Historical writings about the Morrill Land-Grant Acts are not free from promoting unbiased, dominant ideas about the laws' reach and intentions. The Morrill Acts were major legislation, but they did not signify the entitlement of every citizen; their successes for Black students, communities, and colleges were meager. This study makes common cause with efforts to revise the major narratives of higher education history. The purpose of this paper is to illuminate how race was discussed in the passing of the Second Morrill Act of 1890. This is an important contribution to the scholarship of higher education history because the study provides detailed commentary by lawmakers that has not been published or challenged in previous historical writings about the Morrill Acts. This study promotes a historical narrative that interrogates a dominant canon in higher education and calls to question laws and policies that posit universal access and colorblindness. As a historian, the author seeks to challenge assumptions about higher education policy to reach for more accurate depictions of the nation's racial past. She also supplements contemporary policy analyses of public funding to Black colleges with relevant historical analysis of how disparate funding trends were created and normalized through public policy.