By DeWAYNE WICKHAM
THE ARCHITECT OF MORGAN’ S
RENAISSANCE
Earl Richardson was an unlikely hero.
For many of his admirers, this tag might be attributed to the behindthe-scenes role Richardson – the second longest serving president of Morgan State University – played in the 15-year legal battle that won Maryland’ s four historically Black colleges and universities $ 577 million in special funding.
And why not? Richardson is widely seen as the visionary leader behind the 2006 lawsuit that was brought against the State of Maryland by a coalition of students and alumni from Morgan, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore.
The legal action accused Maryland of underfunding its Black higher education institutions while allowing the state’ s traditionally white colleges and universities to duplicate programs that were already being offered by its HBCUs. This duplication siphoned students away from the state’ s underfunded Black schools and stifled their growth.
The federal judge overseeing the case said, Maryland had maintained
“ a dual and segregated education system” in violation of the U. S. Constitution.
While the lawsuit wasn’ t settled until 2021, 11 years after Richardson stepped down as Morgan’ s president, few would dispute that, like Baseball Hall of Famer Reggie Jackson once said about himself, Richardson was“ the straw that stirs the drink” of this landmark case.
But he became Morgan’ s“ unlikely hero” long before this legal success.
Richardson was named Morgan’ s interim president in February 1984. His appointment came on the heels of the resignation of President Andrew Billingsley, who stepped down after state auditors gave the school a“ very poor” audit rating. Many people at Morgan worried aloud that Richardson, who at the time was a special assistant to the president of the University of Maryland, would oversee Morgan’ s merger into the University of Maryland system.
Still, eight months later in October 1984, the Board of Regents narrowly voted, 7-6, to give Richardson the permanent position. Both the student government president and president of the Faculty Senate questioned that decision.
But over the next 26 years, Richardson proved them wrong.
Under his leadership, Morgan flourished. It experienced phenomenal growth in both size and academic prestige. Seventeen campus buildings were renovated; 12 new facilities were built and student enrollment – which had been declining before he became president – rose by more than 75 percent. And it was on Richardson’ s watch that Morgan moved from being primarily a liberal arts college to a full-fledged, comprehensive university.
This period of great turnaround and growth has come to be known as the Morgan Renaissance – and Richardson was its chief architect.
Earl Richardson died in Baltimore on September 13, 2025.
He was 81. •
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