Opinion
August 1, 1950.
Alex Akerman, Jr., Orlando, for relator.
Richard W. Ervin, Attorney General, and Frank J. Heintz, Assistant Attorney General, for respondents.
The relator, Oliver R. Maxey, is a Negro citizen and resident of the State of Florida. Except as to the matter of race and color, he possesses all the scholastic, moral and other qualifications, prescribed by the laws of Florida and the rules and regulations of the State Board of Control for admission to the University of Florida, a state supported institution of higher learning maintained exclusively for white students.
In April 1949 Maxey applied for admission to the University of Florida for the purpose of studying chemical engineering. His application was denied on the sole ground that he was a member of the Negro race. Maxey thereupon instituted this mandamus action, alleging the matters above set forth, averring that the University of Florida is the only tax-supported university in the State at which courses of chemical engineering are offered, and charging that the refusal of the governing authorities to admit him solely because he was a Negro constituted an arbitrary and illegal denial of the equal protection of the laws guaranteed him by the Fourteenth Amendment to the Federal Constitution.
In due course the members of the Board of Control filed their return to the alternative writ issued in the cause. In their return the Board set up the same defenses as were filed by the Board of Control in State ex rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, Fla., 47 So.2d 608, and offered to the relator, Maxey, the same opportunities in respect to courses in chemical engineering as were made available to the relator in that case with reference to law school training; that is to say, offered him the opportunity to secure instruction in chemical engineering at a university or college outside the State of Florida, where Negro students are eligible for admission, and as an alternative, offered to enroll him at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes, in the college of chemical engineering recently established by the Board at that Institution and to make temporary provision for his instruction in the College of Engineering at the University of Florida, in the event the necessary facilities, equipment and personnel for said course of study should not be immediately available at the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College for Negroes at the time of his enrollment.
A motion has been made for the issuance of a peremptory writ notwithstanding the return filed by the respondents, on the ground that the opportunities offered to the relator do not afford him the equal protection of the laws guaranteed by the Federal Constitution.
Every question raised by the parties in this suit has been considered and decided by this Court in State ex rel. Hawkins v. Board of Control, supra, and hence it follows that the opinion and judgment rendered in that cause should control the disposition that should be made of the case at bar.
ADAMS, C.J., and TERRELL, CHAPMAN, THOMAS, HOBSON and ROBERTS, JJ., concur.