In an incident that garnered much publicity, the Berkshire Hills Regional School Committee in 2004 declined to name after Du Bois one of the two new regional schools it had just built.
Monument Valley Regional Middle School was selected for the renaming rather than a second try at Muddy Brook Elementary due, in part, to the fact that Du Bois' life is actually taught in the middle school curriculum.
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.
“Denny Alsop is a man of conviction and an activist.”
-- Muddy Brook Principal Mary Berle, to third grade students, as Alsop met with the class to explain his Canoe for Clean Water expedition up the Housatonic River and beyond
