Magine a Place... Into Time to Come, the Seeds Falling on His Own Place

President’s Message But the sower going forth to sow sets foot imagine a Place... into time to come, the seeds falling on his own place. He has prepared a way Berea College 1855 and 2005 for his life to come to him, if it will. Imagine a place before the Civil War in slaveholding Like a tree, he has given roots to the earth, and stands free. Kentucky where people are respected as equals—blacks and —Wendell Berry, Th e Seeds, 1970 November 17, 2005 whites, men and women, residents from North and South. antislavery advocates Imagine a community intentionally built around the egalitar- openly expressed their prejudice ian principle of “interspersion,” a place where black and white about the inferiority of people of property owners build homes beside one another in alternating Dear Friends: African descent. order to make real this community’s egalitarian claims. Imagine In 1855 a utopian experiment in a wilderness settle- schools in this community that educate black and white chil- ment founded by a Kentucky preacher named John Gregg Fee In a world that struggles to live as one people, imagine a place where dren in a single classroom, where young men and women live, challenged this status quo. Fee fervently believed that the Bible equality is a priority. In a world where diversity divides, imagine a place work, study, and play together. What message or idea could be argues for the equality of all people, saying “God has made of so profound to create such a community in 1855 whose legacy where it unites. In a world where possessions dominate, imagine a place one blood all peoples of the earth” (Acts 17:26). His powerful, lives on today in our 2005 Berea College? where wealth is measured by personal accomplishment. In a world often radical vision of impartial love inspired an enduring counter- America in the mid-19th century was defi ned by its confi ned by conventional thought, imagine a place where people are cultural community; 150 years later, its 550 workers and 1500 agrarian economy, growing cities, and westward territorial expan- learners still recite the same core values. In our sesquicenten- willing to think in imaginative ways. In a world fi lled with lofty ideals, imagine a place where people sion. Fervent political speeches about the issue of slavery intensi- nial year, we celebrate that early utopian community we now take action to turn ideals into reality. fi ed the tensions between North and South. Religious revivals know as Berea College. centered around such social issues as the role of women in society, By the time John G. Fee, the 36-year-old Presbyterian Imagine such a place that we call Berea College. the excesses caused by alcohol use, and the social, economic, and minister, founded Union Church (1853) and the Berea ridge religious implications of slavery. Predictably, political and religious settlement, he was already an ardent abolitionist writer recog- leaders felt divided over these complex issues. This past year, as Berea College approached the 150th anniversary of its founding, many minds have nized by antislavery leaders in Cincinnati, Cleveland, Boston, Public opinion refl ected both on Berea’s remarkable past and on the College’s promising future. In this report, I Philadelphia, and New York. Looking back on Fee’s early uto- maintained the status invite you to refl ect with us about the distinctive place that is Berea College. Imagine a place where pian experiment, we ask ourselves what lessons learned might quo—a status quo that off er us direction for our 21st century Berea College? the founders, faculty, and students, who through great determination and effort, turned ideals into traded in black human action. Imagine such a powerful legacy living on in a vital 21st century Berea College. Consider also fl esh; a status quo that Thinking Beyond “Conventional Wisdom” denied women social, the important work that remains ahead of us. From Fee’s early experiment we learn that conventional educational, and Sincerely, wisdom and traditional institutions struggle to address the political equality; weighty issues of their day. Churches, colleges, and political a status quo that institutions commonly refl ect their culture’s current think- allowed many ing, rather than off er solutions to society’s complex challenges. Larry D. Shinn ministers and Quite often the best solutions arise beyond, or at the margins President religious in- of, accepted social conventions. stitutions to Whether you tend a garden or not, you are the Fee argued not simply for the end of slavery but for gardener of your own being, justify these the seed of your destiny. the elimination of caste, which assumed that blacks and women inhuman and —Th e Findhorn Community were constitutionally inferior. He argued against the norms of inequitable the day, present in the realms of both church and state, that practices. Even perpetuated prejudice against the poor, women, and blacks. 