Alfred H. Stone Collection
Volume: 65

3. Court of Appeals of Ky. January Term, 1906. Berea College, Appellant, vs. Commonwealth of Kentucky, Appellee. Brief for Appellee in Cases Nos. 4 and 5 (Frankfort, KY: Geo. A. Lewis, [1906?]). (44, 31 p.)

Brief for the Commonwealth of Kentucky in a case charging Berea College with “maintaining and operating school for whites and negroes.” The charge was brought as a result of a new law passed by the General Assembly of Kentucky on March 22, 1904, stating “that it shall be unlawful for any person, corporation or association of persons to maintain or operate any college, school or institution where persons of the white and negro races are both received as pupils for instruction.” The statute also made it illegal for instructors or pupils of either race to attend an integrated school. The penalty for institutions guilty of breaking this law was a fine of $100 a day, $50 a day for instructors and pupils. The fourth section of the statute allowed for an exception. “Nothing in this act shall be construed to prevent any private school, college or institution of learning from maintaining a separate and distinct branch thereof, in a different locality, not less than twenty-five miles distant, for the education exclusively of one race or color.” (The case went to the United States Supreme Court, where Berea lost. It was 1954 before the finding was overturned as a result of Brown v Board of Education.)