Lincoln Junior College, located in

Fort Pierce, Florida Fort Pierce is a city in and the county seat of St. Lucie County, Florida, United States. The city is part of the Treasure Coast region of Atlantic Coast Florida. It is also known as the Sunrise City, sister to San Francisco, California, the Suns ...

, opened its doors in 1960, at the same time as Indian River Junior College (now

Indian River State College Indian River State College (IRSC) is a public college with a main campus in Fort Pierce, Florida. It is part of the Florida College System and serves the counties of Indian River, Martin, Okeechobee and St. Lucie on the Treasure Coast region ...

), restricted to white students. It was designed to serve Indian River,

Martin Martin may refer to: Places * Martin City (disambiguation) * Martin County (disambiguation) * Martin Township (disambiguation) Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Austr ...

, Okeechobee, and St. Lucie counties. It was one of eleven black community colleges which were founded, at the urging 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 Co ...

, in the late 1950s and early 1960s to show that a "

separate but equal Separate but equal was a legal doctrine in United States constitutional law, according to which racial segregation did not necessarily violate the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which nominally guaranteed "equal protec ...

" educational system for blacks existed in Florida; the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated by the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

's '' Brown v. Board of Education'' decision of 1954. At the time, there was no nearby college for Negroes, while the distances and lack of funding effectively closed off most local blacks from college. Initial classes used the facilities of the adjacent Black high school,

Lincoln Park Academy Lincoln Park Academy is a public magnet school located in Fort Pierce, Florida. Commonly referred to as simply "LPA", the school is academically geared, offering Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, dual-enrollment, and pre-engineering ...

. In 1962, a new building added classroom facilities, faculty offices, science laboratories, an administrative unit, a fine arts building, and a student union. Leroy S. Floyd, principal of Lincoln Park Academy, was selected as president of the new institution. In contrast with some of the new presidents, he had eight months to prepare for the September of 1960 opening. With one exception, that all the initial administrators and faculty were also employed in the K-12 school system in St. Lucie County prior to the College's opening. Offerings included: a college parallel program (64 semester hours) to prepare students for transfer, adult education (preparing for GED), technical offerings in brick masonry, carpentry, waitress training, and technical illustration. The adult program was a part of the evening high school program prior to the College. However, when it became part of the College, enrollment quadrupled from 115 to 446. Initial enrollment was 98 students. Peak enrollment in its final year (1964–65) was 667 students, of which 221 were in the college parallel program. In 1964–65 it became apparent that the black institution would soon be merged with Indian River Junior College; the College closed in 1966. It was planned that the Lincoln facility would remain a center of Indian River, but "local political leaders were not ready to promote integrated facilities for the college in the Black community". Uniquely among the twelve black junior colleges, all the full-time faculty became "members of the merged faculty" at Indian River. President Floyd became Dean of Students at Indian River Junior College.Smith, p. 242.

References

{{authority control Historically black universities and colleges in the United States Education in Indian River County, Florida Education in St. Lucie County, Florida 1960 establishments in Florida Education in Martin County, Florida Education in Okeechobee County, Florida Indian River State College Florida's black junior colleges Buildings and structures in St. Lucie County, Florida

See also

References