Today, ahead of the 60th anniversary of the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church, U.S. Rep. Terri Sewell, AL-07, will announce major funding that she helped secure to preserve the historic Bethel Baptist Church and the historic St. Paul United Methodist Church in Birmingham, Alabama.
Each church will receive $750,000 as part of the $3.1 million that Sewell helped secure to preserve historic civil rights sites in Alabama in 2023.
The Historic Bethel Baptist Church will receive an additional $750,000 from the $42.8 million in funding that Rep. Sewell secured in the Fiscal Year 2023 federal government funding package for local projects in Alabama’s 7th Congressional District.
Each year, Sewell leads the effort in Congress to increase funding for the National Park Service’s African American Civil Rights Grant Program which provides funding from the Historic Preservation Fund (HPF) to preserve and protect historic sites associated with the African American struggle for equality.
At 10 a.m., Rep. Sewell will host a press conference at Bethel Baptist Church with the Reverend Dr. Thomas Wilder where she will present two checks; one to preserve the church and one to construct a new family childcare center.
At 11 a.m., CT, Rep. Sewell will host a press conference at the St. Paul United Methodist Church with the Reverend Dr. Richard Lane Stryker III where she will present a check to preserve the church by improving mechanical and plumbing systems.
