And yet even with my family and professional history, I am learning daily about acts of racial policy and violence in our country’s history and in contemporary life that I hadn’t known, and that connect the dots to reveal a country bathed in the blood of racism.
The fact is that the core of his film is his evocation of how black soldiers were used as cannon fodder in Vietnam, which has remained a barely told story. And he evokes that story very movingly.
In a letter to the editor, Ruth Heuberger writes, "Particularly in light of historic discrimination to Jews and African Americans, it shows common cause for fairness and justice."
The movement, made up of individuals from all walks of life, hinges on a simple yet staggering fact: There are 140 million poor and low-wealth people in the richest country in the world.
In a letter to the editor, Anne Thidemann French and Ward Johnson write, "Our students need us now more than ever as they try to understand and make meaning of the violence in our society."
In a letter to the editor, the Clinton Church Restoration board members write, "Du Bois’ writing in 'Souls' reminds us that the systemic racism that led to the murder of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor and too many other Black people in this country is not new."
A who’s who of 19th-century American authors who rented or visited Laurel Cottage includes Harriet Beecher Stowe, Herman Melville, Nathanial Hawthorne and the English poet Matthew Arnold.
When Randy Weinstein came to live in Great Barrington at the age of 18, he remembered Du Bois’ name being “surrounded by controversy, [and] disparaging [comments],” at the time, something for which Weinstein had zero tolerance.
On Saturday, Feb. 22, as part of the town of Great Barrington’s W.E.B. Du Bois Legacy Festival, Haigood’s Zaccho Dance Theatre comes to Bard College at Simon's Rock in Great Barrington to present the performance installation “Between me and the other world,” which explores race, identity and Du Bois' seminal work “The Souls of Black Folk.”