A new report produced by the Tennessee Lookout and WPLN News, with support from the Pulitzer Center and the Education Writers Association, has examined the historic underfunding at Tennessee State University, drawing from multiple sources to identify how much money the state of Tennessee owes its only public historically Black university.
In 2020, the Tennessee State Legislature formed a committee to determine how much Tennessee State University had been shortchanged on budget allocations dating back to the 1950s. As a land-grant institution, the HBCU has agricultural programs that are funded largely by the federal government. This land-grant designation requires the state to match those funds. However, the committee found Tennessee State did not receive any land grant funds from the state from fiscal year 1957 through 2007, even though the University of Tennessee received its full match, and sometimes more than what was federally required.
According to their analysis, the committee estimated the total sum owed is between $150 million and $544 million. This calculation does not account for inflation, nor does it include any funds that were missing prior to 1957, as that information was not available in the state legislative library at the time the committee was formed. Following the committee’s review, the Tennessee State Legislature later budgeted $250 million in back pay for the HBCU.
In 2023, the Biden administration examined how much the state of Tennessee spent per pupil at both Tennessee State University and the University of Tennessee since 1987. According to that review, the state spent significantly more money on University of Tennessee students compared to Tennessee State University students, resulting in a total funding gap of some $2.1 billion. However, state lawmakers quickly dismissed the calculation as a “political number.”
Lastly, Crystal Sanders, associate professor of African American studies at Emory University, conducted a separate review regarding funding that was taken from many public HBCUs in the South from the 1920s to the 1960s. During segregation, Black students had limited options for graduate programs, leading Tennessee to pass a law in 1937 saying the state would pay for Black students to go to graduate schools outside of the state. However, those funds were pulled directly from Tennessee State University’s budget.
By reviewing how much money the state spent on each Black graduate student, Dr. Sanders estimates that, with inflation, Tennessee owes Tennessee State University about $8 billion to account for these segregation scholarships.
She says, “We can clearly see how these institutions are being robbed, literally robbed, to preserve segregation.”
Former TSU President Dr. Glover revealed the underfunding during her tenure. That lead to the undermining of her efforts regardless of the funds and corporations partnerships she brought to the institution.
The so-called native born Black American academics needs to be intellectually honest about the historical and current underfunding for HBCUs. The facts remain within the higher education landscape that so-called White America (i.e., local, state, and federal officials) never wanted the “American Negro” to receive any substantive education was created in this country. Even in 2026, this type of mindset is running rampant and has become normalized.
In reference to former TSU President Dr. Glover, she was literally undermined by so-called Black academic professionals and the White racist Tennessee state and federal legislators. Unfortunately, too many HBCUs have internal and external threats to contend with which retards its forward advancement.