The W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy is proud to announce the selection of Ny Whitaker as executive director following a seven-month, national search funded by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has awarded a $1.1 million grant to the W.E.B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy. The three-year Humanities in Place grant will support restoration work, programming and staffing for the Center.

In November, the W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy will present a two-part virtual program on African American family history and genealogy within and beyond the Berkshires. Dr. Kendra T. Field, the Du Bois Freedom Center’s historian-in-residence, will lead the series to be held via Zoom on November 9 and 16 from 6-7 p.m.

The W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy and Dewey Hall are pleased to present Exploring Black Roots Music with Jake Blount on October 20 at 7pm at Dewey Memorial Hall in Sheffield. The concert is a benefit for the Du Bois Freedom Center, an African American cultural heritage center being developed at the former Clinton A. M. E. Zion Church in Great Barrington.

The W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom Center (formerly Clinton Church Restoration) has announced that it has hired Clark and Green Architects to complete the architectural and engineering plans for the African American cultural heritage center it is developing in downtown Great Barrington.

On Friday, August 19 at 4 p.m., the W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy (formerly Clinton Church Restoration) will present a roundtable discussion on the life and legacy of Elizabeth Freeman, the first enslaved African American to successfully sue for her freedom in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

Clinton Church Restoration is pleased to formally announce that the African American cultural heritage center it is has been developing since 2016 has been named the W. E. B. Du Bois Center for Freedom and Democracy.

Clinton Church Restoration has been awarded a $117,000 capital grant from MassDevelopment and the Mass Cultural Council, one of six grants the project has received in as many months.

The late Rev. Esther Dozier, who initiated Great Barrington’s annual W. E. B. Du Bois birthday celebrations more than 20 years ago, will be honored on what would have been her 80th birthday,

“[Agrippa Hull’s] demeanor, courage, and diplomacy are still relevant and needed today as we strive to eliminate disparities, division, and discrimination,” said descendant Peter Gunn in remarks at the celebration.

Clinton Church Restoration Project, the Berkshire County chapter of the NAACP, and the Housatonic Heritage Oral History Center at Berkshire Community College, have teamed up to form an oral history collaborative that will collect and preserve the stories of African Americans in the Berkshires.

The Upper Housatonic Valley National Heritage Area (Housatonic Heritage) has received a $495,322 grant from the National Park Service for continued restoration work on the historic Clinton A.M.E. Zion Church.