Date of Award

2020

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Education

Abstract

On July 2nd, 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the first Morrill Act to establish colleges for educating the middle-class and the poor in the field of agriculture, military tactic, and mechanics without excluding the classical studies (Smith & Wilson, as cited in Comer et al., 2006; Thelin, 2011; Seals, 1998; Mayberry, 1991; National Archives & Record Administration [NARA], n.d.a; Neyland). Twenty-eight years later, Congress authorized the second Morrill Act, and eventually established 17 land-grant colleges for African Americans. Despite early efforts to improve access to education for Blacks, racial discrimination resulted in an unequal distribution of federal and state provisions for 1890 land-grant institutions (Williams & Williamson, 1985). Thus, insufficient funding made it nearly impossible for faculty to develop quality teaching, research, and extension programs to benefit African American students and Black farmers (Anderson, 1988; Neyland, 1990; Seals, 1998; Mayberry, 1991; Wilkerson, 1941). The research intentions of this qualitative case study are the following: (1) to acquire an in-depth understanding of the lived experiences of CEP employees as they navigated through their careers at an underfunded 1890 land-grant institution, (2) to gain a profound understanding of the lived experiences of the African American farmers the CEP is authorized to serve, (3) and to contribute to the literature on 1890 land-grant institutions. The research design for this inquiry was a single, qualitative case study. Latent content analysis was the analytical approach used in this study and the major themes were the mission becomes challenging, structural racism, oppression in the workplace, outreach assistance hindered, and enhanced technical support.

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