W.E.B. Du Bois’ legacy finds a home in Great Barrington’s Town Hall
GREAT BARRINGTON — Almost 150 years after his birth here, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois is about to get what people say are his long-overdue props around town. And many more are on the way.
The first stop in this effort was Town Hall on Tuesday. And it began with a large photo of W.E.B. Du Bois, with wife and son, who died at 2 years old of diphtheria because he was black and white doctors in Atlanta refused to treat him.
A large photo of the young African-American scholar, sociologist and civil rights leader, taken around 1898, will hang permanently on a prominent wall in the stairwell. And a large framed copy of his birth certificate might have a spot on a wall in the meeting room.
