Virginia State Senator Mamie E. Locke recently introduced Senate Bill 274, which seeks to restore Hampton University as an 1862 and 1890 land-grant institution. This would open the door for the historically Black university to receive major federal funding opportunities.
Higher education institutions that have been granted land-grant status are eligible to receive funding from the federal government to provide education in agriculture and other scientific fields. Several years after the passage of the Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1862, Virginia established the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University (Virginia Tech) to serve as the state’s first land-grant institution. Since many colleges at that time denied admission to Black students, the Second Morrill Land-Grant Act of 1890 was passed to provide land-grant status to historically Black universities.
Hampton University was considered a land-grant institution for decades. However, in 1920, the federal government decided that only one HBCU per state could have land-grant status. Virginia State University was chosen to retain its land-grant status, while Hampton’s designation was removed. Thus, Hampton University has missed out on key STEM funding opportunities for over a century.
According to a report from the Virginia Mercury, Hampton University President Darrell Williams spoke at a recent Senate Higher Education Subcommittee meeting, highlighting that other states have more than one university with land-grant status, such as Alabama, which has both historically Black Alabama A&M University and Tuskegee University, in addition to Auburn University.
“Senate Bill 274 is not designed to revisit the past with grievance, but to complete the historical record and align Virginia’s policies with present-day values and needs,” said Locke in the subcommittee meeting.
She added that the proposal “does not take away from VSU or Virginia Tech, but merely expands opportunities for Hampton reintegrating HU into the national land grant system to bolster its research and educational initiatives.”
