Florida Board of Control - History

History

The Florida Board of Control was created by the 1905 legislation known as the Buckman Act. This legislation reorganized higher education into three institutions, segregated by race and gender, as follows:

• State Normal College for Colored Students (now known as Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University) for African Americans
• Florida State College for Women (now known as Florida State University) for Caucasian women
• University of the State of Florida (now known as the University of Florida) for Caucasian men

The gender separation aspect of the Buckman Act was overturned by the Florida Legislature in 1947 when Florida State University was returned to coeducational status and the University of Florida was made coeducational. The Legislature also felt it was a necessity to make room for the World War II veterans who wished to use the GI Bill of Rights to pursue their educational endeavors. The racial segregation aspect of the Buckman Act was overturned by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, however the University of Florida had already become fully integrated in 1958, and Florida State University followed suit in 1962. The State Normal College for Colored Students changed their name to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes in 1909, and in 1953 the name was again changed to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University.