Du Bois Center at Great Barrington Opening Event

Written Feb 11, 2006 by Randy Weinstein in

W.E.B. Du Bois & the Promise of America: The Color Line since 1865–A Discussion

Great Barrington, Massachusetts. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was the United States’ first black public intellectual and his ideas inform many of the issues we continue to face today on race, education, economic disparities, and what it means to be an American. His long, varied, and often controversial career as a historian, sociologist, writer, civil rights leader, and political activist began in the nurturing community of Great Barrington, where he was born in February 1868.

It is fitting that there, adjacent to the graveyard in which his first wife, Nina, and son, Burghardt, rest, the Du Bois Center of American History & Culture was founded by educator and proprietor of North Star Rare Books, Randy F. Weinstein.

To celebrate the opening of the Du Bois Center, Weinstein has invited three distinguished historians who will gather on February 11, 2006, at 4:30 p.m., for a frank discussion regarding “W.E.B Du Bois and the Promise of America – the Color Line since 1865,” followed by a reception at 6:30 p.m.

Historian David W. Blight is the author of the award-winning Race and Reunion: The Civil War in American Memory and has edited the most scholarly edition of Du Bois’ Souls of Black Folk. He teaches history at Yale University and is on the Advisory Board of the Du Bois Center.

Historian David Levering Lewis earned Pulitzer Prizes for his definitive biography, W.E.B. Du Bois: Biography of a Race, 1868-1919 and W.E.B. Du Bois: The Fight for Equality and the American Century, 1919-1963. He teaches history at New York University and is on the Advisory Board of the Du Bois Center.

Historian John Y. Simon is the executive director of the Ulysses S. Grant Association and the editor of the acclaimed multi-volume Papers of Ulysses S. Grant. He teaches history at Southern Illinois University and is on the Advisory Board of the Du Bois Center.

Start: Saturday, February 11, 2006 – 4:30pm
Location: St. James Church, 352 South Main Street, Great Barrington, Mass.
Reception to follow at:

The Du Bois Center of American History & Culture
684 South Main Street, Great Barrington, MA 01230

Reservations required!
tel: 413-644-9595 * fax: 413-644-9596 * [email protected]

Sponsored by the Berkshire Record & the Great Barrington Historical Society