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Polis Director Deondra Rose on the Second Morrill Land-Grant Act, Journal of Policy History

Polis’ Director Deondra Rose recently published an article in the Journal of Policy History from Cambridge University Press.

Her analysis looks at how Congress passed the Second Morrill Land-Grant Act during the height of post-Reconstruction backlash against Black Americans. She highlights the tensions and compromises involved between Black citizens, Radical Republicans, and Southern Democrats. This piece fits into Professor Rose’s long-standing exploration of how race intersects with higher education policy.

“The successful passage of the Second Morrill Land-Grant Act and the wave of Black land-grant college creation that it generated reflected Justin Morrill’s effectiveness at building a coalition among diverse interests that emerged from the First Morrill Land-Grant Act. While we have come to associate the 1890 Morrill Land-Grant Act with the targeted support for Black colleges that it enabled, it is important to note that its creation was also driven by the desire to provide federal resources to agricultural interests, struggling southern states, and preexisting higher educational institutions—many of which were not concerned with extending educational opportunities to African Americans.”

Click here to read the paper.

Along with leading Polis, Professor Rose is an Associate Professor at the Sanford School, Co-director of the North Carolina Scholars Strategy Network, and author of Citizens by Degree: Higher Education Policy and the Changing Gender Dynamics of American Citizenship.