Institution To Hand $1M Check To Weeksville Heritage Center

CROWN HEIGHTS, NY — A Trump administration-inspired program will offer $1 million to the Weeksville Heritage Center after the historic site announced it would be forced to close without a quick influx of funds.

The H.R. 1242 Resilience Project — which references an initiative the president signed into law in January 2018 — announced Monday it will present a $1 million check to the Weeksville Heritage Center at St. Marks Place and Buffalo Avenue on Tuesday.

The check was promised after more than 3,700 New Yorkers rallied to save Crown Height's historic center by raising more than $248,000 in less than two weeks on the museum's CrowdRise site.

The program honors the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act, which promotes initiatives that honor black heritage. The 400th anniversary noted in the title refers to the arrival of Dutch slave ships at Point Comfort, Virginia, in 1619.

The commission will use donated funds to offer grants to nonprofits, scholarly organizations, states and localities until it terminates on July 1, 2020, the law reads.

The historically landmarked center — which preserves the history of the first free African American communities to settle in Brooklyn in the 19th Century — launched its crowdfunding site about two weeks ago, notifying the city it would be forced to close in July if it could not meet a $200,000 budget gap.

Correction: The original version of this story misstated the connection between H.R. 1242 Resilience and the 400 Years of African-American History Commission Act. Mooney's initiative is inspired by the federal act.