re: Mississippi State students demand segregation

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n 1975, the late Jake Ayers Sr. filed a federal lawsuit on behalf on his son Jake Jr., a student at Jackson State University, and other students at Mississippi's black, public four-year colleges. Ayers and other plaintiffs claimed black colleges did not receive the same funding as predominantly white colleges and that the black universities could only be made more enticing to students with increased state funding. The Justice Department later joined Ayers and the other plaintiffs in the lawsuit.

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oday's settlement calls for Mississippi to provide $246 million over 17 years for academic programs at the three black universities. Another $75 million will be spent on capital improvement projects over a five-year period, and $70 million in public endowments and $35 million in private endowments will be provided for the institutions over a 14-year span. In addition, Mississippi will recognize Jackson State University as a comprehensive higher education institution and designate Mississippi Veterans Memorial Stadium in Jackson as the home of the JSU Tigers.

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Mississippi had argued that it was making a sufficient attempt at integration by enforcing race-neutral school admission policies. However, the Ayers case prompted the federal government to sue then-Gov. Kirk Fordice, and the Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that the state had to do more to integrate its higher education system. The court, noting that historically white colleges required higher minimum test scores of its students than historically black colleges, said the state appeared to rely on standardized test scores that discriminate against blacks. Mississippi revised its admission standards, but various black citizens maintain the revisions are not enough. The Supreme Court has refused to hear the challenges to Mississippi's revised college admission plans and those disputes have continued in the state's lower courts.

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