Free W.E.B. Du Bois Guided Walking Tours Offered
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GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The W.E.B. Du Bois National Historic Site will hold free tours on Saturdays and Sundays through Oct. 4 in downtown Great Barrington and at the Du Bois Homesite on Route 23.
The visionary leader, scholar and champion for civil rights, William Edward Burghardt Du Bois was born in Great Barrington in 1868 along a “golden river.” The hour long, 1/2-mile walking tour visits places that were significant to him while growing up and introduces the people influential in shaping his intellectual development.
Du Bois in Great Barrington walking tour begins at the W.E.B. Du Bois River Garden on Church Street along the Housatonic River Walk. Saturday tours are at 3 p.m. and on Sundays at 4 p.m.
The W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite, two miles from downtown Great Barrington along Route 23, was Du Bois’s family land for more than 150 years beginning in the late 18th century. He lived at the homesite in his early years and cherished his family home – the House of the Black Burghardts. In recognition of Du Bois and his fondness for his family home, Du Bois’s friends at the NAACP purchased the property and gave it to Du Bois for his 60th birthday. While Du Bois worked with a local architect to fix up the house and make a weekend home, his plans were never realized.
The guided tour highlights Du Bois’s extraordinary journey from Great Barrington to the world stage. Graduating from Fisk University and then Harvard University – the first African American to receive a Ph.D. – Du Bois became a central figure in 20th century movements for racial equality, self-determination for people of African descent and world peace.
The homesite tours are Saturdays at 1 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. The tour follows a wooded path to the foundation of the family house, where archaeologists from the University of Massachusetts Amherst have uncovered the house footprint, kitchen garden and artifacts mostly dating to the late 19th and early 20th century belonging to Du Bois’s kin.
The guided tour unfolds the layers of history at Du Bois’s family homesite, including the more recent history of creating a memorial park to honor Du Bois. In 1967, Dr. Edmund Gordon and Walter Wilson, friends and admirers of Du Bois, purchased the original family homesite along with additional acreage to make a five acre memorial park. At the 1969 dedication, Julian Bond was the keynote speaker, then a 25 year old state senator from Georgia and more recently President of the NAACP, and the well-known actor and political activist, Ossie Davis, was the master of ceremonies.
The free guided tours are led by Felicia Jamison, a PhD candidate in history at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Jamison notes that race relations and recent national events are very much on the minds of some of the tour participants and appropriately become part of the conversation. Free group tours can be scheduled on Thursdays and Fridays during the summer by contacting Jamison at info@duboisnhs.org.
Tags: historical, walking,
