Savannah State faces two lawsuits with race at center

Dr. Earl G. Yarbrough Sr., President, Savannah State University

SAVANNAH, GA — Earl G. Yarbrough Sr., the president of Savannah State University, would prefer to be trumpeting the school's marine biology class work with its boundless laboratory a few miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. He talked excitedly about the school's Homeland Security curriculum, unique in Georgia, and beamed when the conversation changed to a recent $4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health.

But sitting in his campus office, Yarbrough instead had to address two racial discrimination lawsuits filed against the school. It is bitter news because he said the doors to the historically black school are open to all. "I have worked very hard to make this a more diverse campus, and then to be slapped with this eats at your soul," said Yarbrough, president since 2007. "It is constantly on your mind."

So, perhaps, is Robby Wells, the football coach Yarbrough hired in 2008 who said he was forced to resign in January because he is white. He filed a lawsuit May 25 based largely on the alleged comment of an administrator, who has since retired and denied making the remark.

READ MORE, CLICK TITLE.