Library in Mass offers up rare invite to W.E.B. Du Bois Wedding
A Massachusetts library that owns an invitation to W.E.B. Du Bois‘ 1951 wedding is offering to send it to Queens to help landmark the home where the ceremony was held. Randy Weinstein, founder of the Du Bois Center in Great Barrington, Mass., figured a display of the note – handwritten by Du Bois‘ wife, Shirley Graham – might aid a push to save the posh Addisleigh […]
Productive visit to Du Bois Center
Saturday, August 04 To the Editor of THE EAGLE: We went to the W.E.B. Du Bois Center in Great Barrington and visited Randy Weinstein . We learned: W.E.B. Du Bois was born and raised in Great Barrington. He wrote 87 books and publications. He loved to teach (like Randy!) He was the first African-American to graduate high […]
A new view of our 18th president
GREAT BARRINGTON He was among the best of presidents, he was among the worst of presidents — depending on which historians you believe, and there’s ample evidence to support both arguments. Ulysses S. Grant, a West Point graduate, rose from clerking in his father’s leather-goods store in Galena, Ill., to become the great Civil War general who assured […]
Center visit a must for Du Bois students
To the Editor of THE EAGLE: I am heartened by the articulated vision of Monument Mountain students, with regard to W.E.B. Du Bois’ legacy (letters, March 7-9.) They are forthright, knowledgeable and passionate about our famous native son’s often-neglected history. Cindy Schmelkin, for one, suggested that a Du Bois Center informational center would greatly benefit our community. […]
Like Du Bois, he made a difference
Sunday, March 11 To the Editor of the EAGLE: W.E.B. Du Bois was certainly a controversial figure in American history. This gentleman of African-American heritage was a prodigious writer, scholar and long-time lover of the Berkshires, with its beautiful “golden river,” the Housatonic. Although many may not agree with his politics, many more would agree with his position […]
Du Bois awards credit pioneers
GREAT BARRINGTON — Irving Burgie, a singer-songwriter and civil rights activist who penned Harry Belafonte’s most famous songs, said he hadn’t planned on a music career when he began learning to play guitar while serving in the Army. “The songwriting came much later,” he said. Burgie, perhaps better known as Lord Burgess for his calypso music and […]
Day-O!
Lord Burgess—songwriter, performer and civil rights activist—will be returning to the Berkshires once again, not to perform his signature calypso music, but to receive a 2007 Pioneer Award at the W.E.B. Du Bois Center. Lord Burgess is the professional name of singer-songwriter and political activist Irving Burgie, a native of Brooklyn, N.Y., whose mother was from Barbados, a […]
Robeson, Du Bois and Africa
Thursday, October 12 The Great Barrington center offers its first major exhibition Just south of the main streets of Great Barrington sits the recently conceived and opened W.E.B. Du Bois Center. Created by Randy Weinstein within the expanded space of his shop, North Star Rare Books, the center is dedicated to the history of black Americans, particularly […]
