The Delta Regional Authority has announced plans to invest $150,000 into renovations at the Selma Interpretative Center.

The center, an exhibit that focuses on the events of the Civil Rights marches of 1965, needs renovations to its second and third floors.

The DRA will contribute $150,000 to the project, which is expected to cost more than $1.6 million.

“In this time of extreme competition for jobs and business attraction, these strategic federal investments into the physical and human infrastructure of Delta communities are necessary to create economic opportunity for the hard-working people of the Alabama Black Belt and greater Delta region,” Chairman Masingill said.

The Selma Interpretative Center will also receive an additional $1.5 million provided by other investors.

“With our $150,000 that we put into the project, we and the folks in charge of the renovations were able to pull in another $1.5 million,” DRA’s Spencer Lucker said.

Established by the U.S. Congress in 2000, the DRA was mandated to help create jobs, build communities and improve lives through strategic investments.

Five other resources, which are all aimed at Delta small business owners, entrepreneurs, families and communities and designed to grow the region’s economy and create jobs, received a share of the $3.5 million the Delta Regional Authority and its partners awarded last week.

The investments are expected to help create and retain more than 120 jobs for local residents, creating two more jobs for the Selma Interpretative Center.

DRA works directly with Alabama’s local development districts in the region for program funding implementation.