Midwest HBCU Lincoln University Sues Missouri Over Alleged Decades Of Underfunding

The fight to keep our beloved HBCUs open and thriving continues. This time the battle is at Lincoln University of Missouri. A $549-million lawsuit in the Show-Me state is the latest boiling point in a legal battle over underfunding of the nation’s land-grant Black colleges and universities.

On October 7, seven current and former students at the Midwest school sued the state alleging ⁠it violated the United States Constitution and federal civil rights law by systematically underfunding the historically Black university for decades. According to U.S. News & World Report, The complaint, filed in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri Central Division, seeks compensatory ‌damages under Title VI of the Civil ‌Rights Act for what plaintiffs describe as “educational and economic injuries” caused by decades of underfunding. It also seeks an injunction requiring ⁠Missouri to fully ⁠match Lincoln University’s federal land-grant funding in the future.

Some of the funding being requested would include campus repairs, faculty hiring, student services, financial aid and agricultural research programs. Lincoln University is located in the state’s capital of Jefferson City and is Missouri’s first historically Black land-grant institution. Lincoln University in Missouri has graduated numerous prominent figures in entertainment, politics, military service, sports, and civil rights. Notable alumni include the first Black federal appeals court judge, The Honorable Theodore McMillian, comedic actor Joe Torry and creator of the Blacks in Wax Museum, Dr. Elmer P. Martin, Jr.

Despite the school’s ability to be an incubator of Black excellence since opening their doors in 1866, the plaintiffs allege Missouri appropriated less per student to Lincoln than to the University of Missouri in most fiscal years between 1987 and 2020. The University of Missouri, also known as Mizzou, is the state’s predominantly White land-grant institution.

Hmmm.

The plaintiffs cited a September 2023 letter in which ⁠the ⁠U.S. agriculture and education secretaries ⁠calculated that Missouri had underfunded Lincoln University by $361.6 million over that period, based on federal higher education data, according to the U.S. News & World Report.

According to the complaint, Missouri provided no state matching funds for Lincoln’s federal land-grant ⁠allocation from fiscal 2000 through 2007. The complaint also claims that the state of Missouri supplied only a portion of the required match in subsequent years. Lincoln allegedly diverted about $43.5 million from its general operating budget between 2000 and 2016 to cover the state’s share. The HBCU then returned nearly $8 million in federal funds from 2016 through 2018 when it could not meet matching requirements.

Missouri fully matched the University of Missouri’s land-grant allocations during the same period, ⁠the complaint said.

Plaintiffs in this case reportedly include four current students, alumni who attended the HBCU in the 1980s and 1990s and ⁠a former student who left sans a degree in 2024. Scarce course offerings, deteriorating residence halls, limited dining and health services and inadequate advising were among the hardships described in said lawsuit as reported by U.S. News & World Report.

The lawsuit also claims something far too familiar to this country’s troubled educational system beginning at the preschool level: severely limited or non-existing resources and funding for predominately Black schools and their students while predominately White students and schools receive an abundance of services and funding.

The lawsuit names the State of Missouri, the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education, Governor Michael Kehoe, Higher Education Commissioner Bennett Boggs and University of Missouri System President Mun Choi as defendants.