Chuck Hobbs: Analysis of Potential Litigation Regarding the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering

Charles E. "Chuck" Hobbs II, Esq.

Chuck Hobbs is a trial lawyer and award winning freelance writer. A Tallahassee native, Hobbs is a graduate of Morehouse College, Florida A&M University and the University of Florida College of Law.

TALLAHASSEE, Florida  --  Hobbs’ Tuesday Talking Points (Analyzing the Pending Legal Battle over the FAMU-FSU College of Engineering Split).

As a Florida native, I have always considered it odd when people that I have encountered from other regions of the country have insisted that Florida, while geographically southern, is not similar to its “Bible Belt” southern brethren as far as culture and customs are concerned. Such observations stem from the fact that since the early 70’s, Florida has become a tourist attraction due to Disney World and many of its other theme parks and with the upswing in immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean over the past 50 years, the image of Florida as something other than its Confederate and Jim Crow past is a direct result of savvy marketing.

But make no mistake, Florida is the “south,” and like the more infamous states of Alabama, Arkansas and Mississippi, states in which federal troops had to be dispatched to foster integration in the years following the United States Supreme Court’s Brown vs Board of Education decision, Florida, too, was defiant— if not slow as molasses—with respect to complying with the US Supreme Court’s mandate that its schools desegregate “with all deliberate speed.”

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