Hampton Junior College, located in Ocala, Florida, opened its doors in 1958.
It was one of eleven black community colleges which were founded, at the urging of the Florida Legislature, to show that a "Separate but equal" educational system for blacks existed in Florida; the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated by the Supreme Court's Brown v. Board of Education decision of 1954.
At the time, the closest public college that would accept negroes was Florida A&M University, 175 miles away.
[3] Its original name, Howard Junior College, was changed during its first year of operation in honor of L. R. Hampton Sr., a local dentist who had advanced black education in Marion County.
Of the 778 students during its final year, 207 enrolled at Central Florida Junior College.