November 10, 1990, Florida State University President Bernard Sliger dedicated this historical half-acre site to honor Mina Jo Powell, a lifelong financial contributor to FSU and a relentless advocate and protector of green, open spaces on FSU’s campus (alumna, BS 1950, MS 1963).

In 1887, two years after this map, The History of Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University states that the Florida State Legislature established a college for African-Americans, called the “State Normal College for Colored Students.”  It chose a site “west of Tallahassee on a commanding hill which now is the home site of Florida State University.” Exact location is debatable.

 Presumably, upon this vacant land adjoining the seminary the State Board of Education built two small wooden structures “equipped with fifty wooden desks.”  FSU historian Dr. Steve Edwards affirms, “FAMU was founded on that corner.” It is likely these humble structures marking the beginning of FAMU stood on Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green.  In 1891, The Normal College moved to the Duval Plantation, FAMU’s present site, relinquishing its original so the State could establish the “Florida Female College.”

One of two indecipherable markes in Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green: aiming north, Longmire in the background One of two indecipherable markes in Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green: aiming south, Westcott in the background

There is a mystery today regarding two markers in Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green.  They no longer tell what they memorialized.  Their small bronze plaques face upward, which as a result over time falling rain has erased the dedications as if sandblasted.  Charcoal rubbing revealed nothing.  But, what if they could speak?  Would they tell us that here once stood two humble structures—marking the first-ever site of a college in Florida, created exclusively for African-Americans?   Not anything in or about the green tells us FAMU’s story.  James Melton retired Special Projects Coordinator for FSU Alumni Affairs (and according to Dr. Edwards, the moving force in 1990 for naming this green after Mina Jo Powell) concurs these markers most likely would tell a different story.  Melton recalls that years ago class reunions oftentimes planted trees in this green, and, more than likely, these markers bear memory to a couple of those occasions.

Yet, to appreciate fully the dimensions of change underway at FSU, we need only to consider that the 1950’s September enrollment hit an all-time peak of 6,399.  No longer could this small green accommodate graduating classes.  The obvious choice was to hold future commencements at the newly completed Doak Campbell Stadium, dedicated October 28, 1950.

FSU’s ever-growing enrollment during the ensuing decades brought with it a need for more classrooms and dormitories.  To the dismay of many alumni, especially graduates prior to 1951—according to Mina Jo Powell—buildings seemed to wedge themselves on campus, unrestrained and with a blind eye toward history and tradition.  On more than one occasion, that small half-acre green attracted plans to use it as a building site.  But each time—says James Melton, retired Alumni Coordinator—Mina Jo Powell rallied to preserve it.  Finally, in 1990, the notion struck Melton and President Sliger that IF the university dedicated that green in someone’s name, this, in all likelihood, would preserve it forever.

James Melton advises that it is not too late to place a sundial in Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green, as promised, and have it inscribed.

Dr. Edwards questions the accuracy of President Sliger’s speech found in the archives at Special Collections.  He recalls drafting the brochure and President Sliger’s words for the ceremony.  Dr. Edwards believes that a sundial was never intended for the Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green.  He suggests instead that a general staff member compiled the notes of the speech later from memory.  He points out that there is a sundial in front of Strozier Library, at Landis Green, and this is likely the sundial erroneously connected to Mina Jo Powell in the transcription of President Sliger’s speech.

Nonetheless, Mina Jo Powell remains an impassioned and devoted supporter of FSU.  In the Florida State University Medical School Magazine, summer 2006 (28-9), we read again of “Mina Jo Powell, With Gratitude.”  It records Ms. Powell among a short list of a precious few who helped get FSU’s new Medical School up and running.  Each donor contributed “in excess of one-million dollars.”

Preserving the green for future generations took another positive turn in October 2000.  Sarah James (BS, 2002) drew inspiration to create a calm, contemplative site on campus after experiencing the lack of a serene place to remember students who died while attending FSU.  As a senator in the Student Government Association, she convinced the body to allocate $50,000 for a memorial.  When James achieved this, the scope of the monument and its location was undecided.  Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green was one of four sites James and others considered—ultimately choosing this locale based on its central location and historically rich tradition.

Mark Bertolami of Campus Planning and Space Management recalled James’s quiet commitment and personal effort, summing, “She moved a mountain.”  According to Bertolami and Robert Bischoff, head of FSU’s Master Craftsman Studio, James’s humble resolve inspired and compelled their interest, and they contend that she, alone, brought about the “Memorial Fountain and Pond” in Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green. A Memorial that they agree incorporates the serenity Sarah James had envisioned with the assurance of the green’s preservation that Mina Jo Powell, James Melton, and President Sliger had dreamed. Although originally planned, a ceremony to dedicate the Memorial apparently never occurred.  Sarah James graduated and currently works in New York City.  As for Mina Jo Powell, she said she is happy to see this monument in the green that bears her name.

Your Friends are not dead, but gone before, Advanced a stage or two upon that road Which you must travel in the steps they trod Aristophanes

	Sarah James and Mina Jo Powell have never met. Yet they share so much. Someday maybe a bench dedicated to Sarah James will sit in this green.

 From the first half of the twentieth century, what of the other Mina Jo Powells who received diplomas on this green and were challenged to go forth and make good things happen for themselves and others—what would they tell us now?  And, a little later on, as alumni who are more recent return to campus is this one of those life-defining places they seek to reconnect with who they were?  Do they conjure in their memories choices they planned, and others they made?  And might not these choices have complemented another, involving two lives, or more—as parents and as grandparents, they return where their children and children’s children attend?

 There is no easy answer for these questions.

But the green’s evolution as a site of memories for today’s students is stirring.  Bob Bischoff tells that the reflection pond in front of the Student Memorial—strangely enough—almost did not happen.  There were concerns that students would put soap in it.  Bischoff undertook a risky move that he believed would tap the natural kindness inside everybody.  He stocked the pond with fish.  In over five years now, there has never been the first drop of soap in that pond.  Furthermore, he has seen students leaving for summer, and after graduation, who set their own fish free there.

The Mina Jo Powell Alumni Green is more than a lawn with benches and a monument—or mere green space without a building.  Rather, in the imagination of students, alumni, faculty, and administrators, it is a temple in the mind.

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