— BY, ALEX DELUCA
At the start of the fall semester, royal blue and bright orange signs that read “Welcome, new Lions!” decorate the 44-acre Florida Memorial University (FMU) campus in Miami Gardens. On this balmy, late-summer day, a handfulof backpack-toting students vie for the shade of the aging 1960s-era residence halls on the green manicured lawns. Every few minutes, the quiet grounds fill with the roaring noise of planes taking off from neighboring Miami-Opa locka Executive Airport.
Sybrina Fulton, activist and mother of Trayvon Martin, went to FMU. So did Olympic long jump gold medalist Jeffery Henderson. And Barrington Irving, the first Black pilot to fly solo around the world.