From the HERE City National Desk
Alumni and students of Lincoln University, a historically Black land-grant school in Jefferson City, sued Missouri on Wednesday, claiming the state shortchanged the university by hundreds of millions of dollars over three decades.
The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, says the state underfunded Lincoln by $361,569,760 between fiscal years 1987 and 2020, a figure drawn from the federal government’s own education data system. It asks for a $549 million fund covering the documented shortfall plus interest.
Defendants include Gov. Mike Kehoe, the state Coordinating Board for Higher Education and University of Missouri System President Mun Choi. The governor’s office said it had not yet been served and would not comment on pending litigation.
The plaintiffs argue Missouri broke the Morrill Act of 1890, which requires states to match federal money for their Black land-grant schools, along with the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. They describe deteriorating buildings, outdated computers and leaking plumbing on campus.
The case is the first of several planned by the 1890 Project, a group of attorneys with HBCU ties led by Don Calloway. A 2023 federal analysis found 16 states had underfunded their historically Black land-grant universities by a combined $12.6 billion. In Tennessee, federal data shows the state owes Tennessee State University $2.1 billion, and Calloway said he has been in talks with that state’s attorney general.