Seven current and former students of Lincoln University filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday morning accusing the state of Missouri of systematically underfunding the historically Black university for decades, and asking the court to order the creation of a $549 million fund to close the gap. The New York Times, St. Louis Public Radio and several Missouri outlets reported the filing.
The complaint was filed by seven named plaintiffs — current students and alumni of Lincoln University — represented by Calloway Law with support from the 1890 Project. The plaintiffs ask a federal judge to rule that Missouri violated the Equal Protection Clause and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act: the state's chronic underfunding of Lincoln, combined with a performance-based funding formula, perpetuates the vestiges of de jure segregation, the suit alleges.
The complaint calculates, using the federal government's Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), that Missouri underfunded Lincoln University by $361,569,760 between fiscal years 1987 and 2020. On that basis it seeks a $549 million fund, described as the documented shortfall restated at nominal value. The methodology matches a 2023 analysis by the U.S. Departments of Education and Agriculture, whose secretaries wrote to 16 governors flagging more than $12 billion in total underfunding of 1890 land-grant HBCUs — with Missouri's gap for Lincoln pegged at about $361 million.
The defendants include Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe, the state's Coordinating Board for Higher Education, Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development Commissioner Dr. Bennett Boggs, and University of Missouri System President and Columbia campus Chancellor Mun Choi. The plaintiffs argue the state's funding decisions created the widening resource gulf between Lincoln and the University of Missouri.
Lincoln University, in Jefferson City, was founded in 1866 and gained land-grant status in 1890; the University of Missouri was established for white students under the 1862 Morrill Act. Federal law requires states to match funding for both classes of land-grant institutions, but the suit says Missouri has fully matched the University of Missouri while repeatedly shortchanging Lincoln. The university has previously disclosed that it received just one full land-grant match from the state since federal policy changes in 2000. Meanwhile Lincoln's enrollment has grown 12.1 percent over five years, and President John Moseley recently warned a House hearing that on-campus housing could max out in fall 2026: finding money to expand, he said, will determine whether the university can absorb its own growth.
The case could be the opening shot of a broader campaign. WPLN reports that former HBCU students are preparing similar suits against multiple states, with Tennessee on the list. Inside Missouri's legislature, bills are already moving: Rep. LaKeySha Bosley's HB 3416 would divert 1 percent each of casino gambling proceeds and Classroom Trust Fund money — about $3.3 million apiece — into a new "Strengthening HBCUs Fund" split between Lincoln and Harris-Stowe State University, while the earlier HB 2464 would fund both schools at the University of Missouri's per-student level. The plaintiffs held a news conference in Jefferson City on Wednesday morning. The state had not publicly responded as of publication.