The campaign to desegregate Florida’s universities began in 1949 when six African Americans were denied admission to the University of Florida and the NAACP sued.
Over the next nine years the case was heard in state and federal courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in 1956 that Virgil Hawkins, the only remaining petitioner, was entitled to prompt admission. Hawkins withdrew his application to resolve the case and UF desegregated on September 15, 1958, by admitting George Starke to the College of Law, then located in Bryan Hall.
W. George Allen was the first African American to graduate, with a law degree in 1962. African American undergraduates were first admitted in 1962 and Stephan Mickle was the first to receive a bachelor’s degree, in 1965.