African American Burial Grounds Study Act

In conducting the study, the NPS shall consider

• ways to engage with descendant, local, and other communities historically associated with identified burial grounds by geography, genealogy, or culture;
• appropriate processes to identify locations of unmarked and unrecorded African American burial grounds with appropriate consideration for the privacy and safety of the burial grounds;
• alternatives for providing in a public database the locations of, and information on, recorded and unrecorded African American burial grounds;
• alternatives for commemorating and interpreting African American burial grounds; and
• best practices for preserving burial ground landscapes and caring for artifacts.

U.S. African-American Burial Grounds Network Act

This bill directs the Department of the Interior to establish the U.S. African-American Burial Grounds Network within the National Park Service (NPS).

In carrying out the network, Interior, among other things, must

• review existing and new studies and reports to inform consideration of sites for the network;
• furnish specified technical assistance;
• develop a program to train states, units of local government, regional governmental bodies, organizations, educational institutions, and private entities to carry out the purposes of this bill; and
• produce and disseminate educational and training materials related to African-American burial ground identification methods and best practices for caring for artifacts,developing interpretive tours and exhibits, preserving burial ground landscapes, heritage tourism initiatives and sources for grants (e.g., handbooks, maps, interpretive guides, or electronic information).

A burial ground shall only be considered for addition to the network with the property owner's consent and at the request of an individual, landowner, private or nonprofit organization, state or local government, or another entity.