Florida Memorial University

Florida Memorial University. . , Founded 1879, Live Oak, Florida , Jacksonville, Florida, 1892-1918 , St. Augustine, Florida, 1918-1968 , Miami Gardens, Florida, 1968-Present, Students of Florida Normal and Industrial Memorial College, in the early 1960s (soon to be Florida Memorial College, year 1963), provided the initial and necessary spark to the local civil rights bonfire in pursuit of human equality. Through their determined will to make the difference in the movement, en masse, and uniquely guided by Dr. Homer Nicholson, faculty advisor to the campus chapter of the N.A.A.C.P., they left the tranquility of 'moss-hung trees' and the security of the Abraham Lincoln Lewis Archway. The difference they sought was evidenced locally, and through the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, nationally., Supported by. Mrs. Glennette Tilley Turner, in memory of her father, the Reverend John Lee Tilley, President of F.N.I.M.C. from 1944-1949, during whose tenure the first four-year class was graduated. Rev. Tilley is commemorated for a life spent appropriately reflective of a civil rights icon.