By — Zachary Green Zachary Green By — Ivette Feliciano Ivette Feliciano Leave a comment 0comments Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/in-mostly-white-great-barrington-ma-an-effort-to-celebrate-black-life Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter In mostly white Great Barrington, MA, an effort to celebrate Black life Nation Sep 26, 2020 2:48 PM EDT Walk around Railroad Street in Great Barrington, a picturesque town in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, and you’ll find several murals honoring the life of W.E.B. DuBois, the first Black person in America to earn a doctorate and a co-founder of the NAACP. Great Barrington is DuBois’s birthplace. Another mural nearby celebrates and supports the Black Lives Matter movement. It may be surprising to find these markers of Black culture in a town where almost every face is white, but they are reminders of a part of life here that few outside the Berkshires are aware of. The murals were put up by young people in the community who were facilitated by the Railroad Street Youth Project, an organization that assists the youth of Great Barrington in pursuing projects they think will make the town a more welcoming and supportive place for them and their peers. It also helps facilitate conversations and raise awareness of racial inequity in Berkshire County. NewsHour Weekend Producer Zachary Green spoke with Ananda Timpane, Railroad Street’s executive director and Regina East, the organization’s director of empowerment and advocacy, about the work they do and why it’s important to have symbols of Black life in the Berkshires. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now By — Zachary Green Zachary Green Zachary Green began working in online and broadcast news in 2009. Since then he has produced stories all over the U.S. and overseas in Ireland and Haiti. In his time at NewsHour, he has reported on a wide variety of topics, including climate change, immigration, voting rights, and the arts. He also produced a series on guaranteed income programs in the U.S. and won a 2015 National Headliner Award in business and consumer reporting for his report on digital estate planning. Prior to joining Newshour, Zachary was an Associate Producer for Need to Know on PBS, during which he assisted in producing stories on gun violence and healthcare, among others. He also provided narration for the award-winning online documentary series, “Retro Report”. @ZachGreen_News By — Ivette Feliciano Ivette Feliciano Ivette Feliciano shoots, produces and reports on camera for PBS NewsHour Weekend. Before starting with NewsHour in 2013, she worked as a one-person-band correspondent for the News 12 Networks, where she won a New York Press Club Award for her coverage of Super Storm Sandy, which ravaged the East Coast in 2012. Prior to that, Ivette was the Associate Producer of Latin American news for Worldfocus, a nationally televised, daily international news show seen on Public Television. While at Worldfocus, Ivette served as the show’s Field Producer and Reporter for Latin America, covering special reports on the Mexican drug war as well as a 5-part series out of Bolivia, which included an interview with President Evo Morales. In 2010, she co-produced a documentary series on New York’s baseball history that aired on Channel Thirteen. Ivette holds a Master’s degree from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, where she specialized in broadcast journalism. @IvetteF_News
Walk around Railroad Street in Great Barrington, a picturesque town in the Berkshire Hills of western Massachusetts, and you’ll find several murals honoring the life of W.E.B. DuBois, the first Black person in America to earn a doctorate and a co-founder of the NAACP. Great Barrington is DuBois’s birthplace. Another mural nearby celebrates and supports the Black Lives Matter movement. It may be surprising to find these markers of Black culture in a town where almost every face is white, but they are reminders of a part of life here that few outside the Berkshires are aware of. The murals were put up by young people in the community who were facilitated by the Railroad Street Youth Project, an organization that assists the youth of Great Barrington in pursuing projects they think will make the town a more welcoming and supportive place for them and their peers. It also helps facilitate conversations and raise awareness of racial inequity in Berkshire County. NewsHour Weekend Producer Zachary Green spoke with Ananda Timpane, Railroad Street’s executive director and Regina East, the organization’s director of empowerment and advocacy, about the work they do and why it’s important to have symbols of Black life in the Berkshires. We're not going anywhere. Stand up for truly independent, trusted news that you can count on! Donate now