posted by Amy Hillier

on July 12, 2007

Why does one go to Great Barrington, MA to search for W.E.B. Du Bois? Because that's where he was born and raised. Great Barrington is a small tourist town in the Berkshires. It is now--as it was in Du Bois' time--predominantly white. I was curious to see how they represent him, their native son, today.

I didn't do any advance research on what I might find, in part because I didn't have internet access during my vacation in New England and in part because I wanted to see what I could find by just talking with people. Thanks to a colleague here in the School of Design, I knew about Berkshares, the local currency they created in that area. Du Bois is featured on the local $5 bill, so I figured that asking someone about that was a good start. (see http://www.berkshares.org).

The owners of a local record store pointed me to a nearby bank where I bought 4 of the $5 bills. The money is meant to encourage people to buy locally by offering discounts when people use them at local stores. I think the project is mostly symbolic, but this seems to be a growing anti-Walmart trend around the country. The folks at the music store also tipped me off to a mural of Du Bois downtown. The mural was rather strange and dark, cartoonish. Very different from Philly murals. A police officer couldn't tell me where any markers were that honored Du Bois, but the owner of a local camera shop sent me to the W.E.B. Du Bois center a mile away to meet Randy Weinstein, the owner of a rare book store and an historian who opened the W.E.B. Du Bois Center. (http://www.union.edu/N/DS/s.php?s=6489).

Randy and his center are what I was looking for. He showed me an original copy of The Philadelphia Negro and a letter from Du Bois explaining how to pronounce his name (none of that French stuff). Randy hosts groups at the Center, including kids, so I knew it was my kind of place. Definitely worth going back for another visit.