Berea, Kentucky in the context of Richmond, Kentucky

Berea College is a private liberal arts work college in Berea, Kentucky, United States. Founded in 1855, it was the first college in the Southern United States to be coeducational and racially integrated. It admitted non-White students from as early as 1866 until 1904, and again after 1954.

The college participates in federal work-study and work college programs that cover the remaining tuition fees after subtracting the total sum a student receives from Pell Grant, other grants, and scholarships. Most of the college's students come from southern Appalachia but students come from more than 40 states in the United States and 70 other countries. Approximately half of them identify as people of color.

Gloria Jean Watkins (September 25, 1952 – December 15, 2021), better known by her pen name bell hooks (stylized in lowercase), was an American author, theorist, educator, and social critic who was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College. She was best known for her writings on race, feminism, and social class. Her work explored the intersectionality of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination. She published numerous scholarly articles and nearly 40 books, in styles ranging from essays and poetry to children's literature, with a body of work that addressed love, gender, art, history, sexuality, and mass media.

She began her academic career in 1976 teaching English and ethnic studies at the University of Southern California. She later taught at several institutions including Stanford University, Yale University, New College of Florida, and The City College of New York, before joining Berea College in Berea, Kentucky, in 2004. In 2014, hooks also founded the bell hooks Institute at Berea College. Her pen name was borrowed from her maternal great-grandmother, Bell Blair Hooks, using lowercase to decenter herself and instead maintain focus on the substance of her writings.