ANNAPOLIS, Md. — Students from Maryland’s four historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) rallied on Monday in order to get the state’s attention for increased funding.
Approximately seven buses loaded with students from Bowie State, Coppin State and Morgan State Universities and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore gathered on the lawn in front of the Maryland State Capitol Building. The crowd of students chanted school-specific cheers, launching the event as they awaited the line-up of speakers.
The rally was a continued effort of the lawsuit, filed in 2006, that claims that the state of Maryland has not discontinued policies and practices that have marginalized HBCUs in relation to the state’s White public institutions. Closing arguments were heard last October.
With support from faculty members of the four Maryland HBCUs, Maryland delegates, representatives from Black fraternities and sororities, along with organizations such as HBCUnified, the Legislative Black Caucus of Maryland and the NAACP, the rally gathered hundreds of individuals.
Roger Barnes, rally participant and president of the Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, Zeta Alpha Sigma Chapter, said, “What we’re hoping to accomplish is great support from our chapter and the community so that there is a change in the funding to support student services, which is the academic support, at those four Maryland HBCUs.”
Although Barnes declared the rally’s main purpose was for increased financial support, he also emphasized that the rally was an initiative that sought more than a response from the previous court.
Barnes explained, “It’s not just the court case that we are concerned about. We need for academic services, student counseling, student scholarships, amongst other things to be improved and approved by the help of state legislature.”
