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 con ...

, 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 Co ...

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 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 culture ...

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

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public university, 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 e ...

) for Caucasian women; * the State Normal and Industrial College for Colored Students (the present Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University) 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 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 of ...

. 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

veterans who wished to use the G.I. Bill 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 United States Supreme Court case that prohibited racial segregation in state supported graduate or professional education.. The unanimous decision was delivered on the s ...

'' and '' Brown v. Board of Education'' decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court. Buckman was also instrumental in establishing a state road system in Florida and developing the St. Johns River channel.

Honors

Buckman Hall 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 Florid ...

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 th ...

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