Berkshire County Historical Society: Perspectives on Berkshires Black History

03:48PM / Wednesday, April 13, 2022Print Story | Email Story

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The Berkshire County Historical Society is rescheduling Dr. Cynthia Farr Brown's lecture From the Slave's Cause to Civil Rights: Community and Liberty in the Berkshires before 1909 to April 20.

The virtual lecture will take place at 5 pm; to receive the zoom link, please contact BCHS at melville@berkshirehistory.org

Cynthia Brown is the president of the board of the Berkshire County Historical Society – Arrowhead. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Berkshire County Education Task Force, and as an Associate Member of Pittsfield's Community Development Board.

She has a doctorate in United States history and her scholarly publications have included co-editing the institutional history, Lesley University: Celebrating Excellence 1909-2009 (2011) as well as other book chapters and articles. Her career has been in higher education as a faculty member and administrator. She is currently Associate Commissioner for Regulatory and Veterans Affairs at the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

According to a press release, Brown approaches the commonly-held progressive arc of Black history in Massachusetts - enslavement, abolition of slavery under the Massachusetts constitution, leadership in the Civil War and Reconstruction, and the success of the 20th century civil rights movement – by suggesting that newer scholarship tells a more complex story. She will describe research-informed Berkshires scenarios that complicate the classic trajectory. Her talk considers what we can still discover about how individuals and communities shaped their own and our shared history.

Anyone interested in receiving recorded versions of the lectures from this series can contact melville@berkshirehistory.org.

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Trial Scheduled for North Adams Woman Accused of Killing Grandmother

Staff reportsiBerkshires
04:59PM / Monday, October 05, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A 2027 trial date is scheduled for a woman accused of killing her grandmother in North Adams four years ago.

A jury trial for Kelsie Cote is set for May 24, 2027, in Berkshire Superior Court.

Cote, 30, is alleged to have killed 74-year-old Doris A. Cote, who was found dead with sharp and blunt force injuries in her Church Street, North Adams, home on Nov. 1, 2022.

Cote has pleaded not guilty to five felony charges: murder, armed assault to murder a person age 60 or older, two counts of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon of a person age 60 or older, and one count of withholding evidence from official proceedings.

Hearings for evidence suppression will be held on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

A conference to review the case's status was held on Sept. 28. Assistant District Attorney Marianne Shelvey, representing the Berkshire County District Attorney's Office, filed a motion to impound certain documents, which was allowed by Judge Maureen Hogan.

Cote is represented by attorney Kevin Joseph Reddington, who is also the defense lawyer for Lindsay Clancy, a Duxbury woman accused of killing her three children in 2023. Cote's case has reportedly been delayed because of the seven-week Clancy trial in Plymouth County, which ended in a mistrial on Sept. 4.

The Berkshire Eagle reported that Reddington told the court he seeks to suppress Cote's statements because he argues she was not read her Miranda rights, and that he will file motions to suppress evidence found during the execution of a search warrant, arguing that the police did not have probable cause.

Allegations include:

On or about Oct. 26 and on Nov. 1, Cote allegedly altered, destroyed, mutilated, or concealed a record, document, or other object or attempted to do so to impair the record, document, or object's integrity for use in an official proceeding.

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