In 1909, the name of the college was once again changed, to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, and in 1953 the name was finally changed to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. This same act is responsible for the creation of the University of Florida and Florida State University from their previous institutions. However, it was not an official institution of higher learning until the 1905 Buckman Act, which transferred control from the Department of Education to the Board of Control, creating what was the foundation for the modern Florida A&M University. On October 3, 1887, the State Normal College for Colored Students began classes, and became a land-grant college four years later when it received $7,500 under the Second Morrill Act, and its name was changed to State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students. (See Tallahassee's black history.) The site of the university is the 375-acre slave plantation : 94 of Florida governor William Pope Duval, whose mansion, today the site of the Carnegie Library, burned in 1905. The college was located in Tallahassee because Leon County and adjacent counties led the state in African-American population, reflecting Tallahassee's former status as the center of Florida's slave trade. The date also reflects the new Florida Constitution of 1885, which prohibited racial integration in schools. Gibbs first introduced legislation to create the State Normal College for Colored Students in 1885, one year after being elected to the Florida Legislature.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |