This is a brief look at how the press reported on how racial desegregation of Florida’s only public historically black university impacted the Florida A&M University. Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (Florida A&M University/FAMU) is a public land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida and was founded on October 3, 1887.
In 1884, Thomas Van Renssaler Gibbs, a Duval County, FL educator, was elected to the Florida legislature. Although his political career ended abruptly because of the resurgence of racial segregation, Representative Gibbs was successful in orchestrating the passage of House Bill 133 in 1884. This bill established a white normal school in Gainesville and a school for African Americans in Jacksonville. The bill passed, creating both institutions; however, the state decided to relocate the school for African Americans to Tallahassee.
In 1891, the College received $7,500 under the Second Morrill Act for agricultural and mechanical arts education. The State Normal College for Colored Students became Florida’s land grant institution for African Americans, and its name was changed to the State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students.
In 1905, management of the College was transferred from the Board of Education to the Board of Control. This significant event officially designated the College as an institution of higher education.
In 1909 the name was changed from The State Normal College for Colored Students to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes (FAMC). The following year, with an enrollment of 317 students, the college awarded its first degrees.
The Florida legislature elevated the College to university status, and in 1953, Florida A&M College became Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case in which the justices ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Brown v. Board of Education was one of the cornerstones of the civil rights movement, and helped establish the precedent that “separate-but-equal” education and other services were not, in fact, equal at all.
Here are some noted activities impacting Florida A&M University from the 1960s to the early 1980s.
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