A former president of Tennessee State University is being laid to rest today. Dr. Fred Humphries led the school during a pivotal moment in the late 70s and early 80s. Many in the TSU community credit him as being a key figure in the success of an effort to save the state’s only historically black public university from being dissolved.
Tennessee State UniversityHumphries in 1979, which was the midpoint in the effort to carry out the judge’s decision to merge TSU and UT Nashville.
When Humphries came to TSU in 1974, the school was several years into a lawsuit known as “the Geier case,” alleging that higher education in Tennessee was systematically segregated. One prime example given was the creation of a downtown Nashville campus by the University of Tennessee. TSU faculty argued it was designed to siphon attention and funding away from their school while giving white students additional access to a college education.
As a judge considered merging the two campuses, Humphries argued that the UT outpost should become part of his institution, rather than having TSU absorbed into a majority white system. His passionate testimony is considered a key influence on the judge’s decision to rule in favor of the HBCU.
Fred Humphries left TSU in 1984 to become president of his alma mater, Florida A & M. Both schools honored him with memorial services this weekend.
The Geier case continued until 2006. The following year, the state began paying TSU the annual funding that it should have been receiving as a land grant institution. Currently, legislators are working out a plan to compensate the school for the half-century of payments that were withheld.
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