FAMU Culture in the Archive
In 1884 Thomas Van Renssaler Gibbs was elected to the Florida State Legislature. Unfortunately, his political was cut short due to racism; but while in office he was able to help in making sure House Bill 133 was passed. This bill established a white normal school in Gainesville, Florida and colored normal school in Jacksonville, Florida. The colored normal school was relocated to Tallahassee, Florida. On October 3, 1887 the State Normal College for Colored Students in Tallahassee, Florida on the Highest of Seven Hills.
The first president of the school was Thomas DeSaille Tucker he served as president from 1887 to 1901. He was born in Africa and attended an American missionary school until he was 12 years old when an American missionary brought him to the United States. After attending Oberlin College and receiving a Bachelors of Arts, he became a teacher and taught at a school for emancipated slaves at Fortress Monroe in Hampton, Virginia. He later went on to attend law school at Straight University; after being admitted to the Florida Bar, he opened up his own practice in Pensacola, Florida.
In 1905 the school officially became an institution of higher education. A few years later in 1909, the name was changed from State Normal College for Colored Students to Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes or FAMC for short. In 1910 there were 317 enrolled. During this year the college awarded its first degrees. After a fire that destroyed the main building the school was given a donation of $10,000 by Andrew Carnegie to build a new library. FAMC was the only land grant institution to have a Carnegie Library on its campus.
The school experienced exponential growth under its next three presidents. President Nathan B. Young served from 1901-1923 and under his administration FAMC became a four-year degree-granting institution. The degrees were Bachelor of Science in Education, Science, Home Economics, Agriculture, and Mechanical Arts. Under President John Robert Edward Lee, Sr. (1924-1944), more land was purchased so more buildings could be constructed. This is when the college began to look like what it presently looks like. During this time, more courses were added to the curriculum and they received their accreditation from various state agencies. Under President William H. Gray, Jr. (1944-1949) the campus, staff, and enrollment grew. There were 812 students, 122 staff members, 48 buildings, and 396 acres of land. While under his administration the college also gained its Army ROTC unit, and enrollment got up to over 2,000 students. Under President Dr. George W. Gore (1950-1968) the school acquired the Schools of Pharmacy, Law, Nursing, and Graduate Studies. In 1953 FAMC became Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University. Today, FAMU is the only public HBCU in the state of Florida and the only HBCU to be a member of the Florida State University System.
In the years to come FAMU acquired sports programs, a Navy ROTC unit, more on campus housing, and facilities to house the different colleges. During the 50s and 60s FAMU students and the city of Tallahassee played an important role in the civil rights movement. The first bus boycott actually happened in the city of Tallahassee and was organized by FAMU students. School administrators tried to discourage students and faculty from participating in marches and protests because they were afraid of the state would retaliate against them. Today, FAMU is the number one public HBCU in the nation and continues to live up to its motto, “excellence with caring”
Knowing this information makes searching for specific people and topics in THMDA much easier.
FAMU has produced many leaders in sports, politics, the arts, academia, and many more disciplines.
The one in particular that interests me is sports. I have played tennis for my entire life and am currently going into my fifth year on the FAMU Women’s Tennis Team. One of FAMU;s most famous and well-known alumni, Althea Gibson also played for the FAMU Women’s Tennis Team. She also played on the basketball team. Althea Gibson was the first female African American professional tennis player. She won five grand slam titles and holds a total of 11 titles across singles, doubles, and mixed doubles. Althea Gibson was the Jackie Robinson of tennis. By that, I mean that she was responsible for breaking color barriers at the French Open, Wimbledon, The Grass Court Championships, and many other national and international tournaments. Unfortunately Althea herself, is not in the archive, but the author of her autobiography Yanick Rice-Lamb is. In the archive there are people from different backgrounds talking about looking up to her as a role model, watching her play, and meeting her as a famous athlete.
The next two FAMU HistoryMakers i researched was the legendary Dr. Frederick Humphries and William Foster. Dr. Humphries was one of FAMU’s best presidents and William Foster was the director of The Incomparable Marching 100.
Under Dr. Humphries’ administration, FAMU was awarded College of the Year under his administration. Unfortunately, he recently passed away. During his time as president at FAMU he created SEVERAL programs to get more African Americans involved in in what we call STEM degree programs today. He also created the Graduate Feeder program. Graduate Feeder is currently what almost all students use to get matched to various graduate programs across the country across all disciplines. While Dr. Humphries implemented great programs and is credited with a lot of FAMU’s success and notoriety today when he became president in 1985, he inherited a mess. In one of his clips he mentions the money and enrollment problems FAMU was having when he got there. The quality of test scores of the incoming freshman class was poor, the faculty morale was low, athletics was in a deficit (an issue we still deal with today in 2021), and a complete lack of structural organization. The biggest college on campus was and still is the college I proudly graduated from, The College of Social Sciences, Arts, and Humanities (CSSAH). This is the college that had the most issues due to how it was decided; he simply reorganized it back into departments instead of having multiple divisions. He also noted that athletics was in a deficit because they stopped playing two of their largest revenue games; Bethune-Cookman and Tennessee State. He put those two games back on the schedule and was able to balance the budget. The next problem he addressed was the enrolment issue. He decided to recruit students to university by having a recruiting team centered around athletics. This is something he did at Tennessee State while he was president and it worked. He held football games in cities that high populations of black people. The next problem he addressed was admissions. FAMU did not have any admission requirements prior to his arrival so he changed that in order to increase the quality of students. Because of Dr. Humphries’ hard work and dedication to improving FAMU, FAMU was awarded College of the Year by TIME Magazine Princeton Review. This was a major accomplishment for FAMU and HBCUs everywhere. FAMU wasn’t voted HBCU of the year, they were voted College of the year. That means they beat out all the ivy leagues, other major research universities, and the schools with huge athletic programs.
