Current and former students of Lincoln University, a historically Black university in Missouri, filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday (October 7) seeking nearly $550 million over decades of alleged unequal funding that they say damaged the school’s facilities and academic resources.

The Associated Press reported that the case is the first legal action by the 1890 Project, an initiative seeking to address funding disparities at historically Black land-grant universities.

A 2023 federal analysis found that HBCUs in 16 states missed out on $12.6 billion in funding over three decades, according to the AP. The lawsuit alleges Missouri underfunded Lincoln by $361.6 million between 1987 and 2020.

According to the Missouri Independent, Lincoln had to redirect $43.5 million from its core operating budget between 2000 and 2016 to secure federal agricultural grants because Missouri failed to provide sufficient matching funds.

That meant money that could have supported other university needs was instead used to meet the funding requirements for those grants.

“We’re not saying they should be funded equally, but they should be funded on parity,” Don Calloway, a former Missouri state lawmaker who leads the 1890 Project, told the AP.

“And the feds funded Lincoln with the proper parity. The problem is that the state made an intentional choice not to match the federal appropriation. And that’s where Lincoln really was cheated.”

The funding system dates to the Second Morrill Act of 1890, which required states to admit Black students to existing land-grant universities or establish separate institutions for them. Missouri began providing Lincoln with its full matching funds in 2022, according to The New York Times.

“The ramifications of the underfunding are very present today, and so just because it goes back some time doesn’t mean that we don’t have an obligation to fix it,” Calloway said.

“It is a very clear breach of the state’s statutory and contractual obligation.”

The Missouri Independent reported that students described burst pipes, sewage odors and poor ventilation in university housing.

“It is very unfortunate that we still live in a climate where, depending on the color of one’s skin, one gets precedence over the other,” Lincoln graduate Jeanneth Johnson, 54, a plaintiff from Sterling Heights, Michigan, told the AP.

Lincoln enrolled about 2,200 students in spring 2026, down from approximately 3,400 in 2011, according to the AP.

The governor’s office and University of Missouri system told the AP they could not comment on pending litigation.

Calloway told the AP that the 1890 Project expects to pursue legal action over alleged funding disparities at historically Black land-grant universities in Virginia, Arkansas, Maryland, North Carolina, Alabama and Georgia over the next year.

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