$400,000 for Jackson Ward church
Gov. Terry McAuliffe, at podium, celebrates the award of a $400,000 federal preservation grant to Third Street Bethel A.M.E. Church last Friday at a gathering inside the church’s 160-year-old sanctuary at 3rd and Jackson streets. Among those taking part in the announcement are (front row, from left): Virginia First Lady Dorothy McAuliffe; Congressman A. Donald McEachin; the Rev. Reuben J. Boyd Jr., the church’s pastor; and David Ruth, superintendent of the Richmond National Battlefield Park. The church is one of 39 historic African-American sites across the country to receive grants from the National Park Service through its new effort to protect significant, but often little-known civil rights sites. The church, registered as a national historic landmark since 1978, has long served as a community bastion in the fight for equality. The Virginia Department of Historic Resources is to administer the grant that will be used to replace the roof and take care of other elements of the building that dates to 1857, four years before the start of the Civil War.
