Florida Memorial University
|
Former names
|
Florida Baptist Institute Florida Baptist Academy Florida Normal and Industrial Institute Florida Normal and Industrial Memorial College Florida Memorial College |
|---|---|
| Motto | Leadership, Character, Service |
| Type | Private |
| Established | 1879 |
| Affiliation | American Baptist Churches USA & National Baptist Convention |
| Endowment | $9.76 million |
| President | Dr. Roslyn Artis |
| Students | 1,800 |
| Location |
Miami Gardens, Florida, United States 25°55′05″N 80°16′14″W / 25.9181747°N 80.2704621°WCoordinates: 25°55′05″N 80°16′14″W / 25.9181747°N 80.2704621°W |
| Campus | Urban, 44 acres |
| Colors |
Royal Blue & Orange |
| Athletics | NAIA |
| Sports | Basketball Cross Country Track & Field Volleyball Baseball |
| Nickname | FloMo |
| Mascot | Fighting Lions |
| Affiliations | Florida Sun Conference |
| Website | www.fmuniv.edu |
Florida Memorial University is a private coeducational four-year university in Miami Gardens, Florida. One of the 39 member institutions of the United Negro College Fund, it is a historically Black, Baptist-related institution which is ranked second in Florida and ninth in the United States for graduating African-American teachers.
One of the oldest academic centers in Florida, the university was founded in 1879 as the Florida Baptist Institute in Live Oak, Florida. Soon after, the American Baptist Home Mission Society gave its full support and the first regular school year began in 1880. The Reverend J. L. A. Fish was its first president. Despite a promising start, racial tensions soon cast a shadow over the Institute. In April 1892, after unknown persons fired shots into one of the school’s buildings, then-President Rev. Matthew Gilbert and other staff members fled Live Oak for Jacksonville, where he founded the Florida Baptist Academy in the basement of Bethel Baptist Church. They began holding classes in May 1892, with Sarah Ann Blocker as the main instructor. The school in Live Oak, however, continued to operate even after this splintering.
Nathan W. Collier, President of Florida Baptist Institute, and Sarah Ann Blocker, of Florida Baptist Academy, combined the two institutions to found Florida Normal and Technical Institute in 1896. Collier was president of the college from 1896-1941, and Blocker Dean of Women and Vice-President from 1896 to 1944. It was there that two brothers, James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamond Johnson (faculty member), wrote the words and music to "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing" (known as the "Negro National Anthem"), in 1900.
Florida Normal and Industrial Institute moved to St. Augustine in 1918 on part of a 110-acre (0.45 km2) tract of land known as "Old Homes Plantation", formerly one of the largest slave plantations in Florida. In 1941, the Live Oak and St. Augustine institutions merged, changing their limited offerings from a junior college classification to a four-year liberal arts institution which graduated its first four-year class in 1945. Its name was changed in 1950 to Florida Normal and Industrial Memorial College. In 1963, the charter was again amended to change the name to Florida Memorial College. Believing itself unwelcome in St. Augustine after race-related violence (see St. Augustine movement), the College bought a tract of land in what was then rural Dade County in 1965. In 1968, the college relocated to its present site (now "northwest Miami") and by 1972 graduated its first class at the Miami site. Florida Memorial College celebrated its 100th anniversary in 1979 and began a series of expansion projects on the 44-acre (180,000 m2) site.
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