The WPLN special "The Debt" tells the story of a long-running fight over how to calculate and repay state funding debts to public HBCUs like Tennessee State University.
What happens when government funding is withheld from a public university that’s served generations of Black Tennesseans? And what could be possible if that debt were finally paid?
Today’s This is Nashville call-in episode is a companion to the one-hour radio special from WPLN News and the Tennessee Lookout.
The Debt traces Tennessee State University’s decades-long fight for fair funding — through an overlooked Civil Rights lawsuit, a historic merger with a predominantly white university, a dramatic student hunger strike, and a lawmaker who discovered his father’s old research on underfunding.
This episode was produced by Camellia Burris.
Guests:
- Dr. Learotha “Dr. Lee” Williams, Jr., Scholar of African-American Civil War and Reconstruction, and Public History at Tennessee State University
- Dr. George Pruitt, retired university administrator; former president, TESU; former vice-president of student affairs at TSU; author, From Protest to President
- Camellia Burris, Education reporter, WPLN
- Emily Siner, Contributing reporter, WPLN
On Air - 90.3 WPLN-FM