The Georgia NAACP is suing the state, saying Georgia is hobbling its three state-run historically black colleges and universities, known as HBCU’s.

Equal funding is just one issue.

The civil rights organization says, the Board of Regents and Governor Sonny Perdue are violating the Civil Rights Act by keeping Albany, Fort Valley and Savannah State Universities educationally below-par with predominantly-white schools.

The Georgia NAACP chapter president, Edward Dubose, says, none of the colleges are classified as research universities or offer professional degree programs.

“If you don’t offer those opportunities to students who strive to attend HBCU’s, they inevitably wind up going away from those colleges to predominently white colleges,” Dubose says.

A coalition of HBCU supporters published a report noting inequality in funds for capital improvements.

“The question is whether or not all citizens of Georgia can go to any institution and receive the same quality education,” says Joycia Ricks, co-chair of the Legal Defense Coalition for the Preservation of Public HBCU’s.

Last year, state lawmkers tried but failed to win approval of a Senate effort to merge two of the colleges with mostly-white schools.

Board of Regents spokesman John Millsaps said his office had not seen the lawsuit and could not comment.