Florida A&M attorneys refile racial discrimination lawsuit

Attorneys for Florida A&M University, a historically Black institution, filed a revised lawsuit alleging that state officials racially discriminated against the institution and shortchanged it on funding for more than three decades, according to WJCT News. A federal judge had rejected an earlier version of the lawsuit.

The case was originally filed on behalf of six Florida A&M students last September. It was refiled in a U.S. District Court in Tallahassee on Monday.

When compared to traditionally white institutions, state officials’ decisions on what programs Florida A&M can and can’t offer “perpetuates the segregation era policy of defining an institution by race,” the lawsuit says, according to WJCT.

The lawsuit is not the first of its kind. A similar case was filed on behalf of HBCUs in Maryland, and a federal judge found that by permitting “duplicative” academic programs at state institutions that were also offered at the HBCUs, the state was discouraging enrollments at the HBCUs and hurting them in the process.