The preservation of historic African American cemeteries depends on a network of federal programs, state offices, national nonprofits, and — most importantly — the descendant communities and local volunteers who have carried this work for generations.
The Federal Layer
The principal federal institutions involved in the preservation of historic African American burial grounds are the National Park Service (which administers the National Register of Historic Places, the African American Civil Rights Network, the African American Civil Rights Grant Program, and the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Program established by the 2024 Act), the Advisory Council on Historic Preservation (which oversees the Section 106 review process for federally funded projects), and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture (which serves as a research and interpretation hub).
The 2024 federal African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Act, signed into law late in that year, establishes within the National Park Service a dedicated grant program to support the identification, research, interpretation, and physical preservation of historic African American burial grounds. The Act represents the first sustained federal commitment to these sites in American history and is widely understood by preservation professionals as a long-overdue corrective to the historic neglect of Black cemeteries by federal historic preservation funding. Initial grant rounds under the Act are expected to commence in the coming years and will be announced through the National Park Service's Historic Preservation Fund channels.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation
The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Congressionally chartered private nonprofit, has emerged in the past decade as the most consequential national advocate for the preservation of African American historic places. Through its African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund, established in 2017 with an initial commitment of $25 million and expanded substantially in subsequent years, the Trust has provided grants supporting hundreds of African American historic sites across the country, including a substantial number of cemeteries.
State Historic Preservation Offices
Every state operates a State Historic Preservation Office, funded jointly by the federal Historic Preservation Fund and state appropriations. These offices administer the federal review programs at the state level, prepare statewide preservation plans, maintain state historic site inventories, and provide technical assistance to local communities. Anyone undertaking serious preservation work at a historic Black cemetery in any state should make early contact with the relevant State Historic Preservation Office.
The African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Program
The grant program established by the 2024 federal Act is administered by the National Park Service and is expected to support a wide range of activities, including site documentation and inventory, oral history work, physical preservation labor, the installation of interpretive markers, the preparation of National Register nominations, and the engagement of descendant communities in stewardship planning. The program is structured to be accessible to small, community-based organizations as well as to established nonprofits and academic institutions, with the explicit intention of supporting the descendant networks that have long carried this work without federal support.
Specialist Networks
A growing number of specialist nonprofits work specifically on African American cemetery preservation. The Black Cemetery Network, based at the University of South Florida, maintains a national database of historic Black cemeteries and supports descendant communities with technical assistance. The Hidden Cemeteries Project documents lost and threatened African American burial grounds. Numerous regional organizations supplement the national efforts. The network is denser today than at any prior point in American history, but the work of preservation always exceeds the capacity to do it.
How to Contribute
Anyone moved to support the preservation of historic African American burial grounds can do so in several ways. Make a contribution to the National Trust for Historic Preservation's African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund. Volunteer with a local descendant association or cemetery friends group in your community — most are perpetually short of hands. Contribute genealogical or oral history information you may carry to descendant networks active in the relevant area. Write to your federal elected officials in support of full appropriations for the African-American Burial Grounds Preservation Program and the Historic Preservation Fund generally. Visit a historic Black cemetery in your own community and take the time to learn the names.
For deeper guidance on how to undertake preservation work at a particular site, see our guides on how to preserve a local Black cemetery, oral history methodology, and preservation advocacy organizations.