April 4, 1968: Martin Luther King Jr. is killed helping garbage truck drivers in Tennessee.April 4, 2014, Tallahassee Democrat: “Senate approves money for FSU engineering school.”
TALLAHASSEE, Florida -- It’s ironic that, on the anniversary of the death of Martin Luther King Jr., in Tallahassee, capital of the great state of Florida, we had a major university trying to roll back the hands of time to the unequal days of Jim Crow.
At a time when the country needs to come together and show a sense of unity, one should not have to fight to hold onto small gains that were made in an attempt to begin to rectify the 400 years of unequal treatment that blacks and other minorities have been subjected to in these United States of America.
What’s appalling is that state Sen. John Thrasher states a desire to “protect Florida A&M University by separating the schools of engineering” when he knows full well that Florida will never adequately and equitably fund two schools of engineering in the city. In almost poetic fashion, juxtaposed with the picture of Thrasher holding the microphone on Page 1A was a photo of Jameis Winston holding a football. Florida State University will go to all lengths to find black football players and has no problem with the football team that is mostly African-American, but it has significant difficulty in funding an engineering program that would allow African-Americans at least the opportunity to be exposed to the same level of engineering expertise as their white counterparts.
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Joseph Webster Sr. is a physician in Tallahassee and owner of Webster Surgical Center. He also is a past president of the Florida A&M University National Alumni Association. Contact him at joeleeweb1@gmail.com . Dr. Webster is the author of this commentary.
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