III. The Second Stage: A Change in Emphasis
| The third president of Berea was William Goodell Frost, the grandson of
the abolitionist William Goodell. "After his retirement...[Frost] wrote
that he was not sure that he would ever have come to Berea 'if it had not
been for [his] ancestral and personal interest in befriending the colored
race'" [Peck and Smith, p. 68]. However, soon after arriving at Berea, it
was obvious that he had a different idea about the commitment to interracial
education, or as it was known then-- co-education of the races, the education
of blacks and whites in the same environment. When he arrived in Kentucky
from a faculty position at Oberlin College in Ohio, Frost found an institution
in financial trouble. There was an "air of dilapidation about the place,
the vacant rooms in the dormitories, and the empty seats in the classes
and the Chapel" [p. 48]. Many of the original donors to the school had died
and the commitment to interracial education was not the commitment that
interested many of their descendants; these new donors were more interested
in the commitment to serving the Southern Appalachian region. Thus, Frost
saw his task to be to find enough financial support in order to continue
"the peculiar work of Berea." In a letter in l892 Frost stated how he wanted
to accomplish this objective: |
| [a] By actually elevating to the level of cultured manhood as many members
of the race {Negroes} as possible. But many other schools are doing this
work. Berea's peculiar opportunity is, [b] to do this in connection with
the education of white students, thus teaching the races to live and work
together, and [c] to afford an object lesson to the whole country, making
it possible for advocates of justice everywhere to say 'There is Berea with
hundreds of white and colored students working together in friendly relations
on the soil of slavery'...We must get more students, and especially more
white students. [6] |
| To obtain more white students, Frost implemented a policy to base the
racial composition of the student body upon the racial composition of the
state of Kentucky. Thus, the student body was to be composed of six Whites
students for every Black student [18]. This goal was to be reached not by
decreasing the number of Black students but by increasing the number of
White students. {In l884, there were 184 Black students out of a total enrollment
of 354; in l904, the total enrollment was 961 of which 157 were Black.}
Frost felt that his plan was consistent with the earlier actions of Fee
and others. In a speech in l895 Frost stated, "We have tried our simple
plan for twenty-nine years, and the evil consequences have not come; and
our way is the way of the Christian world at large" [25]. To Frost, a shift
in emphasis did not mean that he was not committed to interracial education |
| In l907 Frost clearly admitted this shift in emphasis: "in my own time
we frankly shifted emphasis, appealing more for the mountaineers" [Nelson,
25]. In fairness to Frost, some observers believe that this shift began
during the administration of President Fairchild who gave loving care to
his Negro students, but paid an increasing measure of attention to the people
of the hills [Peck and Smith, p. 66]. By l902, as Frost stated in his annual
report, "this College now stands before the public as the representative
school for the mountains, as Hampton and Tuskegee stands as the representative
institutions for the colored people" [72]. In the opinion of one observer,
this action was necessary because "the sons and daughters upon whom the
curse of slavery weighed more heavily than on any other class, [was] the
White Mountaineers of Kentucky...For this class neither the state and national
governments, nor the benevolent societies of the United States had made
provision" [Ellis, Everman, and Sears, p. 223]. In l9ll, a statement was
added to Article II of the school's constitution recognizing the Southern
mountain area as Berea's special field [Peck and Smith, p. 79]. |
| Even though the effort to educate White mountaineers was motivated by
his Christian beliefs, scholars and even his contemporaries, have disagreed
about Frost's commitment to interracial education. Frost was interested
"in breaking down caste", but expected his "colored students...[to] be of
a superior quality" [48]. Segregation, not integration, was emphasized on
campus. For example, one of his first official acts was to have the Board
of Trustees rescind its resolution of l872 pertaining to interracial dating
on campus. Later, he remarked that students "did the proper thing" by separating
themselves by race in their eating and living habits"[Nelson, 19]. In regards
to hiring a Black professor he stated, "A professorship is not the best
place in which to demonstrate the powers of the Negro... We shall do {him}
poor service...if for the sake of having colored professors we lose our
chance to instruct mountain youth" [21]. He received support for this position
from a member of the Board of Trustees, Rev. William E. Barton, who wrote:
|
| It is much for a Mountain boy to overcome generations of prejudices and
meet colored people on a level; it is too much to expect that now they will
not be deterred if a colored man, unless he be a giant in intellectual and
moral qualities, be set over them...Both as a matter of principle and of
expediency, it appears to me unwise to appoint at this turn a colored professor.
