Trail marking local black history gets boost

By Bill SamplePrint Story | Email Story
GREAT BARRINGTON — The National Park Service and Heritage Partners Inc. have awarded $4,275 to fund the development of a Heritage Trail guide recognizing African Americans of national and international significance in the region, and the Upper Housatonic Valley Heritage Area Organization has granted an additional $2,000 to boost the effort. The guide will tell the stories of the people, some of the places they lived and died and, events that revealed their courage and determination to participate equally in all aspects of American society. “It’s a history that has been nearly invisible, but it’s a very rich and remarkable history,” said Rachel Fletcher, chairwoman of the Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail Committee. “If we fail to preserve and document this story now, it will be lost forever.” The money pledged so far will fund the research and writing of about 50 short essays by various scholars and historians from around the region, giving a vignette of people and places significant to black history in the area. “It’s a labor of love,” Fletcher said. “There has been a lot of volunteer effort from local historians. We will need significantly more money to actually design and finally produce the booklet.” She added that the committee is in the process of applying for grants and other funding for the project, which should be complete “in about 18 months.” The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts has been contracted to administer the trail guide project. Professor Frances Jones-Sneed is directing the effort, and David Levinson, principal of Berkshire Publishing Group, will be the guide editor. Contributors will include Berkshire Athenaeum historian Emilie Piper, local historian Bernard Drew, Berkshire Community College Professor Barbara Bartle, Pittsfield’s Second Congregational Church historian Ivan Newton and others. Once the guide is published, the next step will be to develop a program of heritage tourism — lecture series and publications on specific themes, a Web site and signs and other amenities for on-site interpretation. A parallel African American Educators Network of college, high school and elementary/middle school educators is preparing to incorporate the guide material into local school curricula. Professor Alex Willingham of Williams College is overseeing the compilation of a bibliography for the study of local African American history In a region that lays claim to Shays’ Rebellion, Herman Melville's home Arrowhead and Edith Wharton's Mount, what has largely gone unrecognized, according to the committee, is a rich history of African Americans who played an important role in the American story of freedom, democracy and equality of which all Americans can be proud. Blacks served in the Revolutionary War, among them Agrippa Hull of Stockbridge. Elizabeth “Mumbet” Freeman of Sheffield pioneered the fight against slavery and contributed to Massachusetts’ decision in 1781 to abolish the practice statewide. In the Civil War, more blacks from the region enlisted in the famed Massachusetts 54th regiment than anywhere in the state, among them Chaplain Samuel Harrison of Pittsfield and early volunteer Milo J. Freeman/Freeland of Sheffield and East Canaan, Conn. Modern times brought the famous Lenox-born photographer of the Harlem Renaissance, James VanderZee; NAACP leaders such as Mary White Ovington, composer of the “Negro National Anthem;” James Weldon Johnson of Great Barrington and Williamstown and Pittsfield native Frank Grant of the Negro Baseball League. W.E.B. Du Bois of Great Barrington, perhaps the loudest voice for African American equality, and the father of the modern civil rights movement, awakened America’s understanding of the Reconstruction period and the meaning of freedom for everyone. The Heritage Trail effort is sponsored by the Upper Housatonic Valley Heritage Area and guided by an advisory board with representatives from Williams College, MCLA, Simon’s Rock College of Bard, Berkshire Community College, the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, the Trustees of Reservations, the W. E. B. Du Bois Foundation, Berkshire Athenaeum, Berkshire County Historical Society, Stockbridge Library, Sheffield Historical Society, the Samuel Harrison Preservation Project, Berkshire Country Day School and other historical societies and projects throughout the region. The group also plans to revive the Berkshire County Historical Society's “Invisible Community” oral history project and to document the largely unwritten local history of African Americans. The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area Inc. (UHVNHA) is a private nonprofit organization established in 2000 to create a National Heritage rea encompassing 29 communities in Western Massachusetts and northwestern Connecticut. Its overall goals are to celebrate and preserve the region’s historical, cultural and natural attractions. The UHVNHA Act, which will provide the official designation, has been passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and is pending before the U.S. Senate.
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Lanesborough Fifth-Graders Win Snowplow Name Contest

LANESBOROUGH, Mass. — One of the snowplows for Highway District 1 has a new name: "The Blizzard Boss."
 
The name comes from teacher Gina Wagner's fifth-grade class at Lanesborough Elementary School. 
 
The state Department of Transportation announced the winners of the fourth annual "Name A Snowplow" contest on Monday. 
 
The department received entries from public elementary and middle school classrooms across the commonwealth to name the 12 MassDOT snowplows that will be in service during the 2025/2026 winter season. 
 
The purpose of the contest is to celebrate the snow and ice season and to recognize the hard work and dedication shown by public works employees and contractors during winter operations. 
 
"Thank you to all of the students who participated. Your creativity allows us to highlight to all, the importance of the work performed by our workforce," said  interim MassDOT Secretary Phil Eng.  
 
"Our workforce takes pride as they clear snow and ice, keeping our roads safe during adverse weather events for all that need to travel. ?To our contest winners and participants, know that you have added some fun to the serious take of operating plows. ?I'm proud of the skill and dedication from our crews and thank the public of the shared responsibility to slow down, give plows space and put safety first every time there is a winter weather event."
 
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