Missouri sued over alleged decades of underfunding at historically Black university

CHICAGO — Seven current and former students at Lincoln University of Missouri sued the state on Wednesday, alleging it violated ‌the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights law by systematically underfunding the historically Black university for decades.

The complaint, filed in federal court in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri Central Division, seeks compensatory damages under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act for what plaintiffs describe as “educational ​and economic injuries” caused by decades of underfunding. It also seeks an injunction requiring Missouri to fully match Lincoln University’s ​federal land-grant funding in the future.

Some of the funding they are requesting would include campus repairs, faculty ⁠hiring, student services, financial aid and agricultural research programs.

Lincoln University, in Jefferson City, is the state’s first historically Black land-grant institution. ​The University of Missouri is the state’s predominantly white land-grant institution.

The plaintiffs allege Missouri appropriated less per student to Lincoln than to ​the University of Missouri in most fiscal years between 1987 and 2020. They cited a September 2023 letter in which the U.S. agriculture and education secretaries calculated that Missouri had underfunded Lincoln by $361.6 million over that period, based on federal higher education data.

According to the complaint, Missouri provided no state matching ​funds for Lincoln’s federal land-grant allocation from fiscal 2000 through 2007, and supplied only a portion of the required match in subsequent ​years. Lincoln allegedly diverted about $43.5 million from its general operating budget between 2000 and 2016 to cover the state’s share, and returned nearly $8 million ‌in federal ⁠funds from 2016 through 2018 when it could not meet matching requirements.