Berea College

Since its founding, Berea College has believed in the power of education to transform students and employees from all walks of life. Berea’s inclusive past emanates from a foundational belief of founder Rev. John G. Fee that the inclusive Christian notion of impartial love could create a remarkable learning and living community in a slaveholding state before the Civil War. An ardent abolitionist, Fee chose the motto, “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth.” That’s been our motto since 1855.

Berea has always sought to address some of the country’s most vexing challenges, and in so doing, it has faced often fierce opposition throughout it history, as well as great acclaim and admiration. Despite these challenges, Berea College has continued in its mission provided by its founders—to educate students inclusively and equitably in the name justice and impartial love. It continues to model its motto from Acts that “God has made of one blood all peoples of the earth.” Berea College was the first interracial, co-educational college in the South.

Berea College isn’t like other colleges. It was the first integrated, co-educational college in the South, and it has not charged students tuition since 1892.