Lincoln University Students Sue Missouri Over Alleged Decades of Unequal Funding

In what could be a game-changer for Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Missouri is being sued for allegedly doing what states have been doing for generations: giving a historically Black institution less money and then acting like nobody should notice.

Lincoln University students and alumni filed a federal civil rights lawsuit Wednesday alleging that Missouri has systematically underfunded the historically Black university compared with the University of Missouri, The New York Times reports.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, is the first case brought by the 1890 Project, which monitors whether states are living up to the funding commitments created by the Second Morrill Act of 1890.

That law established a system of land-grant universities created specifically to serve Black students after the original 1862 Morrill Act had helped fund predominantly white institutions. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, land-grant schools receive funding intended to support research, teaching, and extension programs.

But according to the Times, federal officials determined that between 1987 and 2020, Missouri appropriated $361.6 million less to Lincoln per student than to the University of Missouri.

The Times notes that in 2023, “the Biden administration said that 16 states, including Missouri, had collectively shortchanged their H.B.C.U.s by more than $12 billion. Delaware and Ohio were the only states meeting their legal obligations.”

The lawsuit alleges the disparity is rooted in the universities’ history. The University of Missouri was founded in 1839 for white students, while Lincoln was designated as a land-grant institution in 1890 for Black students.

“The ramifications of the underfunding are very present today, and so just because it goes back some time doesn’t mean that we don’t have an obligation to fix it,” Don Calloway, a former Missouri legislator who is representing the plaintiffs in the case, told the Times. “It is a very clear breach of the state’s statutory and contractual obligation.”

The plaintiffs—including four current Lincoln students, a former student, and an alumnus—are seeking a court-ordered remedy requiring Missouri to permanently fund Lincoln at levels matching its federal land-grant obligations.

The 1890 Project says similar disparities have been documented nationwide, with federal officials identifying more than $12 billion in funding shortfalls across 16 states.

According to the Times, “The offices of Missouri’s governor and attorney general declined to comment on the suit, which names the state, its higher education board and three officials as defendants. Lincoln University, which is not a party to the case, said it had no comment.”

Missouri officials now have to explain why “equal” apparently required a different calculator.

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