TBA Law Blog


Posted by: Barry Kolar on Oct 4, 2023

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump rallied students at Tennessee State University on Tuesday, urging them to encourage Tennessee lawmakers to allocate $2.1 billion in funds that should have been provided to the school but weren't, the Tennessean reports. Crump, who has provided legal services to several Black families whose loved ones have been killed by police, told students they had been cheated out of better opportunities that the additional money would have brought to the campus. He also threatened legal action if the funding is not restored. The funding shortage was spelled out in a letter from the Biden administration to Gov. Bill Lee last month. Tennessee was one of 16 states accused of underfunding its historically Black land-grant universities by billions of dollars over the last 30 years.