Berea, Kentucky
Encyclopedia

Demographics

As of the census
Census
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...

of 2000, there were 9,851 people, 3,693 households, and 2,426 families residing in the city. The population density
Population density
Population density is a measurement of population per unit area or unit volume. It is frequently applied to living organisms, and particularly to humans...

 was 1,055.4 people per square mile (407.7/km²). There were 4,115 housing units at an average density of 440.9 per square mile (170.3/km²). The racial makeup of the city was 94.44% White
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...

, 5.00% African American
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

, 3.00% Native American
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...

, 5.00% Asian
Asian American
Asian Americans are Americans of Asian descent. The U.S. Census Bureau definition of Asians as "Asian” refers to a person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent, including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan,...

, 0.00% Pacific Islander
Pacific Islander American
Pacific Islander Americans, also known as Oceanian Americans, are residents of the United States with original ancestry from Oceania. They represent the smallest racial group counted in the United States census of 2000. They numbered 874,000 people or 0.3 percent of the United States population...

, 0.00% from other races, and 1.00% from two or more races. Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 0.00% of the population.

There were 3,693 households out of which 32.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 50.1% were married couples
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...

 living together, 12.9% had a female householder with no husband present, and 34.3% were non-families. 29.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 11.6% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.34 and the average family size was 2.88. It is known as a politically progressive community with an active arts and crafts movement and a large number of arts professionals among its residents.

The age distribution was 21.6% under the age of 18, 20.5% from 18 to 24 (primarily students at Berea College), 25.7% from 25 to 44, 19.5% from 45 to 64, and 12.7% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 30 years. For every 100 females there were 83.7 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 77.2 males.

The median income for a household in the city was $5,480, and the median income for a family was $13,505. Males had a median income of $9,763 versus $22,102 for females. The per capita income
Per capita income
Per capita income or income per person is a measure of mean income within an economic aggregate, such as a country or city. It is calculated by taking a measure of all sources of income in the aggregate and dividing it by the total population...

 for the city was $15,025. About 14.7% of families and 17.5% of the population were below the poverty line, including 21.1% of those under age 18 and 12.7% of those age 65 or over.

History

In 1850 this area, called the Glade, was a community of scattered farms with a racetrack and citizens sympathetic to emancipation. In 1853, rich and politically ambitious Cassius Marcellus Clay gave Reverend John Gregg Fee
John Gregg Fee
John Gregg Fee was an abolitionist, minister and educator, the founder of the town of Berea, Kentucky, and Berea College , the first in the state with interracial and coeducational admissions...

 a free tract of land in the Glade. With local supporters and other abolitionist missionaries from the American Missionary Association
American Missionary Association
The American Missionary Association was a Protestant-based abolitionist group founded on September 3, 1846 in Albany, New York. The main purpose of this organization was to abolish slavery, to educate African Americans, to promote racial equality, and to promote Christian values...

, Fee established two churches (First Christian Church and Union Church), a tiny village, and Berea College
Berea College
Berea College is a liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky , founded in 1855. Current full-time enrollment is 1,514 students...

. Fee named Berea after a biblical town (today Veria
Veria
Veria is a city built at the foot of Vermion Mountains in Greece. It is a commercial center of Macedonia, the capital of the prefecture of Imathia, the province of Imathia and the seat of a bishop of the Greek Orthodox Church...

) where the people “received the Word with all readiness of mind.”

Founded in 1855, Berea College was the only integrated and coeducational college in the South for nearly forty years. Fee modeled it on Oberlin College
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 of Ohio, and hoped it would become an academic beacon of the North. Pro-slavery supporters expelled Fee and his followers from Berea in 1859, in the aftermath of John Brown's Raid. Most lived in Cincinnati or nearby northern towns for several years, returning for good after the war. The college's current president is Dr. Larry Shinn
Larry Shinn
Larry Shinn is president of Berea College, Kentucky. Prior to this appointment he was Vice-President of Academic Affairs, Dean of Humanities and Head of the Religious Studies Department at Bucknell University....

.

Starting in 1864, during the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...

, John G. Fee applied his energies to improving conditions for former slaves at Camp Nelson who had volunteered for the Union Army. He started with preaching but saw there were other pressing needs for them and their families. He helped arrange for construction of facilities to support them and their families at the camp, including housing, a hospital, church and school. After the war, African-American families came to Berea to take part in its education and interracial vision. For years it included instruction in preparatory grades for college.

In the 1890s, as part of a general heritage movement in the US, there was a growing national interest in the culture and traditions of Appalachia
Appalachia
Appalachia is a term used to describe a cultural region in the eastern United States that stretches from the Southern Tier of New York state to northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Georgia. While the Appalachian Mountains stretch from Belle Isle in Canada to Cheaha Mountain in the U.S...

 by writers, academics, missionaries, and teachers. In addition to organizations such as the Daughters of the American Revolution
Daughters of the American Revolution
The Daughters of the American Revolution is a lineage-based membership organization for women who are descended from a person involved in United States' independence....

 (DAR) and Daughters of the Confederacy (DOC) being founded, people had renewed interest in traditional crafts. It was in part a reaction to continuing urbanization and industrialization. Fascinated by the rich culture of Appalachia and dismayed by the region's isolation and poverty, donors to Berea College were enthusiastic about the quality of traditional coverlets brought by students in exchange for tuition.

College President William Frost (1893–1920) took many such coverlets with him on fund-raising trips North. The college had maintained connections with groups in Boston and other cities which had supported it from its earliest days. Frost, perceiving a national market for traditional crafts, established the first Berea College Fireside Industries. Frost encouraged craftspeople to move to Berea. The college built a loom house and hired a supervisor to train and maintain the quality of student work. The first supervisor of weaving was Jennie Lester Hill. She was succeeded in 1911 by Anna Ernberg, a Swedish weaver who at Berea taught several influential figures in the American Handweaving Revival.

The college attracts many national, as well as international students. Students work on campus and receives free tuition. There are many criteria for getting into this college, including a modest family background, or an independent status as a student. It is also assumed that if you get into Berea College, one must have at least a 3.8 unweighted High School GPA.

Berea has maintained its support for traditional arts and crafts. The recently built Kentucky Artisan Center, located at Exit 77 off Interstate 75
Interstate 75
Interstate 75 is a major north–south Interstate Highway in the Great Lakes and Southeastern regions of the United States. It travels from State Road 826 and State Road 924 in Hialeah, Florida to Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, at the Ontario, Canada, border...

 hosts a wide variety of works by Kentucky artisans. In 1922, David Carroll Churchill founded Churchill Weavers, which produced handwoven goods until the spring of 2007. The city is the birthplace of Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow
Tony Snow
Robert Anthony "Tony" Snow was an American journalist, political commentator, television news anchor, syndicated columnist, radio host, musician, and the third White House Press Secretary under President George W. Bush. Snow also worked for President George H. W. Bush as chief speechwriter and...

.

External links

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