Evidences of Progress Among Colored PeopleRichings, G. F.
History
Evidences of Progress Among Colored People
Richings, G. F.
African Americans
This remarkable institution, which has done in some respects more
for the colored race than any other, is a monument of the old
anti-slavery sentiment of the South. It was founded before the war
among liberal-minded Southerners--John G. Fee, Cassius M. Clay, and
others--and the first principal, Rev. J. A. R. Rogers, and his
wife were so popular that they attracted the sons and daughters of
slave-holders even while the school was running the gantlet of mobs and
persecutions.
Soon after the war colored students were admitted on the same terms
as whites--the first, and to this day, almost the only instance in
the South. In the words of Geo. W. Cable, "Berea is a college which
predicts the millennium."
This just and fearless course has led to none of the evils which were
feared by many good people. There has never been a collision between
white and colored students, and the relation of the two races is more
pure and natural in the sphere of Berea's influence than in any other
part of the South.
[Illustration: BOARDING HALL, CHAPEL, LINCOLN HALL.]
The college has given well-trained teachers to the colored schools of
Kentucky and other States, men like J. H. Jackson of the Normal School
of Missouri, J. W. Bate of Danville, Ky., J. C. Lewis of Cairo, Ill.,
Green P. Russell of Lexington, Kirke Smith of Lebanon, Ky., E. H.
Woodford of Manassas, Va.--besides those in other occupations like Rev.
James Bond of Nashville, Tenn., and Lieut. Woodford of the 8th U. S. I.
Berea enables young people of color to measure themselves by the
standard of the race which has had greatest opportunities in the past,
and teaches white young people to know the merits and respect the worth
of colored students.
The school, like Hampton, is earnestly Christian, and managed by a
board of trustees representing all the leading Christian bodies, no one
of which has a controlling influence. It has buildings and equipments
valued at above $150,000, including a library of over 15,000 volumes,
and was attended in 1898 by 674 students, 169 of whom were colored.
Alone among Southern schools it has had superior advantages sufficient
to draw a considerable number of white students from the North.
The institution includes Collegiate, Normal, and Industrial
Departments, and is making decided progress under the presidency of Wm.
Goodell Frost, Ph. D., formerly of Oberlin College, who is a grandson
of Wm. Goodell, the great anti-slavery editor. Associated with him are
Geo. T. Fairchild, LL. D., late President of the State Agricultural
College of Kansas, Mrs. General Putnam, and about thirty other
instructors.
Receiving no aid from any State or society, Berea is mainly dependent
upon individual gifts. Remittances should be made to the treasurer,
and bequests to the trustees, of Berea College, Berea, Madison Co.,
Kentucky.
This college is now doing much good for the so-called "mountain whites"
as well as for colored people.
CHAPTER XIV.
_Continuation of Independent Schools._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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