first coed and racially integrated college

The first coeducational and racially integrated college in the United States, particularly noted as the first in the Southern United States, is Berea College. Founded in 1855, Berea College admitted both Black and white students in a fully integrated curriculum and was coeducational from its inception. This made it one of the very few institutions in the mid-19th century to admit both male and female students and to be racially integrated. Berea College began as a single building schoolhouse and has a long history of interracial education despite facing segregation laws in the early 20th century. It remains significant as an early example of integration and coeducation in American higher education.