GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Du Bois Freedom Center will be hosting a celebration on Wednesday, August 27 to honor Pan-Africanist civil rights activist William Edward Burghardt Du Bois starting at 2 p.m. 

During this free event a group of local organizations will gather at River Walk’s W.E.B. Du Bois River Park, located at 20 River Street, to honor Du Bois with an afternoon of readings and musical offerings. 

Berkshire NAACP president Dennis L. Powell, having carried water from the Housatonic River to Du Bois’s resting place in Accra, will release water he collected in Accra into the “golden river” where Du Bois was born nearby.

Du Bois often wrote that he was “born by a golden river," referring to his birthplace by the Housatonic River which lends a special meaning to his more well-known achievements in social justice and civil rights. 

Du Bois’s speech on the Housatonic River in 1930 and his activism surrounding the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 all speak to his lifelong dedication to environmental justice and to rivers everywhere.

Dr. MaryNell Morgan-Brown will interpret sacred and secular songs about rivers from Chapter 14 of “The Sorrow Songs” in Du Bois’s classic work, “The Souls of Black Folk”, as well as songs she has written. 

New York jazz specialist James Browne will bring Graham Haynes, the son of jazz drummer Roy Haynes, for a special tribute. 

The event will be followed by a walking tour of sites in downtown Great Barrington that helped to shape the town’s native son, including Du Bois’s birthsite, First Congregational Church, and the Warren Davis Home.

The walk will conclude at the Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, located at 9 Elm Court where the W.E.B. Du Bois Center is based. There will be a reception and refreshments on the lawn.

In the event of rain, the program will be held at First Congregational Church on Main Street.  

Register here.