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Escambia County is the westernmost and oldest county in the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 321,905. The county seat and largest city is Pensacola. Escambia County is included within the Pensacola Metropolitan Statistical Area. The county population has steadily increased as the City of Pensacola and its surrounding bedroom communities continue to grow with residential and commercial development. The county is part of the Northwest Florida region of the state.
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Carver Junior College, in Cocoa, Florida, was established by the Brevard County Board of Public Instruction in 1960 to serve black students, at the same time that it founded Brevard Junior College, now Eastern Florida State College, for white students. It was named for the black agricultural researcher George Washington Carver. Like 10 of Florida's other 11 black junior colleges, it was founded as a result of a 1957 decision by the Florida Legislature to preserve racial segregation in education, mandated under the 1885 Constitution that was in effect until 1968. More specifically, the Legislature wanted to show, in response to the unanimous Supreme Court decision mandating school integration, that the older standard of "separate but equal" educational facilities was still viable in Florida. Prior to this legislative initiative, the only publicly funded colleges for negro or colored students were Florida A&M University, in Tallahassee, and Booker T. Washington Junior College, in Pensacola.
Hampton Junior College, located in Ocala, Florida, opened its doors in 1958. It was one of eleven black community colleges which were founded, at the urging of the Florida Legislature, to show that a "Separate but equal" educational system for blacks existed in Florida; the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. At the time, the closest public college that would accept negroes was Florida A&M University, 175 miles away.
Rosenwald Junior College, located in Panama City, Florida, opened its doors in 1958. It was one of eleven black junior colleges founded in the late 1950s at the initiative of the Florida Legislature. Since racial integration in schools was prohibited by the Florida Constitution of 1885 then in effect, the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated in the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 by demonstrating that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.
Volusia County Junior College, located at 875 Second Avenue in Daytona Beach, Florida, opened its doors in 1958. It was one of twelve black junior colleges founded in the late 1950s at the initiative of the Florida Legislature. Since racial integration in schools was prohibited in the Florida Constitution of 1885 then in effect, the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated in the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 by demonstrating that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.
Collier-Blocker Junior College, located at 1100 N. 19th Street in Palatka, Florida, opened its doors in 1960. It was one of eleven black junior colleges founded in the late 1950s at the initiative of the Florida Legislature. The Florida Constitution of 1885 had established legal racial segregation in schools and other facilities. But the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 ruled that segregated facilities were unconstitutional. The legislature founded new junior colleges to add access to the segregated higher education system in the state. They wanted to demonstrate that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.
Johnson Junior College, located at 1200 N. Beecher St. in Leesburg, Florida, opened its doors in 1962 for black students at the same time as Lake-Sumter Junior College for white students. It was designed to serve Lake and Sumter Counties. It was one of eleven black community colleges which were founded, at the urging of the Florida Legislature, in the late 1950s and early 1960s to show that a "separate but equal" educational system for blacks existed in Florida; the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954. At the time, there was no nearby college for Negroes, and the distances and lack of funding effectively closed off most local Blacks from college.
References
- ↑ McCarthy, Kevin M. (2007). African American Sites in Florida. Pineapple Press Inc. ISBN 978-1-56164-385-1.
- ↑ Kenneth D. Yglesias, "The Magnificent Twelve: Florida's Black Junior Colleges", Diverse Issues In Higher Education", June 23, 2007, http://diverseeducstion.com/article/7742/%5B%5D, consulted August 11, 2015.
- ↑ "College History", http://www.pensacolastate.edu/college-history, consulted August 11, 2015.
- ↑ Arden Moore, "Book Examines Florida's Forgotten Black Junior Colleges," Sun-Sentinel , September 10, 1994, , retrieved August 10, 2015.
- ↑ McCarthy, p. 67.