The citizen. [volume] (Berea, Ky.) 1899-1958, 1910-03-03
BEREk'S CAST PERIL
By Rev. VIM. {. Barton, D. D..

TO the editor OF The Cltlzen.-
| wish to call attention TO a very
real peril that confronts Berea College
from the occasional recrudescence
Ct the spirit of caste. And shall
appreciate the courtesy of the editor
in doing this through the columns of
The Citizen.
When Berea had occasion a few
years ago to adopt a new constitu-
ton, the question rose whether the
College should retain the words OF
the original charter, adopted before
the war, that the college should
be opposed to slaveholding and caste.
II was decided to retain the words;
because slaveholding, though no long
er in existence, stood historically re-
lated to the early life of Berea, and
because the caste spirit was deemed
one likely to reappear in various
forms, against all of which the Col
lege desired to protest.
Any opposing of class against class.
on the basis of racial, sectional or
other arbitrary distinctions other than
those of character or scholarship,
may be counted, for Berea's purposes,
as an exhibition of the caste spirit
There is an occasional statement
by some real friends of Berea which
apperas to assume some such idea
as this:
Berea is a school for the people of
the mountains. Its rules are to be made
for them; its life is to be their
normal life; its courses Of study are
to be fitted TO their requirements.
If students from the north come to
Berea, they are not to be excluded;
but they are to take things as they
find them, always remembering that
the school is not really for them,
and when they find themselves un-
happy under the conditions as they
exist, they are to leave.
This l call caste, of a most insid-
ious and most dangerous type, and
against it protest with all my might
Berea College is for young people
of good moral character, without dis
tinction of sex. race or locality, 1t is
for all young people who come to it
in good faith, and whom the law of
the land will permit the College TO
educate together, and whose scholar
ly attachments adapt them profitably
to pursue Berea's courses of study.
Nor is it a question of majorities.
When Berea was mostly colored, the
white element was not forgotten,
when Berea was principally white
. it was never forgotten that there
were colored students, and the rules
were not greatly affected by ques-
tions of proportion.
Berea could have simplified It's
problem by educating one race, and
excluding all other, or by treating
all other races as entitled merely 70
the crumbs that fell from the table
IL could have educated one sex
= or grudingly admitted the ex-
ceptional representatives of the 9TH
= er sex who might brave a frigid well
come and came to be educated. But
Berea has not chosen to simplify its
{ problem. 1t has deliberately chosen
to make it's problem just as com.
pick as it possibly could do.
Berea is indeed for mountain stu
dents. But it is just as truly for Nortl
ern students. They are a permanent
, and valuable part of Bereas natural
constituency. They have rendered
great and valuable service to the col
? lege, and have a valuable service still
TO render.
, For Berea to say to these, "You
are here by tolerance, the rules are
, not made for you, and the courses ar
not arranged for you. If you don't lik
it, get out" would be complete re-
versal of Beras spirit, it would b.
a wicked spirit of caste.
But suppose the Northern students
themselves show a spirit of caste
Suppose they gather in clique, anC
seem inhospitable to others?
That will be unfortunate, and shoul
be gently discouraged. Yet of cours'
v it is sure to happen more or less. Ii
the old days the colored folk Liked
a now and then a party where ther'
/, were no white students present, anC
it grew to be an unnatural and artifi
I cal requirement that there must al
o. ways be some colored student prsen
2 when the white students gatherer.
:, The Mountain students are clan
. nish, and so are Northern students
: All young people like TO gather nov
: and then in homogeneous groups. j
is a tendency which need not be toS