Can you point me to more info on “free college” of the past? I know that for this immigrant few years off the boat, federal grants and deferred interest loans

Can you point me to more info on “free college” of the past? I know that for this immigrant few years off the boat, federal grants and deferred interest loans was what gave me access to education that would otherwise put a huge burden on my family at the time. Granted this was for an engineering degree at a public university and amounted to no more than 10-20k as opposed to 200k for an art degree at a private art college that we often read about