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The National Park Service (NPS) announced Tuesday that it had appropriated $14 million in African-American Civil Rights Historic Preservation Fund grants to fund 51 projects across 20 states and the District of Columbia.

Among those slated to receive a portion of the funding is Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church, which will receive a combined $539,000 in funds dedicated to preserving sites and history related to the civil rights struggle in the U.S.

The funds were approved by Congress through the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) last year.

According to a press release, Tabernacle will receive $500,000 for critical repairs to the building and $39,000 for the development of an oral history program featuring women foot soldiers in Selma’s Voting Rights Movement.

“Historic Tabernacle Baptist Church is overjoyed to begin work that will preserve
and improve the critical infrastructure of our 98-year-old historic edifice,” said Tabernacle Legacy Foundation Chairman Verdell Lett Dawson. “We are also pleased to preserve the stories of Selma’s women who contributed to the 1960s Voting Rights Movement and the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Both projects will ensure that the heroic efforts of preceding generations will be preserved and passed on to future world-wide generations.”