W.E.B. Du Bois loved books and wrote lots of them. With this man’s donation, Du Bois will have his own special place in Great Barrington’s library
The town’s Mason Library will soon be the keeper of artifacts related to civil rights architect W.E.B. Du Bois, including his original letters, after the town accepted the donation of a massive collection of Du Bois-owned and related materials. The Select Board on Monday said it would accept the collection of the nonprofit Du Bois […]
Randy F. Weinstein: Happy birthday, Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois
Generally, where we’ve been is a reasonable indicator of where we’re going. As many know, for a long time Great Barrington struggled to embrace Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois. There were times where our community tripped up, times that separated us, infuriated us and compromised our better angels. For a long time, history repeated itself with […]
Indigenous Peoples Day
‘One human family’ Love and prayers at Great Barrington ceremony and an offering to the river BY HEATHER BELLOW The Berkshire Eagle GREAT BARRINGTON They stood on the bank of the Housatonic River and prayed to the four directions in the presence of a Navajo warrior staff and guarded by the spirit of the eagle. […]
Happy birthday, W.E.B. Du Bois
Today is a historic day in the life of our community. On this day, the town of Great Barrington has etched into law a fitting, if long overdue, tribute to its native son W.E.B. Du Bois. This unprecedented measure is even more remarkable knowing, as we do, that there was a time in our community […]
Town agrees to Du Bois Legacy Day
In what was a historic vote for the town’s Select Board, all five members Monday unanimously proclaimed Feb. 23 as W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Day. The proclamation to honor the civil rights giant every year on his birthday was brought to the board by the co-chairpersons of the town’s W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee, Gwendolyn […]
Great Barrington selectboard officially recognizes ‘Du Bois Legacy Day’
“I believe our proclamation encapsulates the heart and spirit of our town,” said Randy Weinstein. “By approving it, to my knowledge, Great Barrington will become the very first municipality in our country to designate an official annual day to honor Dr. Du Bois.” It’s official. The town of Great Barrington will recognize its most famous […]
Black Berkshires: A hidden and not-so-hidden legacy
The story of being Black in the Berkshires is largely untold. It’s a legacy of injustices endured, freedom attained, of human hatred and human kindness, of lasting yet dissipating segregation… In 1771, Berkshire County property tax records show there were: • 19 enslaved humans of African descent in Sheffield; • 7 enslaved humans of African […]
In embrace of W.E.B. Du Bois, Great Barrington names middle school after the civil rights icon
Following more than a decade of public strife, Great Barrington, a small idyllic town in the Berkshires, has finally embraced hometown hero W.E.B. Du Bois, the iconic civil rights activist, scholar, and founder of the NAACP. At the end of a two-and-a-half-hour Zoom meeting — in which dozens testified, mostly in favor of the proposed […]
