CHARLESTON, SC (WCBD) – A recently awarded federal grant will help preserve and support African American settlement communities in Charleston County.
“After the Civil War, when formerly enslaved people got their first taste of freedom, this is where they settled,” said Mount Pleasant Mayor Will Haynie. “To me, it’s a living monument to American freedom and how we’ve expanded that to more and more people and that’s why they need to be protected.”
The City of Charleston, Charleston County and Mount Pleasant will receive a total of $75,000 from the National Park Service. This is part of NPS’s $1.2 million Underrepresented Community Grant program.
Here in the Lowcountry, the money will go towards historical uprisings and other documentation of African American settlement communities.
“The financing will pay for professional consulting services. It will also support the staffing necessary for grant activities. And then the third major category of funding is supporting outreach and engagement activities that will be critical to the grant,” said Chloe Stuber, a senior planner for the city of Charleston. “So this work will largely be done in partnership with the settlement communities that would accede.”
According to an NPS press release, the funds “will support the identification, planning, and development of nominations or amendments to the National Register of Historic Places for diverse communities.”
Charleston leaders explained that, along with accreditation, being on the National Register of Historic Places opens the door to new funding and resource opportunities.
This move is part of an ongoing effort to preserve communities that have faced the threat of development in recent years.
“As changes have come to the Lowcountry, it’s important to collect those stories and remember how it all happened,” said Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg.
Along with Mount Pleasant and Charleston County, the city also applied for the funding along with the Preservation Society of Charleston. Chairman and CEO Brian Turner issued the following statement:
“This recognition highlights the national importance of Charleston’s settlement communities and will make it easier to document, celebrate, and protect these incredible resources that have traditionally been underrepresented in the formal record of history. Through the resources mobilized by this grant from the National Park Service, residents who have actively sustained their cultural heritage for generations will be given the necessary tools to support the long-term preservation of their communities. The Preservation Society is honored to help foster this community-led initiative together with our partners.”
A total of twenty-one projects in the United States received an underrepresented community grant.
