Communities
Lincoln University students and alumni sue Missouri for $549 million, saying the state shortchanged their HBCU for decades
The federal suit, the first of several planned by the 1890 Project, says Missouri failed to match land-grant funds for its historically Black university while fully funding the University of Missouri.
Seven current and former students of Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Jefferson City, Mo., sued the state on Wednesday, alleging Missouri illegally underfunded their school for decades.
The federal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri, names Gov. Mike Kehoe, the state's higher education officials and University of Missouri System President Mun Choi. It seeks the creation of a fund of nearly $549 million: a documented shortfall of about $223.8 million, plus roughly $325 million in interest.
A 19th-century promise
The case rests on the Morrill Act of 1890. Land-grant universities created with federal support in the 1800s did not admit Black students, so Congress required states to either admit them or establish separate institutions, giving rise to many of today's HBCUs, known as 1890 institutions. Federal law requires states to match federal land-grant dollars for those schools as they do for their other land-grant universities.
The suit says Missouri fully matched the University of Missouri's federal land-grant money every year, while Lincoln repeatedly fell short. "Across fiscal years 2000 through 2024, approximately $65.8 million of the match that federal law required was paid by neither the State nor the University," the lawsuit says. The University of Missouri did not admit Black students until 1950.
Plaintiffs say the gap showed up in daily life: deteriorating buildings, outdated computers, leaking plumbing, lost scholarships and too few staff to support students' mental health.
What they want
Under the proposal, a court-appointed special master would oversee the fund, which would be limited to campus repairs, faculty positions and student services, with at least 20% going to a new endowment. The plaintiffs are represented by Calloway Law and the 1890 Project, a group of attorneys with HBCU ties.
"The main thing we're looking for is injunctive relief, a federal consent decree that makes sure that every year going forward, Lincoln is funded on parity with the University of Missouri," said founder and lead counsel Don Calloway. The governor's office said Kehoe had not been served and declined to comment.
More suits could follow
A 2023 federal analysis found 16 states had underfunded their historically Black land-grant universities by a combined $12.6 billion, prompting letters from the U.S. secretaries of Education and Agriculture to governors. Missouri first helped Lincoln receive full matching funds in 2022.
Calloway says the group has "opened conversations with every state" and hopes some cases settle. Federal data show Tennessee owes Tennessee State University $2.1 billion, the largest shortfall of any state; Tennessee lawmakers used a different formula, and Gov. Bill Lee approved $250 million for TSU in 2022. "Civil rights are enforced in the federal courts," Calloway said. "It's just that simple."