Standing in front of civil rights icon Amelia Boynton’s home in Selma, Brown Chapel AME Church Pastor Leodis Strong discussed the importance of the effort to restore the home to its former glory and the process by which it will be done.

“It’s about what we value, what we prioritize and what’s important to us,” said Strong, who is serving as Project Director of the renovation project. “[Amelia Boynton] lived an invaluable life that contributed in many, many ways.”

The National Park Service (NPS) through its Historic Preservation Fund granted $500,000 to Brown Chapel and Gateway Education Foundation for the rehabilitation of the home through its African American Civil Rights Preservation Grant program.

According to Strong, the goal of the project is to renovate and rehabilitate the historic home, which is not only important for its significance to the Civil Rights Movement, but also because it is a 1920 Craftman’s-style bungalow, a rare survivor of middle-class African American life during the first half of the twentieth century.

More than that, however, Strong stated that a failure to be “proper stewards” of the historic home would be a crime against future learners.

“It’s just so abundantly mandatory that we not fall victim to amnesia,” Strong said. “We’ve got to do it.”

Strong envisions the Boynton home to be more than a historical home, which will be as near to an exact replica of the way that the Boynton family left it as possible – he noted during the press conference that the home rests in what was once a bustling community in Selma, just down the street from Selma University and the historic Jean Jackson house, and was an “incubator” for activist thought in the area.

Strong would like to see that happen again.

“It has to be a living testimony,” Strong said. “Not just a cemetery, a mausoleum. We want this to be about the life of Amelia Boynton.”

Strong said that residents should begin seeing progress over the coming year – because the project is overseen by the NPS, Strong said it is necessary that the project follow certain guidelines and undertake specific jobs, the first of which is drafting a construction plan and having it approved by the department.

Once the work begins, Strong expects the home to be in operation within 12 months.