Henry Holland Buckman (1858–1914) was an attorney from

Duval County, Florida Duval County is in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Florida. As of the 2020 census, the population was 995,567, up from 864,263 in 2010. Its county seat is Jacksonville, Florida, with which the Duval County government has been conso ...

, who became a member of the

Florida Legislature The Florida Legislature is the legislature of the U.S. State of Florida. It is organized as a bicameral body composed of an upper chamber, the Senate, and a lower chamber, the House of Representatives. Article III, Section 1 of the Florida Cons ...

and served on the Judiciary Committee. Buckman is known for being the author of the Buckman Act, a 1905 law that reorganized higher education into three institutions, segregated by

race Race, RACE or "The Race" may refer to: * Race (biology), an informal taxonomic classification within a species, generally within a sub-species * Race (human categorization), classification of humans into groups based on physical traits, and/or s ...

and

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

, as follows: * the Florida Female College (the present

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

) for

Caucasian Caucasian may refer to: Anthropology *Anything from the Caucasus region ** ** ** ''Caucasian Exarchate'' (1917–1920), an ecclesiastical exarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church in the Caucasus region * * * Languages * Northwest Caucasian l ...

women; * the State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students (the present

Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the Un ...

) for

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

men and women; and * the University of the State of Florida (the present

University of Florida The University of Florida (Florida or UF) is a public land-grant research university in Gainesville, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida, traces its origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its ...

) for Caucasian men. The Buckman Act also created the

Florida Board of Control The Florida Board of Control (1905-1965) was the statewide governing body for the State University System of Florida, which included all public universities in the state of Florida. It was replaced by the Florida Board of Regents in 1965.

, the state-wide governing body for Florida's universities and colleges, and the predecessor of today's

Florida Board of Governors The Florida Board of Governors is a 17-member governing board that serves as the governing body for the State University System of Florida, which includes all public universities in the state of Florida. After its predecessor, the Florida Board ...

. The gender separation aspect of the Buckman Act was later reversed by the

in 1947, when Florida State University and the University of Florida began to enroll both men and women. The legislature was compelled to expand the available capacity of both institutions to make room for the

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

veterans who wished to use the

G.I. Bill The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, commonly known as the G.I. Bill, was a law that provided a range of benefits for some of the returning World War II veterans (commonly referred to as G.I.s). The original G.I. Bill expired in 1956, bu ...

to pursue university educations. The racial segregation aspect of the Buckman Act was undone by the ''

McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents __NOTOC__ ''McLaurin v. Oklahoma State Regents'', 339 U.S. 637 (1950), was a Supreme Court of the United States, United States Supreme Court case that prohibited racial segregation in state supported graduate or professional education.. The unani ...

'' and ''

Brown v. Board of Education ''Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka'', 347 U.S. 483 (1954), was a landmark decision by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled that U.S. state laws establishing racial segregation in public schools are unconstitutional, even if the segregat ...

'' decisions of the

U.S. Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

. Buckman was also instrumental in establishing a state road system in Florida and developing the St. Johns River channel.

Honors

Buckman Hall Buckman Hall is a historic building located in Murphree Area on the University of Florida campus in Gainesville, Florida, United States. It was designed by architect William A. Edwards in the Collegiate Gothic style and opened in 1906 as one of ...

at the

, and the

Buckman Bridge The Henry Holland Buckman Bridge carries I-295 West Beltway traffic over the St. Johns River in Jacksonville, Florida. It was named for Henry Holland Buckman, a prominent legislator and attorney who was instrumental in establishing the Florida ...

Jacksonville, Florida Jacksonville is a city located on the Atlantic coast of northeast Florida, the most populous city proper in the state and is the largest city by area in the contiguous United States as of 2020. It is the seat of Duval County, with which the ...

are both named for Representative Buckman. The ''Henry H. Buckman Lock'' is part of the

Cross Florida Barge Canal The Marjorie Harris Carr Cross Florida Greenway is a protected green belt corridor, more than one and a half miles (1.6 km) wide in places, that was the former route of the proposed Cross Florida Barge Canal. It is named for the leader o ...

project, also named in honor of Buckman.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Buckman, Henry 1858 births Florida lawyers 1914 deaths People from Jacksonville, Florida Members of the Florida House of Representatives 19th-century American politicians 19th-century American lawyers