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GREENSBORO, N.C. (WGHP) The U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended a scholarship program that serves students from rural or underserved communities pending further review, according to its website.
The USDA 1890 National Scholars Program was established in 1992 as part of the partnership between the USDA and the 1890 land-grant universities.
The 1890 National Scholars Program “is aimed at increasing the number of students from rural and underserved communities who study food, agriculture, natural resource and other related sciences. The scholarship provides recipients with full tuition, fees, books, room and board. Scholars attend one of the 1890 land-grant universities and pursue degrees in agriculture, food, natural resource sciences, or related academic disciplines,” the website says.
In addition to North Carolina A&T State University, these are the 1890 universities:
- Alabama A&M University
- Alcorn State University, Mississippi
- Central State University, Ohio
- Delaware State University
- Florida A&M University
- Fort Valley State University, Georgia
- Kentucky State University
- Langston University, Oklahoma
- Lincoln University, Missouri
- Prairie View A&M University, Texas
- South Carolina State University
- Southern University, Louisiana
- Tennessee State University
- Tuskegee University, Alabama
- University of Arkansas Pine Bluff
- University of Maryland Eastern Shore
- Virginia State University
- West Virginia State University
On Thursday, U.S. Rep. Alma S. Adams (D-NC), who represents the state’s 12th Congressional District, released the following statement regarding the program’s suspension.
It is infuriating that the U.S. Department of Agriculture has suspended the 1890 Scholars Program ‘pending further review. This is a clear attack on an invaluable program that makes higher education accessible for everybody, and provides opportunities for students to work at USDA, especially in the critical fields of food safety, agriculture, and natural resources that Americans rely on every single day. This program is a correction to a long history of racial discrimination within the land-grant system, not an example of it. I demand USDA immediately rescind this targeted and mean-spirited suspension and reinstate the 1890 Scholars Program, for which the deadline for students to apply was originally March 1, 2025.
U.S. Rep. Alma S. Adams (D-District 12)
