{"id":13047,"date":"2025-05-02T12:53:32","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T16:53:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/?p=13047"},"modified":"2025-12-11T11:53:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:53:09","slug":"umes-professor-emerita-celebrates-the-law-that-shaped-hbcus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wwwcp.umes.edu\/sans\/sans-monthly-digest\/umes-professor-emerita-celebrates-the-law-that-shaped-hbcus\/","title":{"rendered":"UMES professor emerita celebrates the law that shaped HBCUs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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As the University of Maryland Eastern Shore celebrates 135 years of being an 1890 land-grant institution, understanding the importance of that designation remains vital, as Dr. Carolyn Brooks<\/strong> (far left) <\/em>urged during a talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks, who had a three-decade career at the Princess Anne university has a wide-ranging experience in higher education relating to research, teaching and extension serving as chair of the agriculture department, before becoming dean and then chief of staff to the president. Holding degrees from Tuskegee and The Ohio State universities, she is the proud product and champion to the nation\u2019s 19 Black land-grant universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her breadth of knowledge about the law that shape the land-grant universities system, the Second Morrill Act of 1890, was the highlight of her School of Agricultural and Natural Sciences spring seminar on April 29. [To watch her speech in full, click here.]<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Brooks has played a critical role in the land-grant system,\u201d said Dr. Moses T. Kairo, presiding SANS dean.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Named for the U.S. senator from Vermont who supported land-grant legislation, Justin Morrill, the act expanded on the first version signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1862 to develop college level instruction for \u201cthe practical realities of an agricultural and industrial society,\u201d Brooks said. Each state was granted 30,000 acres for the purpose, which is where the terminology land-grant originates. Twenty-eight years later when the Civil War ended, the second piece of legislation passed allowing the institutions to be accessible to all, or allowing for separate, but equally funded, colleges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 \u201cWe don\u2019t take, we give back,\u201d Brooks said of the $7 billion in economic impact the 19 Black land-grant institutions contribute today to local, state and national economies. \u201cThe research that is done is with the applied aspect in mind. That\u2019s what Morrill wanted us to do, to do work with the people and to do the work of the people.\u201d    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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