Rosenwald Junior College, located in Panama City, Florida, opened its doors in 1958.
It was one of eleven black junior colleges founded in the late 1950s at the initiative of the Florida Legislature.
Since racial integration in schools was prohibited by the Florida Constitution of 1885 then in effect, the Legislature wished to avoid the integration mandated in the unanimous Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision of 1954 by demonstrating that a "separate but equal" higher education system existed in Florida for African Americans.
[4] According to him, "we never really had adequate facilities, nor did we have the kind of seed money we needed to get full-time faculty.
"[9] When the college was merged, only one faculty member obtained a job at GCJC.