While President Donald Trump is out here hosting pseudo-celebrations of Black history at the White House, his anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion policies appear to have caused the suspension of a scholarship program for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCU) by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA).
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According to the department’s website, the program — known as the USDA 1890 National Scholars Program was established in 1992 — is “aimed at increasing the number of students from rural and underserved communities who study food, agriculture, natural resource, and other related sciences,” and the “scholarship provides recipients with full tuition, fees, books, room and board so “scholars” in those communities can “pursue degrees in agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines.” Now, the program is suspended pending a review, likely because the current administration has created a social and political environment where everything that benefits non-white people is in danger of heading to the chopping block.
Fox 8, which reported that a scholarship program at North Carolina A&T State University at been affected by the decision, provided the following list of other HBCUs that qualified for the program as 1890 land-grant universities:
- Alabama A&M University
- Alcorn State University, Mississippi
- Central State University, Ohio
- Delaware State University
- Florida A&M University
- Fort Valley State University, Georgia
- Kentucky State University
- Langston University, Oklahoma
- Lincoln University, Missouri
- Prairie View A&M University, Texas
- South Carolina State University
- Southern University, Louisiana
- Tennessee State University
- Tuskegee University, Alabama
- University of Arkansas Pine Bluff
- University of Maryland Eastern Shore
- Virginia State University
- West Virginia State University
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In a press release, Democratic Rep. Jonathan L. Jackson, a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, blasted the Trump administration for causing the suspension of the program.
“Let me be clear – suspending the 1890 Scholars Program is nothing short of an attack on opportunity,” Jackson wrote. “This program is not just a scholarship – it’s a lifeline for students who dream of careers in agriculture, food safety, and environmental science. Pulling the rug out from under these students is cruel, calculated, and completely unacceptable.”
“This isn’t just about funding – it’s about fairness,” he continued. “The 1890 Scholars Program is a direct response to the USDA’s own history of racial discrimination. Killing it now sends a dangerous message that equity and opportunity no longer matter. I’m calling on the USDA to reverse this disgraceful decision immediately and fully reinstate the program – no delays, no excuses.”
Rep. Alma S. Adams, Senior Member of the House Committee on Agriculture and Founding Chairwoman of the Bipartisan Historically Black Colleges and Universities Caucus, also released a scathing statement about the USDA’s decision.
“It is infuriating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended the 1890 Scholars Program ‘pending further review,’” Adams wrote. “This is a clear attack on an invaluable program that makes higher education accessible for everybody, and provides opportunities for students to work at USDA, especially in the critical fields of food safety, agriculture, and natural resources that Americans rely on every single day.”
“This program is a correction to a long history of racial discrimination within the land-grant system, not an example of it,” she added. “I demand USDA immediately rescind this targeted and mean-spirited suspension and reinstate the 1890 Scholars Program, for which the deadline for students to apply was originally March 1, 2025.”
Folks might not remember it, but, in 2019, Trump signed a bipartisan bill that permanently provided more than $250 million a year to HBCUs. He and his supporters hailed the move as proof that Trump was Black people’s Miss Millie president even though he only needed to sign the previously-existing law because it had lapsed a couple of months prior because Congress, under his administration, failed to renew it. That fact didn’t stop Trump from boasting that HBCUs “never had better champions in the White House.”
Yeah, well — about that…
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