U.S. CODE

U.S. Code

§ 1153. Underground Railroad educational and cultural program

(a) Program established

The Secretary of Education, in consultation and cooperation with the Secretary of the Interior, is authorized to make grants to 1 or more nonprofit educational organizations that are established to research, display, interpret, and collect artifacts relating to the history of the Underground Railroad, including the lessons to be drawn from such history.

(b) Grant agreement

Each nonprofit educational organization awarded a grant under this section shall enter into an agreement with the Secretary of Education. Each such agreement shall require the organization—

(1) to establish a facility to—

(A) house, display, interpret, and communicate information regarding the artifacts and other materials related to the history of the Underground Railroad, including the lessons to be drawn from such history;

(B) maintain such artifacts and materials; and

(C) make the efforts described in subparagraph (A) available, including through electronic means, to elementary and secondary schools, institutions of higher education, and the general public;

(2) to demonstrate substantial public and private support for the operation of the facility through the implementation of a public-private partnership between one or more State or local public entities and one or more private entities, which public-private partnership shall provide matching funds from non-federal sources for the support of the facility in an amount equal to or greater than four times the amount of the grant awarded under this section;

(3) to create an endowment to fund any and all shortfalls in the costs of the on-going operations of the facility;

(4) to establish and maintain a network of satellite centers throughout the United States to help disseminate information regarding the Underground Railroad throughout the United States, including the lessons to be drawn from the history of the Underground Railroad, if such satellite centers raise 80 percent of the funds required to establish and maintain the satellite centers from non-Federal public and private sources;

(5) to establish and maintain the capability to electronically link the facility with other local and regional facilities that have collections and programs which interpret the history of the Underground Railroad, including the lessons to be drawn from such history; and

(6) to submit, for each fiscal year for which the organization receives funding under this section, a report to the Secretary of Education that contains—

(A) a description of the programs and activities supported by the funding;

(B) the audited financial statement of the organization for the preceding fiscal year;

(D) an evaluation of the programs and activities supported by the funding as the Secretary may require.

There are authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $3,000,000 for fiscal year 2009 and each of the five succeeding fiscal years.

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