 Since racial integration in schools was prohibited by the Florida Constitution of 1885 then in effect, the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated in the unanimous "Brown v. Board of Education" Supreme Court decision of 1954 by demonstrating that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.Like most of the new junior colleges, it met at first in the facilities of a black high school, in this case Rosenwald High School, a Rosenwald School at 624 Bay Street (now Avenue).The school was named for Julius Rosenwald, a Jewish philanthropist who funded many schools for blacks in the Southern United States.