"State governments across the South have underfunded their historically Black public colleges and universities, or HBCUs. So how should these debts be repaid? States have wrestled with this question for decades, and it's led to lawsuits, university mergers and, in one case, a student-led hunger strike. Reporters Emily Siner and Camellia Burris tell the story of one of these public HBCUs, Tennessee State University in Nashville, in their podcast "The Debt.""
"Well, TSU is a land-grant university, and these schools were created when the federal government gave states money or land to start colleges. But in the South, states ended up opening Black colleges to keep getting those federal funds but maintain segregation. And the state is required to match some of those federal funds. But for the Black schools, they usually did not."
State governments across the South systematically underfunded historically Black public colleges and universities, creating substantial state funding debts. Legal and institutional consequences have included lawsuits, university mergers, and student protests, including a hunger strike. Tennessee State University, as a land-grant institution, did not receive required state matching funds tied to federal land-grant allocations, while the University of Tennessee consistently received matching funds. A Tennessee lawmaker, Harold Love, discovered the long-term mismatch around 2012. The state legislature initiated more serious research into back pay in the summer of 2020 amid the George Floyd protests. The funding gaps reflect historical segregation practices in higher education.
Read at www.npr.org
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