Berea College: an Illustrated History

University of Kentucky UKnowledge Higher Education Education 3-3-2006 Berea College: An Illustrated History Shannon H. Wilson Click here to let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Thanks to the University of Kentucky Libraries and the University Press of Kentucky, this book is freely available to current faculty, students, and staff at the University of Kentucky. Find other University of Kentucky Books at uknowledge.uky.edu/upk. For more information, please contact UKnowledge at [email protected]. Recommended Citation Wilson, Shannon H., "Berea College: An Illustrated History" (2006). Higher Education. 15. https://uknowledge.uky.edu/upk_higher_education/15 Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page i Berea College Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page ii Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page iii BEREA COLLEGE an illustrated history Shannon H. Wilson The University Press of Kentucky Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page iv Publication of this volume was made possible in part by a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Copyright © 2006 by The University Press of Kentucky Scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth, serving Bellarmine University, Berea College, Centre College of Kentucky, Eastern Kentucky University, The Filson Historical Society, Georgetown College, Kentucky Historical Society, Kentucky State University, Morehead State University, Murray State University, Northern Kentucky University, Transylvania University, University of Kentucky, University of Louisville, and Western Kentucky University. All rights reserved. Editorial and Sales Offices: The University Press of Kentucky 663 South Limestone Street, Lexington, Kentucky 40508–4008 www.kentuckypress.com 10 09 08 07 06 5 4 3 2 1 All photographs, unless otherwise noted, are from the Berea College Archives. Design by Gary Gore Book Design Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Wilson, Shannon H. Berea College : an illustrated history / Shannon H. Wilson. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-8131-2379-0 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-8131-2379-8 (alk. paper) 1. Berea College—History. 2. Berea College—Pictorial works. 1. Title. LD393.W55 2006 378.769'53—dc22 2005030641 This book is printed on acid-free recycled paper meeting the requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence in Paper for Printed Library Materials. Manufactured in the United States of America. Member of the Association of American University Presses Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page v For Janey Post Nubila Phoebus Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page vi Contents Preface ix Introduction 1 1. The Witness to Impartial Love 9 2. 3. Forecasting Working for the Millennium God and Humanity 33 57 4. The Telescope and the Spade 75 5. Bristling with History 103 Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page vii 6. More Than an Ordinary College 129 7. A College of History and Destiny 161 8. New Magic in a Dusty World 179 9. Continuing to Be and to Appendix One: Become The Great Commitments 201 of Berea College 221 Appendix Two: Constitution, Charter, and Bylaws of Berea College 222 Notes 225 Select Bibliography 237 Index 241 Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page viii Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page ix Preface For over twenty years, the history of Berea College has been my history. First as a student, and now as the college archivist, I have become intimately acquainted with the remarkable people and events that make up Berea’s story. Early in my career, an alumna introduced me to her husband with the best compliment I have ever received. “This young man,” she said, “knows the old days as if he had been there himself.” If I know anything at all about Berea, it has less to do with my own memory and more to do with the incredible record left behind by the college’s students, faculty, and staff. The legacy of letters, diaries, photographs, buildings, official records, and other materials is so vast that no single volume can easily contem- plate all their implications. This book is perhaps best thought of as a prologue to a much larger historical project. The history of Berea College has been related in different ways throughout the years, from publicity literature to narrative histories, from scholarly essays to historical pageants. “To some,” President William G. Frost wrote of Berea, “its story sounds like a chapter from the Old Testament, to others like a dime novel.” Elisabeth Peck’s Berea’s First Century, pub- lished for the college centennial in 1955 and subsequently revised by Emily Ann Smith for the school’s 125th anniversary in 1980, is the only full-length narrative of the college’s history. Following a thematic approach, Peck’s work is very useful for establishing the passage of presidential administrations and institutional programs. Nevertheless, Peck’s history is cele- bratory rather than critical. “I wanted Mrs. Peck to write a nice history of the college for the centennial,” President Francis Hutchins remarked, “and she did.” In recent years, however, several scholars inside and outside Berea have examined the school’s history in a more probing manner. Important work has emerged that explores in depth not only the college’s founding and interracial commitment, but the role of women at Berea and the institution’s role in the Appalachian region. With the approach of the college’s sesquicentennial, the time seems right for a “new” history of Berea. The intent of this history is to build on recent scholarly interpretations of the college and to point the way to future research. The basic questions examined in this book are “What kind of institution are ix Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page x x preface we called to be? What has it been like to live and work at Berea College? What difference has this independent and, at times, radical institution made in the lives of the people of the South, the Appalachian region, and the nation?” The answers to these and other questions are found not only in the accomplishments of presidents and the raising of buildings, but in the stories of students and teachers, of literary societies and sports teams, of famous donors and ordinary people who have borne witness to the college motto, “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth.” My primary charge in writing this book was to “tell the story” of Berea College, a story that is truly distinctive. Many colleges and universities claim their own distinctive stories, so I looked for ways to distinguish among these heroic sagas. I was particularly attracted to the sociologist Burton Clark, who has offered in his book The Distinctive College a classic definition of institutional saga. Such a story “tells what the organization has been and what it is today,” Clark writes, “and hence by extension what it will be tomorrow. In the saga we look to the history and presence of the willed creation. The institutional saga is a historically based, somewhat embellished understanding of a unique organizational development” (235). The principal bearers of the saga at Berea have been the presidents of the college. There have been only eight presidents in Berea’s history; consequently, I have organized this study according to the varying spans of their administrations. Each chapter examines two or three salient events in each administration that confirm, enhance, or deny the core values of the college. The experiences of students, faculty, and staff are also used to examine the impact and understanding of the saga throughout the college’s history. In Berea College: An Illustrated History, the remarkable saga of the school is described in both words and photographs. I have tried to let the past speak for itself, because the voices of students, teachers, and administrators themselves offer ample evidence for the compelling story of Berea College. Although I do not pretend that this book is either comprehensive or definitive, I hope that all of us who are heirs to the vision of John G. Fee will find new inspi- ration in our work to build for the rest of Berea’s second century. I wish to express my gratitude to Berea president Larry D. Shinn for the invitation to write this book and for his constant support during the writing process; to President Shinn and members of the Administrative Committee, who granted extended leave and financial support in order for me to research and prepare the manuscript; to Dr. David Potts for his wise and patient counsel in his reading of the early chapters; to Joanna Juzwik McDonald, who first copyedited my initial chapters and improved my writing; to Dr. Janice Blythe for Wilson FM•i-xii 11/21/05 7:54 PM Page xi preface xi reminding me that hours of thinking without actually writing anything is still a good day’s work; to Gerald Roberts, David Nelson, Eddie Broadhead, Tom Chase, and Johnnie Ross, whose active interest in the book was a great source of encouragement; to the Reverends Scott and Lois Howard for their interest and prayerful support; to the members of the Sat- urday Morning “Old Boys Club,” who acted as a sounding board for my work. My gratitude also to Julie Sowell, Linda Reynolds, Bridget Carroll, and Tim Jordan in Public Relations for finding photographs and for their interest in the project; to Anne Chase and the staff of Berea’s Hutchins Library, who have put up with me for the last three years; and to Brunner Studio for their reproduction of the photographs in this book.

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