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.
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.