[Burnside, 22] |
| The viewpoint of one of the founding fathers was clear--Frost was betraying
the thoughts and actions of those founders. In l899 John G. Fee said, |
| Let me say that the unique work of Berea College is not 'effacing sectional
lines'...and helping white people (the "contemporary ancestors in the southern
mountains") [as Frost had declared.] but effacing the barbarous spirit of
caste between colored and white at home. Let the friends of Berea College
demand faithfulness to the original design of the college....Much more is
being done to bring in white students than colored. This the colored know
and feel.... [Nelson, 23] |
| One "colored person" that agreed with Fee was J. S. Hathaway, a Berea
graduate who eventually became the principal at the State College for Negroes
for nine years [Kentucky State University]. In a newspaper article Hathaway
wrote, |
| The management is pursuing an interpretation of the design and mission
of Berea College in conformity with the prevailing sentiment, and not the
spirit and principles of the college...We believe Pres. Frost is conscientious
in his convictions; that he has the good of the colored people at heart
[from his standpoint of what is for their good] but those convictions are
based on false conceptions of religious obligation.... [21] |
| On January 12, 1904, this discussion about the intent of President Frost
became a moot issue. On that day, Representative Carl Day (D) of Breathitt
County, a mountain county, introduced a bill in the Kentucky House of Representatives
which is commonly known as the Day Law. The purpose of this legislation
was to deal with Berea College--an institution that Day called "a stench
in the nostrils of all good Kentuckians." The Day law made it "unlawful
for any person, corporation, or association of persons to maintain or operate
any college, school, or institution where persons of the White and Negro
races are both received as pupils for instruction" [Peck and Smith, 51].
Since there was only one college, school, or institution in the state that
attempted to educate Blacks and Whites in the same environment, it was clear
that this law applied specifically to Berea. |
| Initially, in reaction to the Day Law, Frost considered moving the school
to Ohio or West Virginia. However, he was dissuaded from pursuing this option.
But, the leaders of Berea did fight enactment of the law. Frost was in the
forefront of this futile struggle. His rationale was simple: "Now it is
my judgment that we ought to fight such a law to the very end. I do not
see how we can possibly exist under it. Berea's foundation was laid and
its chief endowment given by people who understood and approved our position"
[49-50]. The fight ended on November 9, l908 when the Supreme Court of the
United States ruled that the Day law was constitutional. In its ruling the
court stated: The right to teach white and Negro children in a private school
at the time is not a property right. Besides, appellant Berea College as
a corporation created by this State had no natural right to teach at all.
Its right to teach is such as the State sees fit to give it. The State may
withhold it altogether or qualify it. [53] |
| After the ruling by the court, the Board of Trustees decided that Berea
would become an all White institution. The Board also decided to use $200,000
of its endowment and to raise $200,000 in order to establish a school to
educate Negroes. Located near Louisville, this institution was incorporated
in l910 as Lincoln Institute. Thus, with the court's ruling, the second
phase of Berea's history came to an end. During its duration, the number
of Black students had decreased from approximately 50% to 0. Granted, outside
forces played a crucial role in this process, but in the opinion of many
observers, President Frost was leading the school in the direction desired
by these outside forces. The only difference was that his method would have
taken longer. He was a Christian, but his Christianity was different from
that of individuals like John G. Fee. Frost was primarily interested in
the number of White students enrolled at the school. As he wrote in his
l895 report: "The people who contribute money to Berea rather than to Hampton
or Atlanta are interested in it as a mixed school, and measure its success
by the number of white students" [48]. Thus, to these philanthropists a
mixed school meant that the number of Black students had to match a realistic
national proportion. They would accept a ratio of seven Whites to one Black,
but not a one to one ratio. Seemingly, that was also how Frost measured
the success of the institution. |
| Unfortunately, Frost went even farther than the Day Law required. He barred Negroes from the nondenominational Church of Christian Union, which was affiliated with the college, even though one of the founders was Black and was still alive. He also had the names of Black graduates stricken from the roles of the Alumni Association [Florence Brown, 1989]. |