Bronzeville Trail Secures $900K Mellon Grant, Names New Executive Director to Lead Transformative Project

Bronzeville Trail Task Force MLK Mural (Photo Provided). Mr. Walter Freeman, Chairman of the Bronzeville Trail Task Force (BTTF) announced it is the recipient of a $900,000 grant from the Mellon Foundation for its Bronzeville Trail Landscape Initiative. Coming from the foundation’s “Humanities in Place” grant making area, the work of the initiative will evolve institutional and urban landscape research and design methodologies. Upon news of the grant, John E. Adams, CPA and founder of the BTTF in 2020, was named Executive Director. The grant is for a three-year period and Adams will administer the funds and lead the Initiative. It is the first full-time paid position in the organizations’ short existence; all of the members until now are passionate, dedicated volunteers. Adams was named Executive Director in 2023 and has served since then for one dollar per year.& “I am humbled; it is truly an honor to serve as the first executive director of the BTTF,” said Adams. “Having a Bronzeville Trail in our community is a dream for myself, the board and residents. It will literally be transformative as we take old land, part of the defunct Kenwood Rail Line built by Black workers during the Great Migration...