A local historically black university plans to file a lawsuit against Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett and other commonwealth agents and departments for what they claim to be decades-long racial discrimination against their school.
On Monday officials with Cheyney University will announce the renewal of a 33-year-old racial discrimination civil rights lawsuit against the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The announcement will be made during a press conference on 7th and Market Streets outside the Federal Courthouse.
On September 23, 1980, Cheyney University filed a lawsuit that accused the Commonwealth of racial discrimination in violation of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for the Commonwealth’s alleged “inequitably unlawful actions against Cheyney University compared to its favorable treatment of the 13 traditionally white state-owned universities.
“The Commonwealth has previously been officially found to have created and maintained an illegal and racial “dual system” of higher education to the detriment of Cheyney University –the oldest African-American institution of higher education in America,” wrote attorney Michael Coard in a released statement. “The Commonwealth in 2013 continues this racial discrimination, which has caused an all- time great institution to have an all-time low student enrollment and an all-time high budget deficit.”
US Congressmen Chaka Fattah and Robert Brady, NAACP president J. Whyatt Modesire and several Cheyney alumni will attend Monday’s press conference.
Founded in February of 1837, Cheyney is the oldest African American institute of higher learning in the country. The school has a campus located in Thornbury Township, Chester County and another located in Thornbury Township, Delaware County. It’s also a part of the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education.
