Suwannee River Junior College

History of the Suwannee River Junior College in Madison, Florida

Suwannee River Junior College opened in Madison, Florida, in 1959 as one of eleven Black junior colleges established across the state during the late 1950s. The Florida Legislature established these institutions to uphold the “separate but equal” doctrine in higher education, aiming to avoid the school integration mandated by the U.S. Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision. At the time, Florida’s 1885 Constitution still prohibited racial integration in public schools.

The college was founded alongside North Florida Junior College, today North Florida College, which was reserved for white students. Suwannee River Junior College drew financial support from five counties: Madison, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lafayette, and Taylor.

James J. Gardner, Founder and Educator

In 1959, James J. Gardener, then principal of Williston Vocational High School in Williston, Florida, organized and became the founding president of Suwannee River Junior College. He reported for duty in June, just two months before the college opened its first classes.

Gardner was born in Georgetown, South Carolina, and attended the public schools in Bartow, Florida. He attended Edward Waters Junior College in Jacksonville and received a bachelor’s degree in social sciences and elementary education from Florida A&M. He later received a master’s degree in administration and supervision from that university.

He began his career as a teacher at Williston Vocational High School before joining the U.S. Army, where he spent 28 months interviewing and testing recruits. After returning from duty, he served as s teacher and principal of Bronson Elementary School in Bronson, Florida. In 1947, he became of Williston Vocational High School. He was also president of the Florida State Teachers Association.

Gardener resigned as president of Suwannee River Junior College in 1961 and took a position as Dean of Students at the segregated Branch Campus of Broward College located at Dillard High School in Fort Lauderdale. Jenyethel Merritt succeeded him, becoming the first woman to serve as president within Florida’s community college system.

School Curriculum

The college’s curriculum was designed primarily for students planning to transfer to Florida A&M University in Tallahassee. Over the years, the program remained largely unchanged, with the notable addition of a Secretarial Science program. Enrollment began with 90 students in the first year and steadily grew: 170 students in 1960–61, 234 in 1961–62, and reaching a peak of 402 students in 1964–65.

Campus life offered a wide range of extracurricular activities. Students participated in basketball, the annual May Day festival, and pageants such as Miss Suwannee River Junior College. They also enjoyed benefit recitals, homecoming celebrations, art exhibits, musical performances, the Alligator yearbook, and even a student-run newspaper. The school also had a debate team, which made the Tampa Bay Times newspapers in May 1962 when they went against Gibbs Junior College, another segregated all-Black school.

Like many of Florida’s Black junior colleges, it shared the site with an existing Black high school, Madison County Training School, a Rosenwald school founded in the 1920s. During its first year, classes met in the high school facilities during late afternoons and evenings. A dedicated classroom building opened in 1960, followed by a second unit with a shared library and administrative offices in 1963, and a shared gymnasium in 1965.

Closure and Merging

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 signaled the end of the state’s segregated junior colleges. The State Junior College Board issued a warning to four Black junior colleges in North Florida, indicating that they must make “improvements” to avoid losing their accreditation. However, the specific “improvements” required were not made public. The colleges affected were Rosenwald Junior College in Panama City, Jackson Junior College in Marianna, Hampton Junior College in Ocala, and Suwannee River Junior College.

In December 1965, midway through the school year, the Madison County Board of Public Instruction announced that 1965–66 would be Suwannee River Junior College’s final year. When the school closed in 1966, all but two faculty members transferred to the formerly all-white North Florida Junior College. Fewer than fifty Black students made the same move, and many in the Black community felt a loss of belonging. As in other Florida communities, Black educational facilities were shuttered while white institutions experienced minimal disruption.

The other junior colleges that received warnings, Rosenwald Junior College, Hampton Junior College, and Jackson Junior College, also closed in 1966 and were merged with all-white junior colleges in their respective cities, although such as it was at Suwannee River, many students and faculty didn’t make the move, but for other reasons. In contrast with other Florida black junior colleges, students were not given “a transition opportunity” to complete their studies at Chipola Junior College in Marianna. In Panama City, according to Ivie Burch, an administrator, “There was no transition, just closure of Rosenwald.”

After desegregation, the Madison County Training School operated until 1967, when the site briefly became Suwannee River High School and then Madison Middle School, ultimately closing in 2001. Superintendent Edwin Browning emphasized the district’s responsibility to construct a modern facility, stating, “The Negro citizenry of Madison has manifested the very highest type of cooperation, understanding, and general behavior with a willingness on our part to do that which is just and fair.” The former junior college remains vacant to this day.

Historical Significance

In 2012, the Madison County Board of Commissioners and the Florida Department of State erected a historical marker on what is now Martin Luther King Jr. Drive to commemorate the college. The marker highlights the important role of Florida’s twelve all-Black junior colleges in expanding access to higher education for Black Floridians during segregation and notes Jenyethel Merritt’s pioneering role as the state’s first female college president. The text on the marker reads:

“Florida’s modern community college system partially owes it development to a statewide system of 12 all-black junior colleges that developed a parallel to a system of white junior colleges during the era of segregation. These institutions were very important for a generation of black Floridians whose access to higher education was limited because of segregation and economic hurdles. Established in 1959, Suwannee River Junior College (SRJC) provided the black residents of north Florida and south Georgia with post-secondary level educational and cultural enrichment opportunities. Like most other black community college institutions founded in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the college had a short life span, lasting only seven years. The Suwannee River Junior College is the first college of any in Florida to have a female president. Jenyethel Merritt, a fixture in the local educational establishment, served as president of SRJC for five of the college’s seven years. The college closed its doors in 1966, merging with formerly all-white North Florida Junior College.”

Fifty years after the college’s closure, North Florida Community College (now North Florida College) honored Suwannee River Junior College with a series of commemorative events in 2016. These included an exhibit of yearbooks and memorabilia in the college library, installation of plaques from the original campus, a campus-wide challenge to locate the plaques, the creation of the Jenyethel Merritt Award for Civic Service, and plans for an alumni reunion.

In April 2025, it was announced that the Madison County Recreation Association, led by Madison County Commissioner Ronnie Moore, had purchased the former school with plans for revitalization. The project will include vocational training programs, daycare services for underserved families, and a cultural museum. The planners aim to honor the rich history of the community.

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