Great Barrington — A celebration on Saturday, Aug. 27 at Du Bois River Park commemorated the life of W.E.B. Du Bois. The name of the event, “W.E.B. Du Bois I’ve Known Rivers,” was taken from Langston Hughes’ poem, “The Negro Speaks of Rivers,” which was first published by Du Bois in the June 1921 issue of “The Crisis,” the official magazine of the NAACP that he founded in 1910.
The event, co-organized by the Du Bois Freedom Center, the NAACP Berkshires, and the Great Barrington Land Conservancy, was held at the W.E.B. Du Bois River Park, River Walk.
Du Bois, a civil rights activist, author, and historian, was born in Great Barrington in 1868 and died in 1963 in Accra, Ghana.
“Today’s event is a remarkable collaboration between many groups and individuals that care about W.E.B. Du Bois and the principles that he fought for,” Rachel Fletcher, founder of the Housatonic River Walk, said at the beginning of the event. “[His work] has been a blueprint for much of what we’ve done. [The environment] was one of the many, many causes that he was a champion of. He had a love of rivers and a passion for environmental justice.”
During the event, which took place on the 59th anniversary of Du Bois’ death on August 27, 1963, writer and artist Delano Burrowes read “The Negro Speaks of Rivers” by Langston Hughes, educator Dr. MaryNell Morgan-Brown performed “We Have Known Rivers,” cornetist and trumpeter Graham Haynes performed an elegy for Du Bois, and multiple readers took turns in reading Du Bois’ “The Housatonic River.”
“You, Dr. Du Bois, left us with some options,” event emcee James Browne said. “Options about how to care for and love our river, options about how to care for and love each other. I think we would do very well to heed those messages.”
As part of the event, Dennis Powell, President of the NAACP Berkshire County Branch, released water samples that he collected from The Last Bath River in Accra, Ghana, into the Housatonic River. Back in 2019, Powell was part of an NAACP-organized pilgrimage from Jamestown, Va., to Jamestown, Ghana. The pilgrimage was to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first documented enslaved Africans in America in 1619.
Before he left for the pilgrimage, Powell collected water from the Housatonic River near the birthplace of Du Bois and traveled with it to Du Bois’ gravesite in Accra. In return, Powell brought back water from Ghana that he held onto for almost three years just so it could be released at the August 27 event. “For me, this was a very special trip,” Powell said. “As I hold these vials [with water from Ghana], I still think about those cool running water. The energy that came from the water wasn’t just river water. That river was full of life and full of spirits.”
The event continued with a tour of historical sites around town that involve the history of W.E.B. Du Bois, along with a reception at the A.M.E. Zion Church, the location of the Du Bois Freedom Center.
The Freedom Center organization is currently leading a renovation project for the historic building, which is the historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church. For more information go to the organization’s website.
See photos and videos from the event below, courtesy of Shaw Israel Izikson.
