On April 16, 2011, the Du Bois Center in in Great Barrington opened the Museum of Civil Rights Pioneers, the first museum in western Massachusetts devoted exclusively to the acquisition and preservation of historical artifacts germane to the African-American experience in Berkshire County and beyond.
The Museum will display rare books and documents relating to civil rights pioneers such as Frederick Douglass, the Reverend Samuel Harrison, James Weldon Johnson, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, and W.E.B. Du Bois. Highlights include Robeson’s contract to play Othello on Broadway (1943), a bible owned by Langston Hughes, and a file of material on Du Bois compiled by the Committee of Un-American Activities (1953).
Between April 16 and the end of June, the Museum will mount an exhibition of historical artifacts commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War. Highlights from the exhibition, entitled “Fort Sumter: Harbinger of Black Freedom,”
www.duboiscentergb.org