Shreveport receives $500K for historic church restoration

SHREVEPORT, La. – The National Park Service has awarded a city in Louisiana an additional $500,000 grant to preserve a historic landmark and transform it into a civil rights museum.

The Shreveport Times reports Shreveport will receive the grant as part of the agency’s $12.2 million project to preserve African American civil rights history across 17 states.

The agency has given Shreveport, in total, $1 million to renovate and turn the Old Galilee Missionary Baptist Church into a civil rights museum.

The paper says the church was built in 1877 by freed black slaves and is where Martin Luther King Jr. gave two speeches but the church has been vacant for nearly 25 years.

The museum will highlight stories dedicated to African American history and the African-American experience during the civil rights movement.