For more than 140 years, Florida Memorial University (FMU) has provided students educational opportunities that otherwise would not have been available. As South Florida's only historically Black university, and one of the State's oldest academic institutions, FMU has a long history and commitment to the free exchange of ideas, the pursuit of knowledge, and the ongoing transmission of African American history and culture.

The University traces its origins to the Florida Baptist Institute in Live Oak, Florida in 1879 and the Florida Baptist Academy, founded in Jacksonville, Florida in 1892. It was at the Academy that faculty member J. Rosamond Johnson and his brother James Weldon Johnson wrote the Negro National Anthem, Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing. Decades later, after relocation to St. Augustine, Florida, and a merger of the two schools, several name changes, expansion to a four-year academic program, the institution's charter was amended, and the name Florida Memorial College was adopted in 1963. Five years later, in the midst of the civil rights movement, the College moved to Miami, its present and permanent location. In December of 2004, the Colleges charter was amended, and renamed Florida Memorial University.