Maryland Running Out of Bets to Place on Unlawful HBCU Neglect

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland  -- In a few months, doors will open wide to new casinos in Baltimore's Inner Harbor and Prince George's National Harbor. They will bring the state to a grand total of six gaming playgrounds, with promises of billions in tax and revenues coming to the state to benefit Maryland's citizens through education and economic development.

During that same period, the two sides of Maryland's historic legal battle over race-based discrimination against its public historically black colleges and universities will reach a conclusion in mediation. The state will decide to either transfer duplicated programs at predominantly white institutions (PWIs) to irreparably harmed HBCUs, or they will take their chances in court with Federal Judge Catherine Blake, who in her October 2013 decision wrote that the transfer or merger of these programs to HBCUs would likely be "necessary" to remedy the state's separate-but-equal system of higher education.

Maryland's Public Black Colleges

• Bowie State University
• Coppin State University
• Morgan State University
• University of Maryland-Eastern Shore

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