For nearly 40 years, the state of Georgia has withheld more than $600 million in mandatory funding from Fort Valley State University—its sole 1890 Black land-grant institution. Now, a historic legal challenge aims to force the state to settle a generational debt rooted in the shadow of Jim Crow-era education policy.
Led by legal coalitionThe 1890 Project, five attorneys are taking Georgia to court to demand financial restitution for FVSU and 15 other historically Black land-grant universities across the South. While a federal investigation cited by The Washington Post revealed a staggering $12 billion national funding deficit across these institutions, Georgia’s unpaid $600 million balance represents one of the starkest examples of state-level neglect.
The disparity traces directly back to the legacy of the Morrill Acts. While the original 1862 legislation laid the groundwork for American higher education by granting federal lands to White institutions, Black citizens were systematically excluded. The Second Morrill Act of 1890 promised equitable state funding for Black land-grant colleges as a condition of continued segregation—a promise Southern states accepted on paper, but routinely broke in practice.
Now, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Georgia is the latest focus of the 1890 Project, which claims FVSU students have faced severe career and competitive disadvantages due to the HBCU’s systemic underfunding.
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Don Calloway, an attorney with the legal group, told the publication, “The state does not have a right to economically rip off students and alumni of Fort Valley State by creating a substandard product.”
This isn’t the first time Georgia has faced pressure to pay what it owes to HBCUs in the state. In 2023, three HBCU alumni—Martrice Herrington, Marchea Herrington, and Reginald Hunter—filed a lawsuit against the University System of Georgia Board of Regents.
The suit alleged intentional discrimination and 14th Amendment violations stemming from the underfunding of Fort Valley State University, Savannah State University, and Albany State University, according to student news platform BestColleges. However, the lawsuit was quietly dismissed the following year due to procedural issues.
Unlike previous efforts, The 1890 Project is aggressively pushing forward to demand that states pay what is owed to land-grant HBCUs, as demonstrated by its recent action in Missouri. A federal lawsuit was filed against the state for withholding $361 million in funding owed to Lincoln University, according to Inside Higher Ed. The suit seeks additional funds to cover accumulated interest, bringing the total claim to $548.7 million.
Although litigation has begun in Missouri, the 1890 Project hopes to reach negotiated settlements with the remaining Southern states it has targeted.
“We think litigation is a last resort. Unfortunately, we’ve reached that last resort in the state of Missouri. But the best and highest use of everybody’s time is to not have to litigate this in the future and to negotiate and settle,” Calloway told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Beyond Georgia and Missouri, several other states are under similar scrutiny for underfunding their land-grant HBCUs, including Alabama, Ohio, North Carolina, and Florida. North Carolina and Florida lead the funding gap, with the former owing approximately $2 billion to North Carolina A&T State University and the latter owing an estimated $1.6 billion to Florida A&M University, according to the 1890 Project website.
