Place Created: Washington DC
Year Created: 1890
Historical Theme:
Description:
The Second Morrill Act of 1890 was a pivotal piece of legislation addressing racial exclusion in higher education, particularly within the Land-grant Universities (LGUs) established under the original Morrill Act of 1862. Before this act, many people of color, especially Black students, were systematically denied access to the educational opportunities provided by these federally supported institutions. The 1890 Act mandated that states either ensure that their existing 1862 LGUs were open to students of all races or establish separate Land-grant Institutions specifically for Black students.
Unlike the first Morrill Act, which allocated land to fund educational institutions, the Second Morrill Act provided direct federal financial support. This funding enabled the development of a network of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) designated as Land-grant Universities, ensuring that Black students and underserved communities could benefit from federal investments in higher education. These institutions were tasked with advancing teaching, research, and cooperative extension programs tailored to the needs of historically marginalized populations, particularly in agriculture, mechanical arts, and other practical sciences.
As a result of this legislation, 19 universities now comprise what is known as the 1890 Land-grant System, continuing the mission of providing accessible and equitable education while fostering innovation and economic development in underserved communities.
Categories of Documents:
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 2 ø7 U.S.C. 322, 323¿ there shall be, and hereby is, annually appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, arising from the sales of public lands, to be paid as hereinafter provided, to each State and Territory for the more complete endowment and maintenance of colleges for the benefit of agriculture and the mechanic arts now established, or which may be hereafter established, by an act of Congress approved July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for the year ending June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and ninety, and an annual increase of the amount of such appropriation thereafter for ten years by an additional sum of one thousand dollars over the preceding year, and the annual amount to be paid thereafter to each State and Territory shall be twenty-five thousand dollars to be applied only to instruction in food and agricultural sciences, and to the facilities for such instruction: Provided, That no money shall be paid out under this act to any State or Territory for the support and maintenance of a college where a distinction of race or color is made in the admission of students, but the establishment and maintenance of such colleges separately for white and colored students shall be held to be a compliance with the provisions of this act if the funds received in such State or Territory be equitably divided as hereinafter set forth: Provided, That in any State in which there has been one college established in pursuance of the act of July second, eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and also in which an educational institution of like character has been established, or may be hereafter established, and is now aided by such State from its own revenue, for the education of colored students in agriculture and the mechanic arts, however named or styled, or whether or not it has received money heretofore under the act to which this act is an amendment, the legislature of such State may propose and report to the Secretary of the Interior a just and equitable division of the fund to be received under this act between one college for white students and one institution for colored students established as aforesaid, which shall be divided into two parts and paid accordingly, and thereupon such institution for colored students shall be entitled to the benefits of this act and subject to its provisions, as much as it would have been if it had been included under the act of eighteen hundred and sixty-two, and the fulfillment of the foregoing provisions shall be taken as a compliance with the provision in reference to separate colleges for white and colored students
SEC. 2. That ø7 U.S.C. 324¿ the sums hereby appropriated to the States and Territories for the further endowment and support of colleges shall be annually paid on or before the thirty-first day of October of each year, by the Secretary of the Treasury, upon the warrant of the Secretary of the Interior, out of the Treasury of the United States, to the State or Territorial treasurer, or to such officer as shall be designated by the laws of such State or Territory to receive the same, who shall, upon the order of the trustees of the college, or the institution for colored students immediately pay over said sums to the treasurers of the respective colleges or other institutions entitled to receive the same, and such treasurers shall be required to report to the Secretary of Agriculture and to the Secretary of the Interior, on or before the first day of December of each year, a detailed statement of the amount so received and of its disbursement. The grants of money authorized by this act are made subject to the legislative assent of the several States and Territories to the purpose of said grants: Provided, That payments of such installments of the apportion 3 herein made as shall become due to any State before the adjournment of the regular session of legislature meeting next after the passage of this act shall be made upon the assent of the governor thereof, duly certified to the Secretary of the Treasury.
SEC. 3. That ø7 U.S.C. 325¿ if any portion of the money received by the designated officer of the State or Territory for the further and more complete endowment, support, and maintenance of colleges, or of institutions for colored students, as provided in this act, shall, by any action or contingency, be diminished or lost, or be misapplied, it shall be replaced by the State or Territory to which it belongs, and until so replaced no subsequent appropriation shall be apportioned or paid to such State or Territory; and no portion of said money shall be applied, directly or indirectly, under any pretense whatever, to the purchase, erection, preservation, or repair of any building or buildings. An annual report by the president of each of said colleges shall be made to the Secretary of Agriculture, as well as to the Secretary of the Interior, regarding the condition and progress of each college, including statistical information about its receipts and expenditures, its library, the number of its students and professors, and also as to any improvements and experiments made under the direction of any experiment stations attached to said colleges, with their cost and results, and such other industrial and economical statistics as may be regarded as useful, one copy of which shall be transmitted by mail free to all other colleges further endowed under this act.
SEC. 4. ø7 U.S.C. 321, 326¿ That on or before the first day of October in each year, after the passage of this act, the Secretary of the Interior shall ascertain and certify to the Secretary of the Treasury as to each State and Territory whether it is entitled to receive its share of the annual appropriation for colleges, or of institutions for colored students, under this act, and the amount which thereupon each is entitled, respectively, to receive. If the Secretary of the Interior shall withhold a certificate from any State or Territory of its appropriation the facts and reasons therefor shall be reported to the President, and the amount involved shall be kept separate in the Treasury until the close of the next Congress, so that the State or Territory may, if it should so desire, appeal to Congress from the determination of the Secretary of the Interior. If the next Congress shall not direct such sum to be paid it shall be covered into the Treasury. And the Secretary of the Interior is hereby charged with the proper administration of this law. 4
SEC. 5. ø7 U.S.C. 326a¿ There is appropriated annually, out of funds in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, for payment to the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands of the United States, Guam, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the Republic of Palau the amount they would be entitled to receive under this Act if they were States. Sums appropriated under this section shall be treated in the same manner and be subject to the same provisions of law, as would be the case if they had been appropriated by the first sentence of section 1.
SEC. 6. ø7 U.S.C. 328¿ Congress may at any time amend, suspend, or repeal any or all of the provisions of this act.