Pittsfield — “Thank you all for being here and supporting the Freedom Fund, which is our lifeline for creating opportunities for graduates of color and immigrants seeking to further their education and enter the workplace as change makers,” began NAACP Berkshires President Dennis Powell during the Freedom Fund Awards ceremony held January 25.
The fundraiser to help young people of marginalized communities attend college or trade school also bestows around half a dozen awards to allies in the community. Larry Spotted Crow-Man, a previous recipient of the Indigenous Peoples Freedom Fund Award, incanted part of the opening land acknowledgment in Algonquin “to remind folks of the language that was first spoken here.” Enrolled in the Nipmuc tribe, he said, “I acknowledge not only my ancestors, but all the people, the Black and brown folks who built this country, hundreds of years of free labor, hundreds of years of land stolen, denial, erasure.”
Wanda Houston then roused the attendees of the sold-out hall at the Berkshire Hills Country Club with “Lift Every Voice,” the Black national anthem.
Alluding to the recent inauguration, President Powell said in his opening remarks he had changed his presentation to speak about a “deeply troubling trend” seen over the last year: “the systematic dismantling” of DEI programs. He called rollbacks at corporations like Target, Walmart, and McDonald’s “hypocrisy at its finest”; they “rely on the buying power of communities of color” and market themselves “as champions of diversity, using our stories and our struggles as selling points” but abandon their commitments “when the political winds shift.”
“We will hold you accountable,” Powell declared. “We will not support businesses that profit off our communities while erasing the programs that uplift them. It is time to invest in businesses and institutions that stand with us, not just when it is convenient, but when it is complicated.” He reminded the cheering audience that “every dollar raised tonight goes towards creating opportunities for those students to ensure they succeed and thrive in a world that too often tells them they are not enough. Our students are more than enough. Our communities are more than enough, and together, we are unstoppable.”
Powell later presented a President Allyship Award to the Greylock Federal Credit Union leadership team, saying their practices and vision had “set a new standard for what corporate leadership can achieve when guided by a heart for justice.” Accepting the award, CEO John Bissell thanked Powell for “a lot of lunches, a lot of conversations” about 12 years ago that helped him “understand the racial dynamics taking place right here in [his] community,” which shaped Greylock’s role in advancing financial equity, Black homeownership, and generational wealth building.

The W.E.B. Du Bois Award was presented by Pulitzer Prize-winning historian and previous awardee David Levering Lewis. The recipient was the evening’s keynote speaker, Keith Beauchamp, known for his 2005 documentary “The Untold Story of Emmett Louis Till,” instrumental in the U.S. Justice Department’s reopening of the case. Beauchamp described being shocked to tears when, at 10 years old in Baton Rouge, La., he came across photos of Emmett Till in JET Magazine in his parents’ study. “I had no idea how profoundly his story would resonate with me.” Around his high school graduation, Till was taken to a secluded room of a nightclub and beaten by a police officer for dancing with a white classmate—in 1989.
Beauchamp vowed to not just uncover Till’s story but to “give a voice to the countless others who have suffered in silence,” and he stressed that we also must “demand accountability” so as not to repeat our mistakes. “We must also look forward with resolve. Justice doesn’t rest in the past. It’s a living and breathing life that demands our attention and energy every single day.”
Beauchamp began his eloquent address with the remark, “I never thought I would see history repeat itself, and that’s what’s happening in this country.” He asked, “What is in place at this moment to keep us protected from a second Jim Crow?” noting the reversals swiftly enacted in only a few days of the new administration, such as revoking the executive order banning federal contractors for discriminating against their employees. “I would bet without a shadow of a doubt there’s more shenanigans on the way.”
“We must step up and organize,” Beauchamp continued as the audience applauded. “[B]ut let us also recognize that the fight for justice is not always visible. It’s not just about marching in the streets of America, but about the quiet acts of solidarity that happen every day, the conversations we have with our neighbors.” Justice is also “about changing what is unseen and unspoken.”
Berkshire Pride’s Emma Lenski, a previous awardee, presented the Jahaira Dealto Award to Raei Bridges, the associate director of Flying Deer Nature Center and the founder of Black & Wild, which orchestrates mindful wilderness trips and ancestral skills campouts specifically tailored for Black, Indigenous, and people of color. “In my own experience as a queer person and a trans person and a person of color, the land and nature has been the place where I was able to see my full self,” said Bridges. Through Black & Wild, Bridges supports other folks in discovering that connection and “show[ing] them what it means to be seen.”

Several award recipients were unable to attend in person. Shawn Stevens had flown in from the Stockbridge-Munsee Reservation in Wisconsin to receive the Dorothy “Aunt Dot” Davids Indigenous People’s Award, but he unfortunately caught an illness. By sharing his art, music, and storytelling and visiting schools in the Berkshires, he seeks to share his cultural heritage with his ancestral homelands here. As co-director of Alliance for a Viable Future, he works on environmental conservation and organizes Great Barrington’s Indigenous Peoples’ Day.
Dr. Will Singleton, a retired public school educator and activist who reactivated NAACP Berkshires in 2012 and served as its first president, received the President Mentorship Award for his deep commitment to mentoring young boys who often struggle with tough academic and family situations.

Malachi Perry received the Emmett Till Youth Award for his leadership on and off the basketball court. His basketball coach at Pittsfield High School, Jerome Edgerton, recounted how he stood strong during an incident of another player spitting in his face at a Final Four championship game in Worcester.
The final award of the night, another President Allyship Award, was presented to the Director of Community Engagement at Jacob’s Pillow, Thasia Giles. “For her, artistry and humanity go hand in hand,” claimed NAACP’s Rebecca Thompson. “So she finds ways to challenge and resist the claim that the arts are solely the province of the well heeled. She understands that the arts are built into the fabric of a thriving community… and that the best way for a young person to see themselves as an artist is to have the opportunity to make connections with artists who look like them.”
“This is a surprise for me,” said Giles, who wasn’t aware she would be receiving the award. “Each moment,” she finished, “we have an opportunity to instill delight, wonder, and curiosity in the souls of each other, into children and to individuals of all ages, and we can never measure the impact of our kindness, of our attention, and of our learning. I see each of you doing this in so many beautiful ways… being a part of weaving our community stronger. May we deepen our resilience; may we dive into our resonance. Thank you so much.”