Museum Receives $2.5 Million for Black Christian History

The Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket will use a multi-year Lilly Endowment grant to explore New England's African American religious heritage.

Updated on Nov. 5, 2026 in African-American

Gouache-painted editorial illustration of a lone white clapboard meeting house on a grassy coastal rise beside a bench under a soft sky. — The Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket received a $2.5 million Lilly Endowment grant to explore New England's Black Christian heritage over five years. AI Illustration. Upload story photo >

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The Museum of African American History in Boston and Nantucket received a $2.5 million multi-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. The funding supports a five-year initiative examining Black Christian theology, worship and religious history across New England.

Why it matters

The initiative focuses on the histories of the museum's African Meeting Houses in Boston and Nantucket, placing religious history at the center of the state's African American heritage interpretation. Massachusetts residents and visitors gain expanded public programming that connects the region's 18th- and 19th-century Black communities to their faith traditions.

The Lilly Endowment grant totals $2.5 million and funds a five-year program titled "Faith & Works: Exploring New England's African American Religious History, Tradition, Legacy." The initiative builds on an earlier planning grant and involves institutional descendants, congregational partners, families and individuals.

The players

Museum of African American History

New England's oldest African American museum, founded in 1967, operating sites on Beacon Hill in Boston and on Nantucket.

Lilly Endowment Inc.

A private philanthropic foundation based in Indianapolis that funds religious, educational and community initiatives.

The details

An advisory council of religious leaders, historians, scholars and museum professionals will guide exhibitions, tours, reenactments, education and public programs. The museum will develop its interpretation of the history with descendants, congregational partners, families and individuals.

- 1967: The Museum of African American History was founded as New England's oldest African American museum.
- 18th and 19th centuries: The period of Black Christian history the initiative focuses on.
- Five-year period: The Faith & Works initiative runs over five years.
- November 5, 2026: The grant announcement was published.

Heritage Trail

The initiative extends the two Black Heritage Trails the museum already operates, which trace Colonial to 19th-century Black community history in Boston and Nantucket. Adding a religious focus deepens the interpretation of the same neighborhoods and sites.

Visitors to the Boston and Nantucket museum sites can expect new exhibitions, tours, reenactments and public programs drawn from the initiative over the coming five years. Residents interested in participating may engage with the museum's advisory and congregational partnership efforts.

The takeaway

Faith and worship were central to African American community life in New England's 18th- and 19th-century cities, and this initiative makes that history visible to the public. Readers interested in the region's past can visit the museum's Beacon Hill and Nantucket sites to see how those stories are being told.