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Higher Education

Higher education has long been a crown jewel of Florida’s Capital City. Florida State University (FSU) had its early beginning in 1823 when the Territorial Legislature began to plan a higher education system. During the Civil War, cadets from the school, ranging in age from twelve to eighteen, fought in the Battle of Natural Bridge and helped make Tallahassee the only Confederate capitol east of the Mississippi not captured during the war. In 1905 it became Florida State College for Women and became Florida State University, again co-ed, in 1947. FSU is now one of the largest and oldest of the eleven institutions of higher learning in the State University System of Florida.

Established in 1887 as the Florida State Normal College for Colored Students, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) is the oldest historically black public university in Florida. On October 3, 1887, it began classes with fifteen students and two instructors. Today, FAMU, as it has become affectionately known, is the premiere school among historically black colleges and universities. Prominently located on the highest hill in Florida’s capital city of Tallahassee, Florida A&M University remains the only historically black university in the eleven member State University System of Florida.