2 He believed in human equality—not just the liberation of Agreeing to Disagree As we ponder the past, slaves and women. Such an inclusive Christian faith was Despite their own controversy about the best way to let us imagine the Berea Col- practiced by few people in the 19th century, even among implement Fee’s overarching, powerful vision, the early com- lege of the future. Imagine abolitionists. Fee’s Berea off ered a radical alternative to the munity continued to evolve. On successive Sundays, members a place of deep respect for nation’s prevailing bias. of the Union Church preached sermons refuting the theologi- all peoples of the earth, cal principles preached the previous week. William Lincoln, a a place where impartial Turning Ideals into Action faculty member during the 1860s, argued that Fee was leading love is taught and under- Fee felt the tenets of his Christian faith required him the College in the wrong direction and encouraged the Ameri- stood among all races, not just to think good thoughts but to act on them. In the can Missionary Association to rescind his fi nancial support. Fee traditions, genders, oc- 1840s, his church in Cabin Creek, Kentucky along and J.A.R. Rogers, Berea’s fi rst school principal, were divided cupations, and disciplines. the Ohio River was the fi rst church about whom Berea should primarily serve—freed slaves or Imagine a place of in the slave-holding South to off er poor Appalachian youth. compassion, re- open seating to black congregation Emotionally charged, disparate views often caused ligious freedom members. Th e governing body of friction among those who fi rst struggled to achieve Berea’s and tolerance, Fee’s church, which accepted slav- powerful but complex mission. A compelling vision often a place where ery as a Biblical doctrine, viewed elicits strong responses by advocates who work toward a com- boundaries are permeable and questions are encouraged. his actions as defi ant and insisted mon end, yet may diff er as to the unfolding of that vision. Th e Imagine a place where liberal education that he either be guided by their fi rst and subsequent Berea communities manifested both deep is truly liberating, a place where educational wisdom or leave. He left. commitment and deep confl icts. Berea today is no exception. experimentation is welcome, and innovative practices coexist Again and again in such Adherence to Berea’s mission—not to our individual or sectar- with conventional academic paradigms. Imagine a continuous social, educational, or reli- ian biases—should govern the solution to our confl icts. learning environment that provides many avenues for growth gious contexts, Fee acted Bereans of the mid-19th century lived on the cusp be- through internships, classrooms, service-learning programs, and on his visionary beliefs. tween a confl icted past and an uncertain future, as do we who residential learning communities. When Berea From its beginning the live, work, and study at Berea College at the beginning of the Imagine a place where disagreements are encouraged allowed women to study Berea community was a 21st century. While slavery has ended in America and women and civility is expressed, a place where we seek to understand science and the classics along- utopian experiment that practiced equality in student residence have gained political rights, the battles against prejudice and as well as to be understood. Imagine peace-building in a world side men, their presence elevated the halls, in classrooms, and at social meetings. Berea’s schools and inequality are still waged. Across the globe today, previous vic- that often sows anger, a place where trust is a two-way cove- intellectual quality of study. When Berea integrated blacks then the College, its innovative ideas, and their advocates were tories for egalitarian views are being reversed—a clear indica- nant, a place where individuals strive for collaborative solutions and whites into their classes and co-curricular societies, every called “radical” in their day, even though these ideas represent tion that humans have as much potential to regress as progress. for the common good. student thrived. New learning opportunities arose for talented values that have persisted over two millennia. It is one thing to Imagine a College whose values have so well endured black students like Julia Britton Hooks (who ended up teach- hold idealistic notions, and quite another to act upon them! Learning from the Past, Envisioning the Future that 150 years from today our successors will seek to build ing music at the College while she was still a student) and What lessons from the past might guide us to teach upon our application of John Fee’s vision—a vision that created James Bond (who in 1892 was the senior chosen to speak at his Taking a Risk and serve a troubled 21st century world? What social and a utopian college based upon a 2000-year old idea that “God commencement).

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