‘Brilliant essayist’ honored
GREAT BARRINGTON — In the 1980s, Yale historian David W. Blight recalled that he began making trips to Great Barrington and asking local shopkeepers where the memorial to famed civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois was located. “And they’d all say, ‘Sorry, don’t know,’ ” Blight said. One night, while driving around town in the mid-1990s, Blight […]
Du Bois Center at Great Barrington Opening Event
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, […]
Du Bois event will draw many
GREAT BARRINGTON — Randy Weinstein thought he’d be lucky to get 80 people at his weekend event honoring the late W.E.B Du Bois, which includes songs, lectures and discussion, and a celebration of the new Du Bois Center of American History and Culture. He now has 200 reservations for the Saturday program at St. James Episcopal Church at […]
Recognizing W.E.B. Du Bois
The relationship between Great Barrington and one of its native sons, W.E.B. Du Bois, has not always been an easy one. Du Bois, of course, is one of the most important people in American history. Unfortunately, most of the members of the Great Barrington Board of Selectmen and their predecessors really don’t know that. We’ve finally got some […]
Du Bois life, legacy come full circle
Thursday, January 26 To the Editor of THE EAGLE: In a most profound way, the Great Barrington Selectmen have made history by authorizing history to be made. By a majority vote they have mandated road signage to commemorate the “Birthplace of W.E.B. Du Bois.” The signs are artfully designed (forest green with white lettering, bearing the town seal) […]
From Johnny Morgan to Weinstein
Letter to the Editor During the latter 1800s, a boy called Willy spent his earliest of 96 years growing, playing, learning and working in the shops, schools and streets of Great Barrington. Of African-American lineage, Willy must have been distinctive among his childhood peers. He would become distinctive among all men. Certainly something here contributed to the development […]
A memorial as impetus to change
To the Editor of THE EAGLE: On Sunday, Sept. 11, the public was invited to attend a memorial gathering for the Twin Towers tragedy at the North Star Rare Books Store in Great Barrington. My husband and I went. It was everything a memorial gathering should, and can, be. Dr. Brian Burke wrote and spoke, Rob Putnam […]
Historian seeks to fulfill dream
GREAT BARRINGTON—Every summer, local historian Randy Weinstein, the owner of North Star Books on Main Street, encounters several dozen visitors who want to know where the W.E.B. DuBois Museum is. “They get into town, and they go over to the Chamber of Commerce and ask about DuBois,” he said. “And the chamber always says, ‘Go see Randy.’” There […]
