National Trust Awards 13.5 Million to Preserve Historically Black Churches in 2026

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, a division of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, has awarded $13.5 million in grants to historically Black churches in 2026 through its Preserving Black Churches program.

The total includes $8.5 million distributed to 33 churches in the latest grant round, plus $5 million awarded on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to five additional churches. The organization called it one of the most significant investments in the program''s history.

Grants support a range of needs, including capital repairs, endowment building, and programming. Several of the funded churches have deep ties to the Civil Rights Movement.

Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was baptized and later preached, received funding to support a graduate fellow in designing an interpretive tour of the church''s history. The 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, site of the 1963 bombing that killed four young girls, received a grant to hire a Director of Development and build a preservation endowment.

Other recipients include the First African Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, organized in 1773 and considered one of the oldest historically Black churches in the United States. Pilgrim Baptist Church in Chicago, known as the birthplace of gospel music, received funding for interpretive programming about its musical legacy.

University AME Zion Church in Palo Alto, California, founded in 1918 and the oldest continuously operating historically Black church in Silicon Valley, received support for structural preservation of its campus.

The Preserving Black Churches program has now funded churches in more than 20 states. The National Trust says these buildings serve as anchors for Black faith, culture, and community, and that many face urgent preservation needs due to deferred maintenance and limited budgets.