William Goodell Frost (1854–1938) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

scholar and president of

Berea College Berea College is a private liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky. Founded in 1855, Berea College was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. Berea College charges no tuition; every a ...

from 1890 to 1920. He is credited with coining the phrase " Appalachian American."

Biography

William Goodell Frost was born in Le Roy, New York on July 2, 1854, to Rev. Lewis P. Frost, and Maria Goodell Frost,

abolitionist Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

conductors on the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. ...

. His grandfather William Goodell was also a notable abolitionist and

temperance Temperance may refer to: Moderation *Temperance movement, movement to reduce the amount of alcohol consumed *Temperance (virtue), habitual moderation in the indulgence of a natural appetite or passion Culture *Temperance (group), Canadian danc ...

supporter, and Frost's aunt, Lavinia Goodell, was the first woman licensed to practice law in Wisconsin. Frost graduated from Oberlin College in Ohio in 1876 and served as a professor of Greek at Oberlin and was ordained as a Congregationalist minister. Frost turned down the presidency of Berea College in 1889 before accepting in 1892. While serving as president, Frost coined the term "Appalachian American" when the school changed its mission from educating black and white students together to simply educating "Appalachian Americans" in response to the segregationist 1904

Day Law The Day Law mandated racial segregation in educational institutions in Kentucky. Formally designated "An Act to Prohibit White and Colored Persons from Attending the Same School," the bill was introduced in the Kentucky House of Representatives by ...

and Supreme Court ruling in ''

Berea College v. Kentucky ''Berea College v. Kentucky'', 211 U.S. 45 (1908), was a significant case argued before the United States Supreme Court that upheld the rights of states to prohibit private educational institutions chartered as corporations from admitting both bla ...

'', and Berea then formed and funded the Lincoln Institute in Louisville for

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

students.William Goodell Frost Papers at Berea College
accessed on November 12, 2019 Frost stepped down as president of Berea in 1920. He died at his home on the college campus on September 11, 1938, and was buried at Berea Cemetery.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Frost, William Goodell 1854 births 1938 deaths Academics from New York (state) American classical scholars Berea College faculty Heads of universities and colleges in the United States Oberlin College alumni People from Le Roy, New York