Great Barrington — The Mason Public Library is scheduled to unveil its statue of W.E.B. Du Bois on Saturday, July 19, from 2 to 4 p.m. The Selectboard approved the time and date of the event at their meeting on Monday, April 28. Civil rights activist, historian, and sociologist Du Bois was born in Great Barrington on February 23, 1868.
A statue of Du Bois was previously suggested by resident Freke Vuijst, who died in September 2020.
The Du Bois Sculpture Project group formed back in May 2022 and took on the responsibility of fundraising for the statue, along with recruiting and choosing a sculptor.
At the April 28 Selectboard meeting, W.E.B. Du Bois Project Co-Chair Julie Michaels said that over 500 people are expected to attend the event, which was originally scheduled for July 19 at 12 p.m. “[The committee] made the decision that we should do it from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m. because the farmers’ market will have cleared out, and it might be a little quieter in town,” Michaels said. “There may be more than 500 people [attending the event]. It does coincide with the Du Bois Forum, which will be held at Jacob’s Pillow for the fourth year, which is a collection of about 80 to 100 Black intellectuals and scholars from around the country.”
Members of the Selectboard suggested that the event should be scheduled for two hours instead of just one, to which Michaels agreed.
Michaels said that speakers invited to the event include Gov. Maura Healey; former Gov. Deval Patrick; author David Levering Lewis, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his biography of Du Bois; and statue sculptor Richard Blake.
According to a press release previously issued by the group, $450,000 was raised to complete the sculpture, along with marble benches nearby.
As a result of the Trump administration’s tariffs, however, Michaels said the total price of the project may be higher than anticipated. “The marble bench is coming from Italy,” Michaels said. “It’s Vermont marble, but they sent it to Italy to be carved. I now find out that the Italian quarry owns the quarry in Vermont, and we may have to pay a tariff on this, which is not an expense that we anticipated. It’s now at 10 percent, but it was at 32 percent, so who knows what’s going to happen.”
Michaels said that, despite this, she feels “very good because everything seems to be moving into place.”
Editor’s note: Due to an error on the part of the copy editor, and not the author of the story, a previous version of this article incorrectly used the word “infamous” instead of “famous.” The Berkshire Edge deeply regrets this error.
