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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Zebra Mussels Found in Pittsfield's Onota Lake

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff
10:34AM / Tuesday, October 27, 2026

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The city will treat one acre of Onota Lake for zebra mussels.

On Wednesday, during a special virtual meeting, the Conservation Commission approved a series of three treatments with EarthTec QZ. During dive monitoring in August, a live adult zebra mussel was found near the boat ramp.

Parks, Open Space, and Natural Resources Manager James McGrath said it will begin in the next 7-10 days, and that this treatment is nearly identical to that in the fall of 2024, as approved by the ConCom and other entities.

EarthTec QZ, an EPA-registered liquid molluscicide, will be applied to a 1-acre section from a boat with GPS guidance, about 14 days apart. There will be signs and notices of treatments to alert the public.

Karen Murray, of the Lake Onota Preservation Association, explained that the area is from the rocky point north of the boat launch to the boat launch, and a little south of the fishing pier.

"Again, does that mean we have live zebra mussels? We don't know, but it's pretty strong evidence of a potential problem," she said.

Over the last few years, Pittsfield has grappled with occasional findings of the invasive species.

Pittsfield and LOPA embarked on an early detection process at Onota Lake in the fall of 2023; the state Department of Conservation and Recreation had found the area near the boat launch positive for zebra mussel eDNA.

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