December 20th, 2022 – 12:42 PM
Press Release –
The National Park Service (NPS) has awarded a $30,000 Underrepresented Community Grant to the City of Rome for African American Settlement and Civil Rights Survey in North Rome. The grant serves to support the identification, planning, and development of nominations or amendments to the National Register of Historic Places for diverse communities.
The National Park Service awarded a total of $1.2 million in Underrepresented Community Grants for 21 projects in 16 states and the District of Columbia. The application for the City of Rome was the only community in the state of Georgia selected to receive the grant.
“The National Park Service is proud to award this grant funding to state, Tribal, and local governments to help them diversify their listings in the National Register of Historic Places,” said NPS Director Chuck Sams. “Since 2014, the Underrepresented Community Grants program has provided $5.75 million to better tell the varied histories and stories of all Americans, so that they may one day no longer be called underrepresented.”
Brittany Griffin, senior planner for the Rome Floyd Planning Department who submitted the grant request said, “I am thrilled North Rome has received the National Parks Service Underrepresented Community Grant to perform an African American and Civil Rights survey of the remaining historic fabric of the area in order to prepare an application for a National Register Nomination submission.” Griffin added, “This is the start of a 3-5 year journey that I am blessed to be a part of.”
Griffin shared that less than 8% of sites on the National Register are associated with women, Latinos, African Americans, or other minorities. Griffin stated, “Submitting for the grant required three months of work and included a sixteen-page justification as to why North Rome deserved this opportunity and that barely scratched the surface of the history in this area.”
Many organizations provided letters of support for the grant including MH Mitchell Preservation and the Atlanta Preservation Center, The Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation, Christy Snider with Berry College, Thankful Baptist, and the North Rome Community Action Committee.
For questions about the City of Rome’s National Park Service grant award, contact Brittany Griffin at 706.676.3691, [email protected].