By LaKeshia N. Myers
Representative LaKeshia Myers
Mississippi has three public historically Black colleges—Alcorn State University (1871), Jackson State University (1877), and Mississippi Valley State University (1950). Each of them was created to educate the children of the formerly enslaved. Each serves a distinct geographical area of the state. Each of them is at risk of closure by the Mississippi state legislature.
Last week, the Mississippi senate introduced Senate Bill 2726, a proposal that mandates the State Institutions of Higher Learning to select three of the eight public universities by June 2025, for closure by 2028. While the bill did not specifically name the HBCUs by name, alumni and supporters of these universities are on edge at the thought of their closure. The bill asks the IHL’s Board of Trustees to take several factors into consideration, including enrollment data, federal aid, economic impact, and more — factors that affect HBCUs at a greater rate than other universities.
This legislation comes just months after the Biden Administration sounded the alarm to HBCU administrators in sixteen states that their schools had been underfunded for the past thirty years by surreptitious state legislatures. For example, my alma mater, Alcorn State University has been underfunded by $257 Million; this is important to understand because of the university’s land grant status. Land grant colleges are institutions that have been designated by the state legislature or Congress to receive the benefits of the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890, or the Equity in Educational Land-Grant Status Act of 1994. These universities specialize in agricultural education and research (Wisconsin has a land grant institution—the University of Wisconsin-Madison).
Mississippi State University was funded by the 1862 Morrill Act. In 1890, a second Morrill Act gave states a choice: allow Black students to attend their land-grant colleges or accept federal money to start a separate Black land-grant school. Southern states chose to create separate schools–Alcorn State University is the result of the 1890 law. Therefore, funding for Mississippi State and Alcorn state should have been equal. This parity has never been achieved. Land-grant universities also receive grants from the Agriculture Department for research and extension services. States are supposed to match those federal grants one-to-one. States regularly fail to provide Black land-grant schools with those matching funds.
As the national assault on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion continues, Historically Black Colleges and Universities are the latest prey. It is incumbent on everyone–HBCU graduate or not—to express their disdain for this type of legislation. I am asking all readers to reach out to the chairman and members of the Mississippi State Senate Colleges and Universities committee to “vote No on SB2726”. The Mississippi legislature is setting a precedent for other states—instead of doing right, and fairly funding HBCUs, they would rather close schools. How dreadful.
The chair of the MS Senate Colleges & Universities committee is Senator Nicole Boyd, she can be reached at (608) 359-2886 and nboyd@senate.ms.gov. The author of the legislation is MS State Senator John Polk, he can be reached (601) 359-2395 and ipolk@senate.ms.gov. A full roster of all committee members can be found here: https://www.legislature.ms.gov/committees/senate-committees/