Earl Richardson was more than just a college president. He was someone who strived for change when it came to HBCUs and didn’t back down from a challenge. Richardson, who was president of Morgan State University from 1984 to 2010, recently died at age 81. Described as “armed with history” by a colleague, Richardson led a 15-year-long settlement that resulted in a settlement for four HBCUs in Maryland while highlighting the funding gap that often plagues HBCUs.
Richardson helped lead a lawsuit that began in 2006 and ended in 2021 that resulted in a $577 million settlement for four Maryland HBCUs. The state of Maryland agreed to provide the schools with supplemental funding over a 10-year period. The lawsuit highlighted how the state of Maryland was seriously underfunding its HBCUs while nurturing programs at nearby PWIs.
According to NPR, one of the lawsuit’s plaintiffs, David Burton, compared the case to the infamous Brown v. Board of Education case. Both cases highlighted the inconsistencies between HBCUs and PWIs when it comes to funding and other educational opportunities. A protest led by students in 1990 eventually led to the beginning of the lawsuit that would take place 16 years later. At the time students held a six-day protest in the administration building to protest the university’s outdated dorms and classrooms. After doing some further research, the students learned that Richardson and the rest of the administration at Morgan State weren’t to blame, but it was the state.
Due to his experience with civil rights demonstrations, he helped guide students in the right direction. The Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education Inc. was formed to serve as the plaintiff in the lawsuit. Although he could not officially participate in the lawsuit, he was the driving force behind it, according to the student protesters.
“Dr. Richardson knew where the skeletons were,” Burton added. He was “a force that the state could not reckon with because of his institutional knowledge,” said Edwin Johnson.
