Berea, Kentucky

Berea began in eighteen fifty-five as a mission community founded by abolitionist preacher John G. Fee, who named it after the biblical town whose residents were praised for open-minded study of scripture. Fee's dream was an interracial, nonsectarian school, and Berea College opened in eighteen fifty-nine as the first interracial and coeducational college in the South.

Kentucky's Day Law of nineteen oh four forced the college to segregate for nearly fifty years, but the institution's founding ideal survived, and Berea College today remains tuition-free for all students, funded by an endowment rather than tuition. The town is equally known as Kentucky's Folk Arts and Crafts capital, with dozens of studios producing pottery, weaving, and woodwork in the Appalachian tradition. Population hovers around sixteen thousand.