Rita Sanders Geier

Rita Geier ( Sanders) is an American civil rights pioneer, attorney at law, and public servant. As a professor at Tennessee State University, she was the original plaintiff in a landmark lawsuit that led to the racial integration of higher education throughout the State of Tennessee.

Early life and education Rita Sanders was born in Memphis, Tennessee in 1944. Her parents were Edwin and Jessie Sanders. Edwin Sanders was a Methodist minister and served on the Board of Education for the Southwest Conference of the Central Jurisdiction for the United Methodist Church. He died in 1959. Jessie Sanders was a public school teacher. In 1961, Geier graduated from Melrose High School in Memphis which was segregated at the time.

Sanders earned a bachelor's degree from Fisk University, a Juris Doctor degree from Vanderbilt University, and a master's from the University of Chicago.

Sanders married Paul Geier in 1970. Civil rights activist and pastor, James Morris Lawson, Jr., officiated at the couple's wedding. The Geiers have two sons, Chris and Jon. In this role she oversaw the school's "Ready for the World" initiative

Lawsuit against the University of Tennessee In 1968, Geier was a young student attending Vanderbilt Law School and an instructor at Tennessee State University (TSU), the only state-funded historically black university in Tennessee.

Early in her tenure, Geier became troubled by the state of Tennessee’s plan to construct a new facility for the Nashville campus of the Knoxville-based University of Tennessee while neglecting TSU. She came to learn that the salaries for faculty at TSU were significantly lower than those at the University of Tennessee.

Geier worked as a clerk a white local attorney and Vanderbilt Law School alumnus. who agreed to file a lawsuit against the state of Tennessee and then Governor Buford Ellington, alleging that Tennessee maintained dual higher education systems. The suit attempted to block the construction of a new facility. The original case was filed as Sanders v. Ellington and later became known as Geier v. Tennessee.

The foundational argument of the case rested on the premise that the expansion of the University of Tennessee-Nashville (UTN) would perpetuate two higher education systems in Nashville by creating competition between the two schools for students, faculty and state funding. The case highlighted a failure to desegregate publicly funded institutions throughout the state.

The filing of the case failed to halt construction of the new facility and UTN expanded into an area near the state capitol of Tennessee. TSU continued to suffer from neglect due to inadequate resources and funding. In 1970, Sanders married, and the name of the case changed numerous times as new governors were elected and immediately became defendants. Throughout its history the matter is documented as Geier v. Dunn, Geier v. Blanton, Geier v. Alexander, Geier v. McWhorter, Geier v. Sundquist and finally Geier v. Bredesen.

Following a judge’s ruling, on July 1, 1979, the merger of University of Tennessee at Nashville and TSU took effect. The combination marked the first time in history that a historically black college or university and a traditionally white institution were brought under a single banner. At the same time, UTN and TSU faculty member H. Coleman McGinnis joined as a co-plaintiff. was ordered by the court on January 4, 2001. The state of Tennessee had appropriated $15.5 million for the Tennessee State endowment, $19.8 million in capital outlays and almost $15 million in student financial aid since mediation began in 2000.

Honors and awards Geier was the fall 2006 commencement speaker at the University of Tennessee.

President Clinton awarded her Presidential Rank Meritorious Executive Award for her work with the Social Security Administration.

Impact of the case The Geier v. Tennessee case and subsequent litigation, had a broad reaching impact on education in the state. In 2001, Tennessee began offering enrichment programs for African American high school students aimed at improving student scores on standardized tests. Tennessee State University is today a fully-integrated institution, offering bachelor, master's and doctoral degrees. The combination of UTN and TSU now comprises more than 65 buildings spanning 500 acres. Of the roughly 10,000 students, 75% are African American and 22% are white. About 10% of the 2006 freshman class at the University of Tennessee were African American.