Earl Richardson, the longtime Morgan State College president who led a landmark battle for funding fairness at traditionally Black faculties and universities (HBCU), has died. He was 81.
Morgan State, the place Richardson served as president from 1984 to 2010, introduced his demise on Sept 13. The varsity known as him a transformative chief whose 26-year tenure reshaped the Baltimore campus and raised its nationwide profile.
A lawsuit that reshaped HBCU funding
Richardson performed a central position within the Coalition for Fairness and Excellence in Maryland Greater Training Inc. The group filed a lawsuit in 2006 claiming the state had underfunded its HBCUs for many years.
The case, typically in comparison with Brown v. Board of Training, resulted in 2021. Maryland agreed to offer $577 million in new funding over 10 years to 4 HBCUs, together with Morgan State.
Though Richardson, as a state worker, couldn’t function a plaintiff, colleagues credited him because the visionary behind the lawsuit. “He was armed with historical past,” mentioned David Burton, a Morgan graduate who joined the coalition.
Scholar protests sparked his battle
In 1990, Morgan State College college students staged a six-day takeover of the administration constructing. They protested damaged dorms, leaking roofs, and outdated labs.
Richardson, who had marched in civil rights protests as a pupil, urged them to take their calls for to the state. College students then walked 34 miles to Annapolis, forcing a gathering with the governor. That protest paved the way in which for the later lawsuit.
The Morgan Renaissance
Underneath Earl Richardson, Morgan’s enrollment doubled and new educational faculties opened, together with structure and social work. The college achieved doctoral analysis classification, and greater than $500 million went into new services.
On campus, the period grew to become generally known as the “Morgan Renaissance.” Some known as it “Richardson’s Renaissance.”
Lasting influence on HBCUs
Even after stepping down in 2010, Richardson stayed concerned as a professor and researcher. He additionally labored on nationwide boards and commissions targeted on training.
His testimony earlier than Congress in 2008 highlighted HBCU struggles. He harassed that Black faculties nurtured high students and gave alternatives to college students who doubted faculty was doable.
“We will make them the scientists and the engineers and the lecturers,” Richardson informed lawmakers. “However provided that our establishments have comparability and parity with others.”
Remembering a pacesetter
Kweisi Mfume, chairman of Morgan’s Board of Regents, known as Richardson “a transformative chief and stalwart within the battle to make sure a school alternative for all college students.”
Present Morgan president David Ok. Wilson mentioned Richardson’s legacy “left an indelible mark on larger training.”
