News Summary
Rita Geier was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Tennessee, recognizing her significant role in desegregating the state’s higher education system. Her landmark lawsuit in 1968 challenged racial segregation, leading to major changes in educational access and equity in Tennessee. The degree honors her lasting impact on civil rights and education.
KNOXVILLE – Rita Geier was honored with an honorary doctorate degree from the University of Tennessee last week, recognizing her pivotal role in desegregating the state’s higher education system over 50 years ago. Geier’s groundbreaking efforts in a historic lawsuit helped to transform the educational landscape in Tennessee, making higher education more accessible and equitable for all students.
The honorary degree was conferred during a ceremony attended by university officials, including Chancellor Donde Plowman, who praised Geier for her courageous legal efforts. The recognition serves as a testament to her lasting impact on civil rights in education and the fight against systemic racism within the state’s universities.
Geier, who was the lead plaintiff in a class action lawsuit filed in 1968, challenged the constitutionality of the segregated public higher education system in Tennessee. At the time of the lawsuit, Geier was a law student at Vanderbilt University and a part-time history instructor at Tennessee State University (TSU), which exclusively served Black students. The lawsuit argued that the state had violated constitutional principles by maintaining racially segregated educational institutions, highlighting the discrepancies in funding, facilities, and faculty compensation between TSU and predominantly white universities in the state.
Despite the elimination of race-based admissions requirements at the University of Tennessee and other all-white colleges, these institutions remained overwhelmingly white, while TSU was entirely composed of Black students. Geier, alongside attorney George Barrett, strategically crafted the lawsuit to address these inequalities, asserting that the Tennessee government failed to adequately fund TSU due to its predominantly Black enrollment. They contended that the state’s actions were an attempt to perpetuate segregation, particularly with the expansion efforts occurring at the University of Tennessee’s downtown Nashville campus.
The legal battle that ensued ultimately led to significant changes in the state’s higher education framework. A major victory for Geier and her colleagues came in the late 1970s when the lawsuit resulted in the merger of UT-Nashville with TSU, representing an uncommon instance where a historically Black university acquired a predominantly white campus. The legal discussions around desegregation and adequate state support for public universities continued for decades, culminating in a final consent decree in 2001. This decree mandated improvements at TSU and the establishment of increased scholarship programs for Black students.
The Geier case officially concluded in 2006 after 38 years of litigation. A judge declared that all vestiges of segregation had been removed from Tennessee’s public higher education system. Despite this progress, ongoing discussions regarding the state’s funding and treatment of TSU persist. A report released in 2021 estimated that the state owes TSU at least $544 million in underfunded federal support since the end of segregation.
Geier’s involvement in civil rights did not end with her legal battles. Following her legal career, she took on various influential roles such as the regional director for the Legal Services Corporation and general counsel for the Appalachian Regional Commission. After retiring, Geier contributed to higher education as an associate to the chancellor at the University of Tennessee-Knoxville and served as a senior fellow at the Howard Baker Center for Public Policy.
The honorary degree from the University of Tennessee is a recognition of Geier’s profound legacy in the civil rights movement, particularly her efforts to ensure equality and accessibility in education for generations to come.
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