$19 million in HBCU funding suspended after Trump diversity ban: ‘Not looking too good’

By Williesha Morris

The federal government has suspended a scholarship program that gave $19 million to historically Black colleges and universities in 2024, including two Alabama land-grant universities, according to a news report.

Alabama A&M and Tuskegee University are two of the 19 recipients of the 1890 Scholars program, which provides full tuition, room and board for students studying “food, agriculture, natural resource and other related sciences.”

As land-grant universities, they are federally funded colleges with major agricultural programs.

There are 35 AAMU scholars, according to Shannon Frank Reeves, vice president of government affairs.

“These students are in high workforce demand majors such as food science, forestry and other major needs in agriculture,” Reeves said.

“Considering wildfires in California, bird flu in the poultry industry, and 60% of Alabama’s economy being agriculture, these cuts are unexpected and will have a long-term negative impact on Alabama and the agriculture industry across the country,” Reeves said.

Fall 2024 recipients will not be affected, according to Rodney Stone, Tuskegee’s USDA liaison.

“It may not be looking too good for future applicants,” Stone said. The program is in a “holding pattern” for 2025, and there’s currently no set time frame for the program review.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture offered $19.2 million to 94 students last year, according to Reuters.

The USDA’s 1890 Scholars program was open as late as Feb. 10, according to an archived version of the page. Applications were open until March 1. Now the site shows the scholarship as “suspended pending further review.”

President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20 executive order banning diversity, equity and inclusion has shaken up federal offices and private companies, resulted in the temporary removal of a Tuskegee Airmen video at the U.S. Air Force and places National Institutes of Health funding in jeopardy.

The scholarship was restored on the website Feb. 25.