 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 and Supreme Court ruling in "Berea College v. Kentucky", and Berea then formed and funded the Lincoln Institute in Louisville for African American students.Frost stepped down as president of Berea in 1920.He died in 1938.