Opinion
Maryland: Trial Shows College Segregation
A
fter six weeks of testimo-
ny, a major trial to
determine
whether
Maryland’s four historically
Black colleges and universities
(HBCUs) have been routinely
denied funding and other needed
resources that would have made
them “comparable and competi-
tive” with White universities in
the state is expected to end this
week, with a ruling expected by
this summer.
The overwhelming majority of
HBCUs, originally established
shortly after the Civil War to pre-
vent African-Americans from
attending all-White state universi-
ties, are located in the South. The
Maryland case (Coalition for
Equity and Excellence in Mary-
land Higher Education, Inc., v.
Maryland Higher Education
Commission, et al.) has attracted
T HE C URRY
R EPORT
George E.
Curry
alumni of public HBCUs in
Maryland and other interested
parties. It is seeking approximate-
ly $2.1 billion to upgrade the four
state HBCUs: Morgan State Uni-
versity, Bowie State University,
Coppin State University and the
University of Maryland-Eastern
Shore.
Named as major defendants are
officials of the University of
Maryland Higher Education
Commission,
Gov.
Martin
There continues to be substantial
differences – severe differences – in
terms of the number of programs
and the quality of programs
national attention, in part,
because it involves a border state
that, like the South, operated a
rigidly segregated school system,
but unlike the South, has largely
escaped intense public scrutiny.
U.S. District Judge Catherine C.
Blake presided over the non-jury
trial in Baltimore. The lead attor-
ney for the plaintiffs was Jon
Greenbaum of the Lawyers’
Committee for Civil Rights
Under Law. Pro bono work was
provided by lawyers from Kirk-
land & Ellis law firm and the
Howard University School of
Law Civil Rights Clinic.
The suit was originally filed in
2006 by the Coalition for Equity
and Excellence in Maryland
Higher Education, Inc., a commu-
nity-based group comprised of
O’Malley and Secretary of High-
er Education James E. Lyons, Sr.
The state of Maryland’s higher
education system has a long his-
tory of racial segregation,
according to witnesses and court
documents.
“Throughout its history, Mary-
land has systematically engaged
in policies and practices that
established and perpetuated a
racially segregated system of
higher education,” the suit
asserts. “Maryland first instituted
its system of public higher educa-
tion in 1807 by establishing the
University of Maryland at Balti-
more. This was a White-only
institution.
“Maryland subsequently estab-
lished four other White-only,
public institutions of higher edu-
cation: the University of
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Maryland, established in 1865;
Towson University, established in
1866, Frostburgh State University,
established in 1898; and Salisbury
State University, established in
1922,” the suit continued. “The
state began its dual-system by
assuming control of The Baltimore
Normal School, an all Black
teacher’s school now known as
Bowie State University. This was
the beginning of Maryland’s segre-
gated system of higher
education.”
Maryland was forced
to expand educational
opportunities
for
Blacks in order to qual-
ify
for
federal
land-grant funds. That
led to the state also
acquiring what is now
the University of Mary-
land-Eastern Shore, Morgan State
University and adding Coppin
State University in 1950.
In 1954, the United States
Supreme Court issued its Brown v.
Board of Education ruling, holding
that segregated school systems
violated the Equal Protection
Clause of the 14th Amendment.
“Following Brown, Maryland did
nothing more than lift the rule
excluding Black students from
White schools,” the lawsuit
recounts.
After passage of the Civil Rights
Act of 1964, the state ended de jure
segregation, opening the doors for
African-Americans to attend all-
White public universities.
“In 1965, however, rather than
encourage integration at Morgan
State, Maryland established Uni-
versity of Maryland Baltimore
County (“UMBC”). UMBC was a
complete duplication of Morgan
State’s entire institution, not just
its programs,” the lawsuit stated.
In 1969, the Department of Edu-
cation’s Office of Civil Rights
notified the state of Maryland that
it was one of 10 states operating a
racially segregated system of high-
er education in violation of Title
VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Two decades later, the only two
ing by Morgan State. Salisbury
University was permitted to offer a
computer science degree that was
already being offered by Universi-
ty of Maryland-Eastern Shore.
Especially controversial was the
decision made by the state in 2005
to allow Towson University and
the University of Baltimore to
operate a joint Masters in Business
Administration program, which
had been offered by Morgan State
since 1964. Overall, more
than a half dozen programs at
TWIs duplicated programs
already in existence at Mary-
land’s HBCUs.
Testifying as an expert wit-
ness, University of Wisconsin
Education Professor Clifton
F. Conrad said that the state
of Maryland still operates a
segregated higher education
system.
“The dual education systems
remain,” he testified. “There con-
tinues to be substantial differences
– severe differences – in terms of
the number of programs and the
quality of programs. Those stu-
dents who enter Maryland’s
historically Black institutions –
whether Black, White, or other
races – do not have an equal edu-
cational opportunity as those
students who attend the state’s tra-
ditionally White institutions.”
The state of Maryland’s
higher education system
has a long history of racial
segregation
states in the group still in noncom-
pliance were Maryland and
Mississippi.
Facing the possibility of losing
all federal education funds, Mary-
land reached agreements with the
U.S. Department of Education in
1982 and again in 1985. The later
called for “the enhancement of
HBCUs to ensure that they are
comparable and competitive with
TWIs [traditionally White institu-
tions] with respect to capital
facilities, operating budgets and
new academic programs.”
A major component of the plan
to strengthen HBCs and encourage
more Whites to attend them called
for the avoiding program duplica-
tion at nearby White universities.
However, Maryland allowed the
creation of an engineering program
at UMBC that duplicated an offer-
George E. Curry, former editor-
in-chief of Emerge magazine and
the NNPA News Service, is a
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February 8, 2012 The Portland Skanner Page 5