In 1990, then-Morgan State University student newspaper editor Travis Mitchell was appointed spokesperson for a student sit-in movement protesting conditions on campus.

Buildings were deteriorating. Students were upset. Mitchell was the one who got to ask the school’s president, Earl S. Richardson, why.

“That’s where I got a peek inside the man,” said Mitchell, who observed the patience and savvy of someone he would come to see as the most influential person in his life.

He didn’t squash the protest but “educated us,” Mitchell said, about the inequitable and inadequate funding Morgan received that led to the conditions they were protesting.

More than a decade later, Richardson’s leadership had grown into the driving force behind a larger movement that would prove transformative, not just for Morgan but for Maryland’s other historically Black colleges and universities.

In 2021, Maryland settled a 15-year-long lawsuit that alleged Maryland had been underfunding its four HBCUs — Morgan, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore — while developing duplicate programs at other public universities that were competing for students.

The settlement created $577 million for those four HBCUs over 10 years, funds that are not only strengthening the institutions’ bedrock but that will help them continue to thrive, funding scholarships and financial aid services while expanding and improving academic programs.

“That probably would not have been a lawsuit if not for him [Richardson],” said Maryland State Sen. Charles Sydnor, who sponsored a 2021 bill in Annapolis that allocated the state funds for the schools.

It will be just part of the legacy of Richardson, who served as Morgan’s president for more than two decades. David K. Wilson, the current president wrote the school community Saturday of Richardson’s death. He was 81.

“Dr. Richardson will forever be remembered as a towering figure in Morgan’s history — an exceptional leader whose life’s work profoundly shaped this institution and enriched the lives of countless students, faculty, alumni, and friends of the University,“ Wilson wrote.

“As we mourn his passing, let us also honor his extraordinary contributions by rededicating ourselves to the ideals he championed and the mission he so faithfully advanced. Morgan is stronger today because of Earl S. Richardson, and for that, we are eternally grateful.”

Richardson ushered in “Morgan’s Renaissance” after taking the helm as president in 1984, Wilson wrote.

During his tenure, Morgan increased its doctoral programs from one to 15, opened new schools including the School of Architecture, School of Social Work and School of Global Communications, and laid the groundwork for it to grow as a research institution. Enrollment roughly doubled and the school’s operating budget grew sixfold during his 26 years as president, according to Morgan’s website.

He served as a senior research associate and professor of higher education administration after stepping away from the role as president in 2010.

Richardson was not just a scholar but “an advocate for Morgan as an institution and all the students there,” said former U.S. Rep. and Sen. Barbara Mikulski, who worked with Richardson to strengthen Morgan’s access to federal grants and research dollars.

“He wanted them [students] to have the best opportunities,” she said.

Robinson’s most famous work was quite public, but plenty of his advocacy happened not so out in the open.

“I saw him go through a lot of silent battles,” said Rep. Kweisi Mfume, who served alongside Richardson on Morgan’s board of regents and is its current chairman.

When Richardson came on as president, some leading Annapolis lawmakers wouldn’t embrace his and the university’s vision, Mfume said. But Richardson “turned that negative into a positive” by cultivating strong relationships with successive governors and others in the General Assembly.

He was “a transformative leader and a stalwart in the fight to ensure an equal college opportunity for all students,” Mfume said. “His presence and his voice will be greatly missed.”

Mayor Brandon Scott also paid tribute to Richardson, calling him “a strong advocate for equal opportunity.”

‘His legacy is to persevere’

Others remember Richardson for his persistence, dignity and compassion.

“I think his legacy is to persevere,” said Mike Jones, retired partner at the law firm Kirkland and Ellis, and co-lead attorney in the HBCU case against Maryland.

Richardson started as a “passionate client,” Jones said, but he became a dear friend.

“He had a great sense of humor, and the only thing I know that would get him riled up is some of the historical documents [from the case] because he lived through some of that,” Jones said.

The case used the documents to create a timeline. Jones said one of them showed it was once state policy to maintain its Black colleges as inferior to ones that served white students. Another described the conditions at UMES as a “disgrace to the state of Maryland,” Jones recalled.

“He [Richardson] said, ‘yeah, what was really disgraceful is that it was intentional, it wasn’t an accident’” Jones said. “I remember his words and his anger over that. It was one of the things that helped to keep us motivated.”

The case was “10 times larger” than they originally thought, Jones said. His firm, taking the case pro bono, reserved multiple floors of local hotels for weeks at a time for personnel working the case. The courtroom was always packed, he said, largely due to Richardson organizing students, alumni and advocates.

“He did all of this with grace. He did it all with dignity, with compassion. And he has inspired a generation of students that have gone on to credit him with their success,” said Mitchell, who is now the chief content officer at Maryland Public Television.

In March, Mitchell and other alumni marked the 35-year anniversary of the student sit-in at an event where Richardson was a featured speaker. Mitchell said he’s grateful to have had the chance to celebrate Richardson’s impact with him one last time. He said it amounted to roughly $1.5 billion worth of enhancements to the school while he was president but also included much more that a dollar figure cannot quantify.

“Dr. Richardson taught me what compassionate leadership is,” Mitchell said. “[His] life and legacy arguably will be remembered as having the greatest impact on HBCUs nationwide of any other leader in history.”

This story has been updated.

Baltimore Banner Digital Editor Tramon Lucas contributed to this story.