African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund

CTL-E-6207 · Organization · other · founded 2017

PROVISIONAL evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07403 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6207.

The African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund is a preservation program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, launched in November 2017 to protect places tied to African American activism, achievement, and resilience. The National Trust describes it as the largest preservation effort ever undertaken in support of African American historic sites and, at launch, as a $25 million campaign and the largest fundraising and historic preservation campaign on behalf of Black history by a private nonprofit. Led at launch by executive director Brent Leggs, the fund works with communities and grassroots stewards, invests in and restores cultural assets, and runs a national grant program intended to fund projects, advance their missions, and bring national attention to Black historic places that have too often gone unrecognized in the American landscape.

The record

• Also known as: AACHAF, Action Fund

Notes

Staged 2026-10-16 under CTL-GOV-006 (Scan Tail Wave 6 — 747 Program, Wave 13; sixth Scan Tail packet at the founder’s 40-record size). Gate A (2026-10-16): Gate A CLEAR (script + hand-checked 2026-10-16): no African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund entity, alias, or variant in the live graph (3,910 entities). ID CTL-E-6207 free at staging. Supply: 747 Supply Ledger — scan string #2338 (corpus-gap-candidates-2026-10-15.json), banked in the Scan Tail Wave 5 reserve (Appendix E), re-screened CLEAR against the live graph at 3,910 entities by this wave. The supply supplied the name only; every fact is sourced under CTL-GOV-004. SCOPE GATE: The national funding engine for preserving Black historic sites, directly relevant to CTL's preservation work on Black Chicago places; in scope as preservation infrastructure, not a Chicago organization itself. Vital status: ACTIVE — launched in November 2017 by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and presented as a current program on the Trust's official page (accessed 2026-10-16, page showing 2025–2026 updates). No dissolution is reported in the opened sources. STATISTICS — Launched November 2017 (both opened National Trust sources). Launch aim: invest $25 million over several years (National Trust interview). Described by the Trust as the largest preservation effort for African American historic sites. CONFLICT/GAP NOTE: later totals reported in search results were not opened and are therefore not asserted here. PROVISIONAL — Floor gap for Verified: both opened sources are published by the same organization (the National Trust itself), so the record lacks a second independent source opened and read; an independent source (e.g., a funder, grantee institution, or national press account) must be opened before promotion to Verified. MEDIA: photo HELD (The National Trust's hero photograph of Madam C.J. Walker's Villa Lewaro credited to the Madam Walker Family Archives, shown on the fund's official page, is a plausible candidate; no license is claimed and a file-level PHOTO-001 record is required.); chart FILLED (charts/chart-ctl-e-6207-african-american-cultural-heritage-action-fund.svg); video HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short found; near-miss: none titled for the Action Fund.); audio HELD (no rights-cleared matching-entity audio staged); map N/A. MEDIA LAYER (staged 2026-10-16; full per-asset PHOTO-001 records + embed specs in the packet's staged JSON, Drive packet folder): map = N/A (Non-place record; maps attach to places and institutions.) | visual_assets = HELD: | chart = FILLED (CTL-created chart (black / deep red / gold) built only from this record’s sourced statistics and timeline fact) | video = HELD (no matching-entity CTL Short found; near-miss: none titled for the Action Fund.) | audio = HELD (HELD: No CTL-owned or rights-cleared matching-entity audio exists at staging.)

Sources

• National Trust for Historic Preservation — African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund (official program page) (accessed 2026-10-16) — Launch in November 2017, status as a National Trust division, mission to preserve sites of activism, achievement and resilience, and description as the largest effort for African American historic sites. — http://savingplaces.org/african-american-cultural-heritage (primary source · build store)
• National Trust for Historic Preservation — The 'Transcendent' Nature of Preserving African American Places (interview with Brent Leggs) (accessed 2026-10-16) — Launch announcement by Stephanie Meeks in November 2017, $25 million investment aim, Brent Leggs as executive director, Charlottesville as part of the impetus, and the national grant program. — https://savingplaces.org/stories/the-transcendent-nature-of-preserving-african-american-places (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6207 · Combined Graph record U-07403 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 2 sources.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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