Craig Thompson quoted in the Baltimore Sun on federal lawsuit alleging segregation at Maryland universities

Venable partner Craig Thompson was quoted in a January 3, 2012 Baltimore Sun article on a federal lawsuit filed by a group of students and alumni from Maryland’s historically black universities alleging continued segregation. The suit calls on Maryland to pay for improvements at four universities to make them more competitive with traditionally white universities and to dismantle programs at those universities that “unnecessarily” duplicate programs at the historically black universities.

Noting that historically black universities have fared well in recent budgets and that minority students have far more opportunities at all of Maryland’s public universities, Thompson, arguing for the state, said, “The question is: Are there current state policies and practices, traceable to the segregation era, that are continuing to foster segregation in our institutions of public higher education...And the answer is no.” Adding that black student enrollment has increased at all the state’s traditionally white universities, and that historically black universities have been able to develop more ambitious missions and funded better than most Maryland universities when compared to their peers around the country, Thompson said, “This is simply not a policy or practice rooted in the ... era of segregation.”