February 21, 2018 The Skanner BLACK HISTORY EDITION Page 7
Black History
Civil Rights Legend W.E.B Du Bois’ Long Road Back to Great Barrington, MA
Bard College at Simon’s
Rock
GREAT BARRINGTON,
Mass. — W.E.B. Du Bois,
one of the most import-
ant African-American
activists and intellectu-
als in U.S. history, was
born 150 years ago on
Feb. 23, 1868 in a small
Western Massachusetts
town amid the rolling
hills of the Berkshire
Mountains.
One of the few African
American families in the
region, William Edward
Burghardt Du Bois was
educated and worshiped
in Great Barrington.
As a teenager, he wrote
newspaper
articles
about small-town life,
and later, neighbors and
the congregation of his
childhood church raised
funds to send him to
college. He owned town
property, paid town tax-
es, and buried his family
in the local cemetery. He
also wrote fondly about
Great Barrington in his
autobiographies and cor-
respondence.
Du Bois earned a bach-
elor’s degree from Fisk
University and in 1895,
became the first African
American to earn a doc-
torate from Harvard Uni-
versity. He co-founded
the National Association
for the Advancement of
Colored People (NAACP).
A proponent of Pan-Af-
ricanism, Du Bois was a
prolific writer and best
known for his collection
of essays, “The Souls of
Black Folk.” He was also a
vocal supporter of wom-
en’s rights and a pioneer-
ing urban sociologist.
Despite his connec-
tion to Great Barrington
and a life of significant
achievements, over the
years the region has
been divided on how to
honor Du Bois’ local leg-
acy. Now, 150 years after
his birth, the town of
Great Barrington, along
with a group of passion-
ate individuals and or-
ganizations, have joined
together to celebrate
their native son with a
festival focused on his
core values: civil rights,
racial equality, economic
justice and progressive
education.
Based on a shared vi-
sion of restoring his
legacy, the Du Bois 150th
Anniversary
Festival
Committee (co-chaired
by Randy Weinstein,
historian and founder
of The Du Bois Center at
Great Barrington, and
Gwendolyn
Hampton
VanSant, executive di-
rector of Multicultural
BRIDGE) has organized
events and lectures that
celebrate Du Bois, edu-
cate the public about his
works, and create legacy
projects in partnership
with Berkshire County
organizations, institu-
tions and community
members.
“Du Bois was a fount of
useable wisdom regard-
ing hot-button issues
like racial equality and
justice, health care, em-
ployment and universal
brotherhood. He was a
speaker of uncomfort-
able truths and a public
school laureate of pro-
gressive education. This
is the Du Bois who cared
about our town, the Du
Bois our town cares to
honor,” said Weinstein.
“I first discovered Du
Bois’ work at 15 while ap-
plying to college at Bard
College at Simon’s Rock
in Great Barrington,”
said Hampton VanSant,
a Simon’s Rock alumna
who interned with Wein-
stein while she was a stu-
dent. “Reading ‘The Souls
of Black Folk’ and learn-
ing about the concepts
of ‘the veil’ and ‘double
consciousness’—this was
the first time I felt I had
words for the split expe-
rience I was living as a
black scholar in my first
college English course.”
An advocate for the
liberal arts, Du Bois has
long been a significant
voice in the Simon’s Rock
curriculum and commu-
nity. Early on, a selection
from his autobiography
“Dusk of Dawn” was in-
“
lecture featuring prom-
inent Du Bois scholars
and awards Du Bois
Du Bois was a fount of use-
able wisdom regarding
hot-button issues like racial
equality and justice, health
care, employment and uni-
versal brotherhood
cluded in the Writing
and Thinking Anthology
for first-year students
and “The Souls of Black
Folk” remains a seminal
course requirement. The
college hosts an annual
Scholarships to under-
represented students.
“After many years of
struggle in Great Bar-
rington about how to
honor Du Bois, I am hon-
ored to carry this torch
over the finish line with
many others past and
present, restoring a leg-
acy rightfully earned,”
said Hampton VanSant.
As Pulitzer-Prize win-
ning Du Bois biographer
David Levering Lewis
said in his speech “W.E.B.
Du Bois’s Long Road Back
to Great Barrington” at
the inauguration of the
W.E.B. Du Bois Educa-
tional Series in 2016, “...
I dare to believe that the
time has finally arrived
for Du Bois to be wel-
comed in his hometown,
warts and all, as its most
prized historic exem-
plar.”