Word: parkes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1960-1969
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass., Oct. 18-Today in this town of 7000 a memorial park was dedicated to the late W.E.B. DuBois '90, the distinguished black historian, sociologist, and racial activist. Dubois was born here 101 years...
...memorial park, located on the site of the DuBois family homestead just north of the town, was and is the subject of a heated controversy among the town's residents. The John Birch Society, the American Legion, and the Daughters of the American Revolution bitterly opposed the creation of the park. They said they were opposed because DuBois was a member of the Communist Party the last years of his life...
Others in the town, however, supported the idea of the memorial park. The Berkshire Eagle, the town's newspaper, said in an editorial last March that DuBois more than deserved the honor. Citing his outstanding record in scholarship and social activism, the paper said. "The important consideration is one of proportion. To judge a man as full of variety as DuBois by looking at only an eighth or ninth of his life-and that portion the last one-is absurd...
There was some fear that those opposed to the park might attempt to disrupt the dedication ceremonies. But the ceremonies proceeded smoothly...
...park was the brainchild of Walter Wilson. a white former Texan who is now a successful Berkshire real estate dealer. Wilson purchased the DuBois property several years ago, not knowing its former owners. When he discovered it to be the DuBois family homesite. Wilson contacted Edmund Gordon. chairman of the guidance department at Columbia University Teachers College. Together the two drew up plans to make the idea of a memorial park a reality...