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The book presents the history of the growth, development, and significance of Alabama's Talladega College, a black liberal arts college, from its inception in the 1860s through the student protest movement more than a century later. The historical account emphasizes such college issues as finance, enrollment, students, educational policy, and the school's relationship with both its black and white neighbors. The history describes the school's first decades as it struggled against poverty, white hostility, Ku Klux Klan threats, and internal dissension while at the same time producing teachers and ministers for Alabama schools and churches. During the mid-1920s Talladega emerged as a first-rate liberal arts college under the leadership of James T. Cater, the school's first black dean, while in the 1930s Talladega achieved a high level of democracy by allowing faculty and students a large role in policy making. The firing of Adam D. Beittel in 1952 as a result of internal bickering culminated in the appointment of Talladega alumnus Arthur D. Gray, the school's first black president. The administrations of Gray and of his successor, Herman H. Long, are described and a chapter on students in the civil rights era completes the story of the college's first century. The book includes an index and a bibliography of manuscripts, government documents, books, articles, brochures and pamphlets, dissertations, theses, and other unpublished materials. (GLR)