Now another movement to rename a different school building in Berkshire Hills is taking shape. Supporters of Du Bois are ramping up an effort to rename Monument Valley Regional Middle School in memory of Du Bois.
Not only are supporters of the legacy of W.E.B. Du Bois trying to name one of the local public schools after him, but they want to commission a sculptor to come up with a life-sized likeness of him that would be placed on the front lawn of the Mason Library.
The birthday events for Great Barrington's most famous native son seem to signal a newfound appreciation of the civil rights leader, who had not been fully embraced by the community because of his sometimes-controversial past.
The photo of Du Bois and his family will hang permanently on the stairwell to the second floor of the building. The birth certificate will likely occupy a prominent space behind the conference table in the selectmen's meeting room.
The Orchestra Now prepares a new generation of musicians to break down barriers between modern audiences and noteworthy orchestral music of the past and present.
Many of the very oldest stones in the cemetery are unreadable today.
If you rub some of the lichens off, you can still make out Ephraim Porter’s stone, though. He was a militiaman who died in a later conflict, Shays’ Rebellion.
“In 1964 the whole [Mahaiwe] cemetery was in disrepair and the town took it over. When you buy a [cemetery] lot from the town, you have ‘perpetual care’.”
-- Walter F. “Buddy” Atwood III, a member of the Cemetery Commission
