(Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

A few months ago BET.com reported that Maryland historically Black colleges and universities were suing the state for discrimination. Now those lawsuits are being put on hold.

The lawsuit, originally filed in 2006 by an advocacy group representing Maryland HBCUs, drew the ear of a federal judge in May. The lawsuit claimed that the state of Maryland underfunds Morgan State University, Coppin State University, Bowie State University and the University of Maryland Eastern Shore—all HBCUs—and that the state has not lived up to its agreement to end racial segregation in its higher education policies.  

The state’s higher education commission responded by saying that the education polices are not rooted in segregation, and if the plaintiffs believes that, “they’re drinking some kind of Kool-Aid.”

Now, however, the Journal of Blacks in Higher Education is reporting that the lawsuit filed by the four HBCUs has been put on hold for at least six months as the parties work to achieve a settlement.

The state of Maryland is approximately 30 percent African-American. Of all the colleges involved in the lawsuit, at least 80 percent of their student bodies are African-American. In contrast, the University of Maryland has a Black population of only 12 percent.

Stay tuned as BET.com continues to follow the progress of the complaints filed by Maryland’s historically Black schools.

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