Advisory Board of the Du Bois Center

David W. Blight, historian
Charles L. Blockson, historian
Ed Bullins, playwright
Irving Burgie, composer
Rita Dove, poet
David Levering Lewis, biographer
Rebecca L. Weinstein, educator

We mourn the recent deaths of board members and colleagues John Y. Simon (1933–2008), John Hope Franklin (1915–2009) and Richard Wilbur (1921-2017).

Founder and executive director of the Du Bois Center

Randy F. Weinstein, the father of two children, has lived in Berkshire County for more than forty years. A graduate of Westfield State College, Weinstein directed a residential treatment center for challenged students in western Massachusetts, published several works on African-American history, founded North Star Rare Books, Great Barrington, and lectures on race relations throughout the county. He founded the Du Bois Center at Great Barrington, a nonprofit organization, to provide the community with educational programs that honestly examine historical and contemporary aspects of social justice. An Osher Lifelong Learning Institute instructor, Weinstein chairs the town’s  W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Committee, charged with “preserving and promoting Great Barrington native Du Bois’s legacy as a scholar and activist for freedom, civil rights, progressive education, economic justice, and racial equality.”