The Debt traces Tennessee State University’s century-long fight for fair funding. It follows students, administrators, and lawmakers who have struggled for TSU to be recognized as both a vital anchor of Black life in Tennessee and a premier public university for all—through an overlooked Civil Rights lawsuit in the 1970s, a historic merger that led to the dissolution of a predominantly white campus, a student hunger strike in 1990, and a lawmaker who discovered his father’s forgotten research on systemic underfunding.
At its core, the The Debt examines what happens when public investment is withheld from an institution that seeks to rectify the legacy of segregation—and what could be possible if that debt were finally paid.
This project is reported by independent journalist Emily Siner, along with education reporter Camellia Burris, Nashville Public Radio, and the Tennessee Lookout.
