MONTGOMERY Ala.
Alabama students will be able to receive financial aid from a needs-based program included in an impending settlement that would end the state’s decades-old college desegregation case, according to attorneys on the case.
The $10 million financial aid program is just one of the terms of the settlement, which also includes sending funds to two historically Black universities — $25.8 million to Alabama State University for repairs and new programs and $7.3 million to Alabama A&M for repairs.
U.S. District Judge Harold L. Murphy issued an order Friday saying $45.5 million in surplus education budget funds should be used to settle major issues in the case, which stemmed from the U.S. Department of Education’s 1979 finding that there were still traces of segregation in Alabama’s college system.
The Education Department sued Alabama in 1981 after university leaders failed to agree on a plan to correct the problem.
