Berea College stands by founding tenet: That we are all one blood

To our fellow Bereans and Kentuckians,

Last week, our nation was roiled yet again by the videotaped killing of an unarmed African American man by police: George Floyd. In our own beloved Kentucky, protestors are marching for justice for Breonna Taylor, an African American woman shot in her own home by the police.

Even in the midst of a pandemic, people of color remain targets, often with little recourse. Christian Cooper was bird watching in Central Park a week ago and asked a young woman to put her dog on a leash, which was required in that section of the park. Instead, she told him that she was going to “call the police and tell them that an African American man was threatening her and her dog.” The message was clear—Mr. Cooper would be perceived by the police as a threat to her, and would, subsequently, be punished.

In 1857, the United States Supreme Court issued an infamous decision that, it seems, echoes still today. An enslaved man, Dred Scott, sued for his freedom after being taken by his “owner” into what was then a “free” territory. In its decision the court wrote that “They had for more than a century before been regarded as beings of an inferior order…: and so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man was bound to respect:…” (Dred Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S.at 407). That decision was overturned by the 13th and 14th Amendments to the U. S. Constitution.

Today, we stand as a nation at a moment when we must decide if the notorious language of Dred Scott will guide our future, or the language of The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all (men) peoples are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness…” Here at Berea College, we have long stood on the side of justice, and today, we remain steadfast, holding to the motto of our Founder, the great abolitionist Reverend John G. Fee, taken from Acts: 17:26, “God has made of One Blood All Peoples of the Earth.” Berea College remains steadfast in its support of all marginalized communities and peoples, and we ask that all Bereans and Kentuckians remember these individuals—that we remember their names and their stories. That we never forget that we are, indeed, one blood.

This letter was signed by the faculty, staff, administration and trustees of Berea College.