Tennessee, Virginia, and the Carolinas. After the Civil War, the doors of the school had been opened to Negroes, and in 1904, Berea had a student-body of nine hundred and twenty-seven, of whom one hundred and seventy-four were Negroes.[2] The President and Trustees of the college protested against the enactment of the above law, but to no avail. When the session of 1904-5 began, the colored students were refused admission. The college at once took steps to aid these Negro youths. It bore the transportation expenses of about a hundred of them to Fisk University, Knoxville College, Hampton Institute, and other distinctly colored schools. The white students left behind gave to the colored students leaving Berea the following expression of their regard for them:
"Friends and Fellow-Students: As we meet for the first time under new conditions to enjoy the great privileges of Berea College, we think at once of you who are now deprived of these privileges. Our sense of justice shows us that others have the same rights as ourselves, and the teaching of Christ leads us to 'remember them that are in bonds as bound with them.'
"We realize that you are excluded from the class rooms of Berea College, which we so highly prize, by no fault of your own, and that this hardship is a part of a long line of deprivations under which you live. Because you were born in a race long oppressed and largely untaught and undeveloped, heartless people feel more free to do you wrong, and thoughtless people meet your attempts at self-improvement with indifference or scorn. Even good people sometimes fear to recognize your worth, or take your part
