Update: Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed into law a bill providing $577 million to Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Wednesday, settling a 15-year lawsuit.

“It will be an unprecedented step forward in addressing inequities in our higher education system and making substantial investments in Maryland’s HBCUs,” Hogan told the crowd gathered at Bowie State University to watch the bill signing.

Hogan was joined by Senate President Bill Ferguson (D-Baltimore City) and House Speaker Adriene Jones (D-Baltimore City). Jones, Maryland’s first Black female house speaker, sponsored the legislation and made the settlement funding a top priority for the legislature.

“We finally got to this day,” Jones said to the sound of applause. “I’m saying that on behalf of a sister and a mother of two HBCU graduates.”

Original: A bill providing $577 million to Maryland’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities is on its way to Gov. Larry Hogan’s desk after lawmakers in the state voted on Wednesday to approve the funding.

The decision could settle a lawsuit from 2006, which alleged the state of Maryland chronically underfunded its HBCUs while investing in predominantly white schools.

Funding for the four HBCUs — Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University, and University of Maryland on the Eastern Shore — would begin in 2023 and provide $9 million annually over ten years to each of the schools.

But it remains unclear whether Hogan, who vetoed a similar measure last year, will sign the bill. Shareese DeLeaver-Churchill, Hogan’s spokesperson, said in a statement that Hogan “will carefully review the legislation when it reaches his desk.” Hogan previously cited pandemic-related financial pressures as the reason for his veto.

“Justice will be served for HBCUs in Maryland and hopefully set a precedent for other states where these colleges and universities reside. It is truly historic case and a one of a kind case brought entirely by private litigants. We believe it is will be one of the largest pro bono settlement in history,” Mike Jones, who’s been a pro bono lawyer for the plaintiffs for the past 12 years, told WAMU/DCist.

Since 2006, the Coalition for Equity and Excellence in Maryland Higher Education, a group of mostly HBCU alumni, has alleged the state’s HBCUs have been perpetually underfunded. In 2013, a federal judge said the state had maintained a “dual and segregated education system.”

U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake wrote that the state underfunded HBCUs for decades, pointing out that Maryland created and funded duplicate programs at predominantly white institutions that already existed at HBCUs. These duplicate programs, Blake alleged, lowered the enrollment rates of white students at HBCUs and further segregated schools.

As of 2016, the case was at a stalemate between state and coalition lawyers about the amount of the settlement. In September 2019, during court-mandated mediation, Hogan made what he said was a “final offer” of $200 million over 10 years.

And last year, in a statement explaining his veto, Hogan wrote: “This pandemic simply makes it impossible to fund any new programs, impose any new tax hikes, nor adopt any legislation having any significant fiscal impact, regardless of the merits of the legislation.”

If Hogan vetoes this year’s bill, the legislature has a veto-proof democratic majority to overturn the decision and has time to do during this year’s general assembly session.  Jones says once the settlement is final, it “will be a historic moment for Maryland’s HBCUs.”