GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. (AP) — The nonprofit restoring a historic Black church in Massachusetts where civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois once attended services has received a grant worth almost $500,000.
The National Park Service grant announced by the Upper Housatonic Valley Natural Heritage Area on Thursday will help toward the rehabilitation of the Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church in Great Barrington, The Berkshire Eagle reported.
The church was completed in 1887 and served as a hub of Black life in the region until it closed in 2014.
Community members concerned over the deteriorating building’s fate formed Clinton Church Restoration in 2016, and the nonprofit purchased the building the following year after raising $100,000.
Upon completion, the organization wants to reestablish the space as a heritage center and visitor site that will include a flexible performance space, as well as “museum-level interpretive exhibits and programming,” interim executive director Eugenie Sills said.
Sills said the project will cost $5 million to $7 million and take years to complete.
Born in Great Barrington in 1868, Du Bois attended the church after it was completed in 1877.
He was the NAACP’s cofounder and the first Black person to earn a doctorate from Harvard University.
(Copyright (c) 2024 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)