Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University was founded as the State Normal College for Colored Students, and on October 3, 1887, it began classes with fifteen students and two instructors. Today, FAMU, as it has become affectionately known, is the premiere school among historically black colleges and universities. Prominently located on the highest hill in Florida’s capital city of Tallahassee, Florida A&M University remains the only historically black university in the eleven-member State University System of Florida.
The Rattler mascot is based on popular folklore. When the school relocated to Highwood Plantation in 1891, the rural landscape had an abundance of snakes, especially rattlesnakes. This is how the mascot name, “The Rattlers” was chosen.
1601 S Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, Tallahassee, FL 32307
