs and maintenance upgrades, said Eleazar Merriweather, executive director of church growth and development of A.M.E. Zion Church in the United States.
“People really love their churches,’’ he said. “A situation like this gives them hope that they didn’t have before.’’
‘Answered prayer’
For Antioch Baptist Church in Shreveport, Louisiana, the $500,000 grant will help jumpstart a project to repair the roof of the 139-year-old church. The church is on the National Register of Historic Places and was organized by 73 formerly enslaved congregants.
Armed with the grant, the church can now get matching funds and more from the state to help with the project.
The small congregation has worshipped online since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and has been trying to get help to fix the roof so members could return to the building.
“It’s an answered prayer, ’’ Vickie Carroll, the church administrator, said of the grant. “We are ecstatic about getting the opportunity to get our roof fixed so we can make progress in getting back into our building, so that we can begin worshiping together.”
At Glide Memorial, which is also listed on the National Register of Historic Places, preserving its history of social justice is sacred and having funds to restore the building helps continue that work, White said.
“We are like a lot of churches, we are built in a specific context in time, but we have to be timeless,’’ he said. “We have to be the church for this moment and that requires that we invest in how this place is safe and how this place is available and how people feel when they're in here.’’