Lincoln Institute collection

Collection

Identifier: RG 13-13.29

Staff Only

Lincoln Institute Correspondence

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Lincoln Institute Publications

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Lincoln Institute Oral History Collection

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Scope and Contents

These are the papers and publications relating to the founding and work of the Lincoln Institute, founded by Berea College in 1910 to serve black students after the Kentucky Day Law (1904) effectively segregated the College. Materials document curriculum development, administrative activities, and fund-raising efforts.

Materials consist of Tresaurer's Reports, President's Reports, Trustee Minutes and Reports, and miscellaneous departmental and administrative reports documenting the life of the Institute and efforts to maintain it as an effective instrument of Black education and vocational training. Institute publications and various publicity and fund-raising items are also included in the collection. Some correspondence is also present as well as reports of the Lincoln Foundation, the fund-raising instrument of the Institute.

Dates

created: 1905 - 2023

Creator

Lincoln Institute of Kentucky. (Organization)
Berea College (Organization)

Conditions Governing Access

Records can be accessed through the Reading Room, Berea College Special Collections and Archives, Hutchins Library, Berea College.

Conditions Governing Use

There are no restrictions on the collection other than federal copyright regulations.

Extent

4.00 ms_boxes

Language of Materials

English

Additional Description

Abstract

The Lincoln Institute was an all-black boarding high school in Simpsonville, Kentucky, near Louisville, that operated from 1912 to 1966. The school was created by the trustees of Berea College after the Kentucky State Legislature passed the Day Law (1904) putting an end to the racially integrated education at Berea that had existed since the end of the Civil War. The founders originally intended the institute to be a college as well as a high school, but by the 1930s it gave up its junior college function. The Institute offered both vocational education and standard high school classes. The students produced the school's food on the campus' 444 acres. Lincoln Institute alumnus, Whitney Young, Jr., became a prominent leader of the Civil Rights Movement and served as director of the National Urban League from 1961 to 1971. Born at the institute in 1921, he was the son of Whitney Young, Sr. who led the school as its longtime principal. The rise of integrated education reduced the need for high schools like Lincoln. Since its 1966 closing, the Lincoln campus has housed gifted and talented programs, the Whitney Young, Jr. Job Corps Center, and the Whitney Young Birthplace and Museum (a National Historic Landmark).