The struggle to open and reopen FAMU’s College of Law was tougher than most of us know. The story transcends being relevant during Black History Month or even Women’s History month and is one that resonates, instilling pride 365 days a year. Location, funding, a biased legislature, racism within Florida courts became roadblocks in opening the law school which was taken by Florida State University, ironically as a result of integration. Similar circumstances plagued the re-opening of FAMU’s Law School and the battle behind the figures who made it happen was just as fiery as it was the first time.
When white institutions of higher learning wouldn’t educate black students, Florida A&M University not only did it, they did it with excellence and caring. In the early 1900’s, black students were not to be educated with white students. The University of Florida was one school that fought tirelessly to keep from accepting black students. Florida law even specified that the University of Florida were to admit only white males. That law was called the Buckman Act. Today, on the campus of the University of Florida, Buckman Drive and Buckman Hall are named after Henry Holland Buckman, the author of this Act, to segregate black and white students.
Years later, cases like Brown v. The Board of Education, Pearson v. Murray as well as bills passed to reaffirm integration nationally, Florida still resisted the rulings basing the state’s decision to utilize their power to act independently from the nation when it came to segregation.
Southern universities defended their position based on the rules they created of not accepting blacks to a white university or college stating it was because of Florida’s constitution. Described as seemingly proud to be on the wrong side of history, one of the supporters of this discriminatory excuse and practice was Bonnie Kaslow Roberts, (B.K. Roberts), who sat on the Florida Supreme Court. For his contributions, FSU proudly named their college of law after B.K. Roberts which is still its current name.
After a long hard fight to open the law school, FSU was able to take the school after a political and economic battle citing integration as the reason for taking the school. What FSU didn’t know nor could gauge, was the determination behind the leaders to not only demand the school be returned but to actually take it back.
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Dr. Reginald Mitchell, a graduate of FAMU High and undergraduate of FAMU, is now the Director of Academic Success and Bar Preparation at FAMU’s College of Law in Orlando. In college, Mitchell met the University’s President, who was Dr. Frederick Humphries at the time, and the General Counsel who inspired and recruited him to get involved in the process to take FAMU’s law school back. Young Mitchell possessed the guts and the fiery qualities to help Dr. Humphries and a host of others walk the path of the long sought road to victory.
So how did southern blacks start to get an education in law if no white schools would educate them nor could black schools gain support to open their doors? The answer is, Thurgood Marshall, Charles Hamilton Houston and others who were brilliant in law shared their knowledge to other blacks. “Some of the brightest minds, objectively, of the Ivy League was spoon-feeding legal education to its graduates,” said Dr. Mitchell.
Getting the initial law school and reopening it in Orlando, had significant twists and turns that played out like an energetic, blockbuster movie. In other words, this story hasn’t even started to unfold. Part two of this story will run next week.
