According to Education Secretary Miguel Cardona and Agriculture Secretary Thomas Vilsack, land-grant HBCUs across 16 states have been shortchanged by over $13 billion in funding over the past three decades. These HBCUs include prominent institutions such as Alabama A&M University, North Carolina A&T State University, Virginia State University, and Tennessee State University, among others. The letters delve into how much funding each state’s land-grant HBCUs would have received if their funding per student adhered to the mandates of the Morrill Acts – a pair of laws from the late 1800s that established land-grant universities. Notably, Tennessee and North Carolina rank at the top, with a staggering funding gap surpassing $2 billion for each state.
Addressing all 16 states, one of the sentiments expressed in the letters reads, “This is a situation that clearly predates all of us. However, it is a problem that we can work together to solve. In fact, it is our hope that we can collaborate to avoid burdensome and costly litigation that has occurred in several states.”
Recently made public by The Washington Post, the letters utilize data from the National Center for Education Statistics to highlight the inequalities in funding distribution that impede progress at land-grant HBCUs in comparison to their predominantly white counterparts within the same states. Cardona and Vilsack assert that these missing funds could have been utilized for crucial infrastructure development, student services, and to enhance the competitiveness of HBCUs in securing research grants.
These letters arrive at an especially inopportune time, coinciding with the Supreme Court’s decision to strike down affirmative action in college admissions – a ruling that is expected to have a severe impact on higher education.
To understand the significance of the Morrill Acts and their connection to land-grant HBCUs, we must consider historical context. The first Morrill Act, enacted in 1862 during the Civil War, granted 30,000 acres of confiscated tribal land for each senator and representative in a state. This public land could either be sold to fund the creation or expansion of public post-secondary institutions, or used for this purpose directly. These institutions were intended to prioritize education and research in areas such as agriculture, science, military science, and engineering. Consequently, they received both federal and state funding.
However, due to the effects of Jim Crow laws and discriminatory enrollment practices, this initial wave of land-grant institutions predominantly benefited white men. To rectify this injustice, the second Morrill Act was passed in 1890. Under this act, states were required to demonstrate that their land-grant institutions did not engage in discriminatory practices or establish separate institutions specifically for Black individuals. Failure to comply would result in the withholding of land-grant funding.
The second Morrill Act served as the foundation for 19 land-grant HBCUs, which did not receive physical land but instead were provided financial assistance, as stated by the National Archives. While the Biden administration’s letters do not explicitly reference “systemic racism” or similar terminology, they highlight the issue of unbalanced funding. When considering the history of land-grant institutions and the substantial funding gap between predominantly white and Black land-grant institutions, it becomes impossible to ignore the presence of deliberate systemic racism at the core of this matter.
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