Great Barrington creates Legacy Committee to honor W.E.B. Du Bois

Posted Monday, September 3, 2018 4:09 pm
By Heather Bellow, The Berkshire Eagle
GREAT BARRINGTON — The W.E.B. Du Bois honors keep coming, after decades of what scholars, local activists and some town officials have said was a pernicious lack of honors for the towering native son.

To robust applause, the town unanimously agreed Monday to create a permanent town committee to promote and preserve the legacy of Du Bois, the African-American scholar, civil rights movement architect and writer who tackled civil and economic rights at the turn of the century and beyond.

"As we move ahead together in community may we heed Du Bois' teachings and grow in solidarity and purpose as a town and with our neighbors," Gwendolyn Hampton VanSant, co-chair of the Du Bois Legacy Committee, wrote in a statement issued after the board meeting. Hampton VanSant is president and CEO of local nonprofit Multicultural BRIDGE.

The board established the committee on the 55th anniversary of Du Bois' death in Ghana in 1963.

Hampton VanSant, as well as co-chair Randy Weinstein of the Du Bois Center on South Main Street, were co-chairs of the Du Bois 150th Festival, which launched in January and stretched into the summer. 
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