FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2021
City of Kingston
Receives $50,000 Grant for
African Burial
Ground to Join National Register of Historic Places
KINGSTON, NY – Mayor Steven T. Noble is
pleased to announce that the City of Kingston has been awarded a $50,000 grant
from the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Community Grant Program (URC)
to complete the nomination of the Pine Street African Burial Ground to the
National Register of Historic Places, and to further document African American
history in Kingston.
The Underrepresented Community Grant
Program focuses on working to diversify the nominations submitted to the
National Register of Historic Places.
“We are so pleased to have been awarded
this grant, and thank the National Park Service for acknowledging the
inequities in how we have preserved our history in the past, and working toward
correcting the historical record,” said Mayor Noble. “This grant will help
Harambee and the Kingston Land Trust continue to educate about Kingston’s
history and honor the memory of those interred at the Pine Street African
Burial Ground.”
“Harambee would
like to thank the National Park Service’s for acknowledging our ancestors final
resting place. This award dignifies the importance of acknowledging the free
labor that was put into this community and all of upstate New York,” said
Tyrone Wilson, Co-Founder of Harambee. “We also would like to thank our
Kingston Land Trust family for taking this journey with us and really
understanding the true fight that is in front of us in bringing proper respect
to our ancestors here in Kingston.”
"Now that Harambee and
the Kingston Land Trust have protected the site, which is held by Harambee on
behalf of the community, the work ahead is to continue bringing the
history of the Pine Street African Burial Ground to light. The KLT
was involved in the initial phase of historical research and we are grateful
that this grant will allow the Burial Ground to pursue this next phase toward
official national recognition, which we hope will inspire parallel protection
efforts across the country that seek to address injustices and honor the
contributions made by enslaved Africans and African Americans" says Julia
Farr, Executive Director, Kingston Land Trust.
The National Park Service’s
Underrepresented Community Grant Program (URC) grants are funded by the
Historic Preservation Fund (HPF), and are administered by the NPS. Projects
include surveys and inventories of historic properties associated with
communities underrepresented in the National Register, as well as the
development of nominations to the National Register for specific sites. Grants
are awarded through a competitive process and do not require non-Federal match.
More about Underrepresented Community
Grant Program can be found at?nps.gov/stlpg.