Alumni and students of Jefferson City-based Lincoln University are suing Missouri over hundreds of millions in underfunding, contending that the state failed to adhere to a federal law that supports historically black colleges and universities.
The plaintiffs filed a lawsuit on Wednesday in U.S. District Court of Western Missouri, saying Missouri didn't comply with a measure known as the Morrill Act. That stipulates that states must match federal funding of historically African American federally-charted land grant institutions dollar for dollar.
One of the attorneys bringing the suit, Don Calloway, said Missouri has not properly funded Lincoln University on par with the other institutions in the public higher education system, specifically the University of Missouri. He said that Missouri has only recently started adhering to that Morrill Act after failing to adequately match federal funding with state funding for years.
"So that is the failure to match, which is a constitutional violation, is the fundamental basis of the claim here," Calloway said.
Calloway said he's basing that number from letters the Biden Administration sent to states with Morrill Act colleges or universities. The lawsuit notes that "Missouri had underfunded Lincoln University by $361,569,760 between fiscal years 1987 and 2020, calculated from the federal government's own Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System."
The lawsuit is calling for the creation of a $549 million fund, which represents "the documented shortfall of $223,780,941, stated in the nominal dollars of the fiscal years in which it accrued, together with prejudgment interest of $324,972,497."
"The aggregate is about $12.6 billion across all of those institutions," Calloway said. "Also, in April 2025, the Trump administration sent out an executive order, which we had a role in crafting, urging each state to step up and match its [funding] properly. And many of them have not done that."
The plaintiffs are suing Gov. Mike Kehoe, the Coordinating Board for Higher Education, and University of Missouri System President Mun Choi. A spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Higher Education & Workforce Development declined comment.
Kehoe spokeswoman Gabby Picard said on Wednesday that the governor's office has not yet been served in this lawsuit.
"Because this is pending litigation, the governor does not have a comment at this time," Picard said.
A spokesperson for Lincoln University also declined to comment on the lawsuit. And a spokesman for the University of Missouri System did not immediately return a request for comment.
Calloway said he'd like Hanaway to enter into settlement discussions.
"We hope that the state will look at the four corners of the petition and understand that there is no real argument on the merits and begin negotiating with us a proper settlement," Calloway said.
Since St. Louis-based Harris-Stowe State University is a state-based land grant institution, Calloway said it is not included in this lawsuit. That does not mean, he said, that Harris-Stowe hasn't also seen funding disparities.
The state does have a public funding obligation to Harris Stowe, which we believe it has violated," Calloway said. But that has happened in a number of other different ways, as opposed to the immediate match obligation which applied to Lincoln."
Future funding
If the lawsuit is ultimately successful, Calloway said that the money could be used to enhance Lincoln University programs or assist with capital improvement needs. He added the plaintiffs "do not want the money to go to a university slush fund."
"I should say we hope that some of it goes to staff and staff enhancements, particularly in certain instruction areas. But 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."
John Bowman, who like Calloway also served in the state legislature and was the head of the St. Louis County NAACP, said the lawsuit would not only help Lincoln University but potentially Mid-Missouri's economy.
"We have several [NAACP] branches in this state that are signing on to support this effort," Bowman said. "We will also be visiting other organizations who have HBCU graduates, and they will provide the support and the narrative that makes sense for this lawsuit."
In addition to Calloway, Jared Boyd is serving as co-counsel for the lawsuit. The former chief of staff to then-St. Louis Mayor Tishaura Jones said the lawsuit is distinctly personal, as he went to an HBCU — and his grandfather was the president of a Tennessee-based HBCU that is now defunct.
"He did a little bit of everything from driving a bus to away games for sports teams to raising funds and serving as president," Boyd said. "He passed away fairly early in his life, in part based on the pressures of being the president of an HBCU that was teetering financially. … So I am very interested in this lawsuit, and it's very personal for me."
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