FAMU unveils plaque to honor original law grads

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FAMU unveiled an engraved plaque to honor the nearly five dozen graduates of the original FAMU Law School on Friday, September 9, 2022, at the north end of the Coleman Library the site of the original law school.  The original Law School operated from 1951 until 1968.
 
The FAMU College of Law is the only one of the six HBCU law schools currently in existence that was opened, shutdown, and re-opened. 

The legislature originally established the school on December 21, 1949, the school admitted it’s fist students in 1951, because no state-supported law school existed for African Americans at the time. The school’s enrollment was limited to Black male students.   However, the law school was closed by a vote of the Florida legislature in 1965, with the funds transferred to a new law school at Florida State University. In 1966, the institution lost the right to admit students after a decision by the Florida Board of Control, and two years later, in 1968, the last students graduated.  
 
In 2000 Florida Legislature unanimously passed legislation establishing the new FAMU College of Law, in Orlando, and the College admitted its first class in the fall of 2002.  
 
“The original 57 FAMU Law graduates set extraordinary examples for generations to follow, and anyone motivated by service, including today’s Rattlers for Justice,” said President Larry Robinson, Ph.D. “This plaque memorializes them and will inspire current students to similar acts of selfless courage. This is what happens, and can happen, when we are striking in unity.”