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Historic Black churches receive $4M in preservation grants

Published January 21. 2023 06:57AM

Historic Black churches receive $4M in preservation grants

NEW YORK - Administrators of a trust fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States on Friday revealed a list of houses of worship receiving $4 million in financial grants.

The list of 35 grantees includes 16th Street Baptist Church Inc. in Birmingham, Alabama, where crucial civil rights organizing meetings were held during Jim Crow segregation in the 1960s and where four Black girls were killed after a bombing by members of the Ku Klux Klan in 1963.

Black churches in nearly every region of the U.S. are among the fund’s first round of recipients receiving grants ranging from $50,000 to $200,000.

Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia to seek reelection

RICHMOND, Va. - U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, the 2016 Democratic vice presidential nominee and a fixture in Virginia politics for decades, said Friday that he would seek reelection next year, easing his party’s worries about holding on to a seat in a state now led by a Republican governor.

Kaine, 64, said he had grappled with the decision because of the length of the possible commitment: a two-year campaign and a six-year term. He said ultimately he feels he has more to accomplish.

“I’m a servant. I love Virginia. I’m proud of what I’ve done. I’ve got a whole lot more I want do,” Kaine said after meeting with about a dozen young advocates, state employees and political staffers at a roundtable in Richmond, his longtime home.

Judge fines Trump, lawyer for ‘frivolous’ Clinton lawsuit

NEW YORK - A Florida judge sanctioned former President Donald Trump and one of his attorneys, ordering them to pay nearly $1 million for filing what he said was a bogus lawsuit against Trump’s 2016 rival Hillary Clinton and others.

In a blistering filing on Thursday, U.S. District Judge Donald M. Middlebrooks accused Trump of a “pattern of abuse of the courts” for filing frivolous lawsuits for political purposes, which he said “undermines the rule of law” and “amounts to obstruction of justice.”

“Here, we are confronted with a lawsuit that should never have been filed, which was completely frivolous, both factually and legally, and which was brought in bad faith for an improper purpose,” he wrote.

Citing Trump’s recent legal action against the Pulitzer Prize board, New York’s attorney general, big tech companies and CNN, he described Trump as “a prolific and sophisticated litigant” who uses the courts “to seek revenge on political adversaries.”

Church of England apologizes for treatment of LGBTQ people

LONDON - The Church of England formally apologized Friday for its treatment of LGBTQ people, even as it said that same-sex couples still won’t be allowed to marry in its churches.

The apology from the church’s bishops came in a report following five years of debate on the church’s position on sexuality. The report will be delivered to the church’s national assembly, the General Synod, which is meeting in London next month.

Polar bear emerged unseen from snowstorm to kill mom, son

ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Summer Myomick bundled her baby against the freezing winds whipping off the Bering Sea and stepped outside into a blur of blowing snow. It was a short walk from the school where she had visited relatives to the health clinic about 150 yards away, but the young mother could hardly have seen where she was going - or the terror that was approaching.

Myomick, 24, and her son, 1-year-old Clyde Ongtowasruk, made it just beyond the front of the Kingikmiut School in Wales, Alaska, just below the Arctic Circle, when a polar bear emerged from the impenetrable snow squall and mauled them Tuesday. It was the first fatal polar bear attack in 30 years in Alaska, the only U.S. state that is home to the animals.

As the attack unfolded, the principal ordered a lockdown and closed the blinds so the children couldn’t see what was happening outside the entrance. Several employees and community members left the safety of the building and tried to scare away the bear with shovels.

- The Associated Press

A rusted fence surrounds the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Rev. Monica Marshall stands for a portrait at the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
An images of Harriet Tubman rests on a sill beside a cracked stained glass window at the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Rev. Monica Marshall opens a Bible to Psalms at the pulpit of the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Rev. Monica Marshall browses a room containing artifacts of the church's history at the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Images of pastors from the previous century are hung in the history room at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Images of congregants from the previous century hang on the walls of the history room at Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Rev. Monica Marshall stands at the front door of the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Rev. Monica Marshall looks up at a damaged ceiling in her office at the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)
Rev. Monica Marshall takes a moment to pray for blessings at the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church, Thursday, Jan. 19, 2023, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. On Friday, a fund established to preserve historic Black churches in the United States formally revealed the first 35 houses of worship that will receive financial grants totaling $4 million. (AP Photo/John Minchillo)