Arriving in Gainesville to desegregate the University of Florida 60 years ago is still a fresh memory to George Starke Jr.
“You have to ask ‘Where did the time go?’” said Starke, 87, speaking to a crowd Wednesday of about 200 current and former University of Florida Levin College of Law students and other UF students, parents, faculty and staff and local residents attending “An Event to Remember: Commemorating 60 Years of Desegregation at UF” that was held in the Chesterfield Smith Ceremonial Classroom at the Levin College of Law on the UF campus.
“It seems like yesterday and not yesteryear,” said Starke, who became the first African American admitted into UF in 1958 as part of that year's law school freshman class.
Starke was the guest speaker at the event, and talked for about 10 minutes about his experience at UF, which he left without graduating after three semesters in the law school. He arrived at UF on Sept. 15, 1958, during a time when Jim Crow laws were a way of life in America and African Americans attempting to be the first to integrate all-white institutions were met with harsh violence. However, Starke said he didn’t experience any violent acts directed toward him during his time at UF.
“Being here was like the quiet in the midst of a storm,” Starke said.
The leadership of then Florida Gov. Leroy Collins and J. Wayne Reitz, president of UF at the time, is why Starke believes he was never physically harmed while at UF. Their leadership “permeated” through to all those who were responsible for his well-being, Starke said.
After receiving police escorts to class during his first few weeks at the law school, Starke said he received undercover protection from state troopers. He said he noticed one day while standing in line for something that an older gentleman was standing in line also.
“Why is this guy so old,” Starke said he thought to himself.
The undercover state troopers also stood outside the library while Starke studied at night with his close friend, Fredric Levin, for whom the law school is now named. Also, an Alachua County Sheriff’s Office deputy parked nightly in a car dealership near where he lived off campus with a relative close to Chestnut Funeral home off Northwest Eighth Avenue to make sure he got home safely, Starke said.
State troopers also infiltrated the Ku Klux Klan and learned of a plot to shoot Starke if he travelled through the Ocala National Forest while on his way home to visit his family in Sanford near Orlando.
“They said I might be mistaken for a dear,” said Starke, who after dropping out of law school went on to a successful 40-year career in finance as a mortgage broker, investment banker and energy consultant.
Current and former UF students and administrators also spoke at the event.
Ana Mata, president of Students Taking Action Against Racism (STARR), praised the university for making progress with diversity on campus in the past six decades.
She said the pictures on the wall of the Student Hall of Fame in the Reitz Union starts off with white men only, but includes women and people of color as the decades go by. Mata, like the other students who spoke, thanked Starke and the late Virgil Hawkins for leading the way in opening up opportunities for minorities to have access to an education at UF.
Hawkins in 1949 began a court fight to gain admittance to UF's law school under the constitutional Equal Protection Clause. Between 1948 and 1956, 85 African-American students were denied admittance to UF. Hawkins dropped his case in the Florida Supreme Court in 1958 and withdrew his application in exchange for Starke's admittance.
“The fight for justice isn’t over yet,” Mata said. “There is still much work to be done.”
Akil Reynolds, president of the Black Student Union at UF, said a great debt of gratitude is owed to Hawkins, Starke and others who paved the way for future generations of African Americans to attend UF.
“It’s our duty to honor their legacy and I’m grateful to follow in the footsteps they have created,” Reynolds said. “I can’t thank you enough for all you have done and endured to create opportunities for others.”
Laura Rosenbury, dean of the Levin College of Law, said Starke’s contribution to UF will never be forgotten or downplayed.
“Mr. Starke blazed a trail that our students still follow today,” Rosenbury said. “He’s given back to the university that so fundamentally disrespected him.”
Diedre Houchen, a postdoctoral associate for the Center for the Study of Race and Race Relations at UF, was the lead exhibit curator for "Black Educators: Florida's Secret Social Justice Advocates (1920-1960)," which is being presented on the second floor of George A. Smathers Library through Dec. 18. The exhibit examines how black educators in Gainesville and around the state advanced social justice in the four decades before Starke was admitted at UF. Starke's story is part of the exhibit.
Houchen encourages the public to visit that exhibit, as well as “The Legacy of Virgil Hawkins: The Struggle for Equality at the University of Florida,” which will be on display at the Lawton Chiles Legal Information Center at the Levin College of Law through Dec. 18 and “Lincoln High School: A Metaphor for Excellence” that will be displayed through June 30, 2019, at the A. Quinn Jones Museum and Cultural Center, 1013 NW Seventh Ave.