Historically Black colleges and
universities (HBCUs) are severely underfunded
and lacking in resources compared to their
white counterparts. HBCUs find themselves in a
paradox as they experience historic
increases in enrollment, yet as their predominantly white
counterparts enjoy multibillion-dollar
endowments and vast resources - billions of
dollars in some cases - HBCUs are financially
depleted and under-resourced with only
millions.
A prime example of HBCU underfunding is among the nation’s
land-grant institutions, which Congress
established with the Morrill Acts of 1862 and
1890. The federal government allocated federal
land to the states to fund and endow
land-grant colleges.
Looking at the reason for the resource
disparity between predominantly white
institutions (PWIs) and the 19 HBCUs that are
land-grant institutions, it all comes down to
a racial funding
gap. Some would call it theft, as in the
theft of billions of dollars in federal and
state government money to Black institutions.
This is systemic racism 150 years in the
making - complete with receipts. And this is
why so many land-grant HBCUs are struggling.
But the federal farm bill could change all
that.
In 1862, the Morrill
Land Grant College Act, named after Senator Justin Morrill of
Vermont - provided each state with 30,000
acres of public land and funded a system of public
colleges and universities - both brand new and existing
colleges - to “benefit the agricultural and
mechanical arts.” These institutions received land
and money for their “endowment, support and
maintenance.” Some examples of these
land-grant institutions are Clemson, Cornell,
Iowa State, MIT, the University of Missouri,
Nebraska, Rutgers, Washington State and the
University of Wisconsin. This was the federal
government’s first foray into funding higher
education.
However, in 1890 a Morrill Act 2.0 was
necessary to incorporate Black people. “What
was not anticipated by … Morrill was that some
states would establish these land grants and
deny admission to African Americans,”
Tennessee State Rep. Harold
Love, Jr. told theGrio. Rep. Love noted that
as the country sought to deal with a defeated
South after the Civil War, a second Morrill
Act would look exactly like the first, with
the exception that states would be prohibited
from denying admission to a university based
on race.
The 1890
Morrill Act gave birth to 19 HBCUs: Alabama
A&M, Alcorn State, Central State, Delaware
State, FAMU, Fort Valley State, Kentucky
State, Langston, North Carolina A&T,
Prairie View A&M, South Carolina State,
Southern, Tennessee State, Tuskegee (the only
private land-grant HBCU), University of
Arkansas at Pine Bluff, University of Maryland
Eastern Shore, Virginia State and West
Virginia State.
And while states are required to match
every dollar the federal government paid to
these Black land-grant universities, some
states refused to follow the one-to-one match
formula and have underfunded these HBCUs for
years. In some years, these schools received
no state funding. And without matching state
funding, these colleges could lose
their federal funding unless they receive a waiver from
the federal government. Meanwhile, states
consistently meet the one-to-one funding
requirements for predominantly
white 1862 land-grant colleges and often exceed them, even as they
defund 1890 HBCUs in the same state.
State Rep. Love - taking the mantle from
the work of his father decades earlier in addressing the
unequal funding of Tennessee State University
- got the data and learned that over the
years, the HBCU had been underfunded by $544
million since 1957, forcing Tennessee State
to forgo building maintenance for 20 years,
creating more problems. “That was $544 million
that could have gone to the endowment,
teachers’ salaries, scholarships. It could
have gone to a lot of things,” Love said.
“It’s a situation where you know something’s there, but you
just can’t put your finger on it,” the
Nashville lawmaker added. ”Folks wouldn’t know
because it’s like being sick. You don’t feel
well but you can’t pinpoint what it is. What
we’re doing now is diagnosing and pinpointing
so they can find a cure.”
According to a
2022 Forbes investigation, the land-grant HBCUs are owed a minimum
of $12.8 billion over the past three decades,
with a minimum of $1.9 billion for TSU, which
includes opportunity costs. These institutions
suffer from a lack of investment from private
industry as well.
This funding gap has real implications
for HBCUs as they seek to rise in the ranks
among research universities, top-tier
institutions that require large endowments and
Ph.D. faculties, notes Dr. Mortimer H.
Neufville, CEO and president of the 1890
Universities Foundation. The 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization
supports education, outreach and academics for
the 1890 land-grant universities. “We are the
best kept secret in the states. They need to
know and should know,” Neufville said of the
land-grant HBCUs. “We’ve always been asked to
do more with little. That continues today.
We’ve always been asked to pull ourselves up
by our bootstraps. But first, we need the
boots.”
According to State Rep. Love, the disparities are “baked
into the system” and put in place from the
start. “This is where we have to educate our
colleagues and those who may think we are
screaming racism all the time. When you start
legislating that there is going to be
inequity, you have to have a critical moment
to occur for it to be changed.”
Love believes the public will have
opportunities to talk to legislators about
next steps. “It has to start with a
conversation. I was blessed that I had a
blueprint from my father and took it a step
further,” he said, offering a toolkit for
other HBCUs to use as they attempt to reclaim
the resources they were denied. There is hope,
as the state of Maryland settled with its four
HBCUs for $577
million following a 15-year lawsuit
alleging the institutions were inequitably
resourced.
And TSU is receiving $250
million to revitalize its campus
infrastructure.
Meanwhile, the 2018
farm bill - the Agriculture Improvement Act
of 2018, which secured resources for the
land-grant Black colleges and universities with $40
million for scholarships - is set to expire
this year. The legislation is the primary
federal tool for funding land grant
institutions, including the land-grant HBCUs.
Neufville believes a renewed
farm bill later this year is key to addressing the underfunding
of the 1890 institutions.
“The opportunity is there to look at the farm bill and ask
Congress, ‘So how committed are you to
increase social mobility, help underserved
populations, [provide] food access for all and
health access for all?’ A lot of this can be
addressed in the Farm Bill, from urban to
rural, from production to consumption,” he
said. “We have to make sure our voices are
heard. Growth for us demands tremendous more
resources, and people have to stop thinking we
can survive off crumbs when we should get a
slice of the pie,” Neufville added.
These historically Black land-grant universities are
critical institutions in their communities,
serving as the bedrock of local economies,
assisting with programs to address food
insecurity and gentrification, providing
access to credit and broadband, uplifting
blighted communities with urban gardening and
engaging with the community. But they need
money to do this, and the farm bill provides
the solution.
According to Dr. Antonio McLaren, vice president of
innovation and program implementation for the
1890 Universities Foundation, advocacy in the
Black community is crucial to secure funding
for these land-grant HBCUs. McLaren believes
we must work together to ensure the needs of
these institutions are met.
“Participate in advocacy. Reach out to your state
representative, talk about the importance of
1890s in your community. On the federal level,
reach out to your U.S. representative or
senator,” McLaren said. “Are you an alumni of
an 1890 university, and how has that been
critical to your career? Those who reside in
states with an 1890 university, use our voice
collectively to make sure 1890s continue to
receive state support and funding. When one
1890 succeeds, that is good for all
institutions” he added.
With billions of dollars withheld from these schools over
the years and the pressing need for this
funding now, nothing less is at stake than the
future of Black institutions and the future of
the Black community. Federal and state
governments, the private sector, HBCU alumni
and others have a role to play in sustaining
these resource-deprived institutions.
“We need a future generation of scientific professionals in
the agricultural industries and
community-based organizations, a trained
generation to continue the work that many
professionals have laid the groundwork for,”
said Dr. McLaren. “The future talent pipeline
is critical.”
