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The W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite (or W.E.B. Du Bois Homesite) is a National Historic Landmark in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, commemorating an important location in the life of African American intellectual and civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois (1868–1963). The site contains foundational remnants of the home of Du Bois' grandfather, where Du Bois lived for the first five years of his life. Du Bois was given the house in 1928, and planned to renovate it, but was unable to do so. He sold it in 1954 and the house was torn down later that decade. The site is located on South Egremont Road (state routes 23 and 41), west of the junction with Route 71. Plans to develop the site as a memorial to Du Bois in the late 1960s were delayed due to local opposition. The site's proponents attributed this in part to racism, but opinions were generally expressed as opposition to Du Bois' more radical politics in later life. On May 11, 1976 the site was declared a National Historic Landmark and listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The site was donated to the state in 1987, and is administered by the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. ==History== The Burghardt family (of Dutch origin) was present in the vicinity of Great Barrington, Massachusetts in colonial times, with documented ownership of land in the area from the 1740s. Tom Burghardt, an African-American slave of the family with Dutch, English, African and Native American ancestry, probably earned his freedom for his participation in the American Revolutionary War.〔Lewis, p. 13〕 One of his descendants was Mary Silvinia Burghardt, the mother of William Edward Burghardt Du Bois (commonly referred to as W.E.B. Du Bois), born in 1868. He became a leading African American intellectual, civil rights activist, and co-founder of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).〔 By the early 19th century, the "Black Burghardts" had settled in the Egremont Plain area a few miles outside the center of Great Barrington.〔Glassberg and Paynter, p. 243〕 Du Bois' birthplace was torn down around 1900).〔Lewis, p. 21〕 When abandoned by Du Bois' father, his mother moved with her infant son to the house of her parents, Othello Burghardt and his wife.〔Wolters, pp. 6–8〕 In his 1928 article, "The House of the Black Burghardts", Du Bois described the house as "a delectable place — simple, square and low, with the great room of the fireplace, the flagged kitchen, half a step below, and the lower woodshed beyond. Steep strong stairs led to Sleep, while without was a brook, a well and a mighty elm."〔 When Du Bois was five years old, his grandfather died, and his grandmother was forced to sell her house to settle debts.〔Lewis, pp. 22–23〕 Du Bois' mother moved the family into Great Barrington, where she struggled to support her son. A gifted student, Du Bois attended Fisk University on scholarship and with funds raised by members of his First Congregational Church in town. He completed a second bachelor's degree at Harvard, as well as graduate work there and in Berlin, becoming the first African American to earn a doctorate at Harvard. He embarked on a distinguished career.〔 Over the next decades, Du Bois periodically returned to Great Barrington. His children were born there (in the homes of maternal relatives). He buried his son Burghardt (1887–89) and wife Nina (d. 1950) there. In 1906, he sent his young family to Great Barrington from where he was working in Atlanta, Georgia, after that year's race riots.〔Bass, pp. 25–26〕 Dubois expressed interest in purchasing his grandfather's property on a visit to Great Barrington in 1925.〔Drew, p. 3〕 Three years later the brothers Joel and Arthur Spingarn, both civil rights activists involved in the NAACP, raised funds and purchased the old Burghardt homestead as a gift to Du Bois for his sixtieth birthday.〔Lewis, p. 493〕 Du Bois had plans to transform the property into a middle-class summer retreat, but financial difficulties and his move in 1934 from New York City to Atlanta made it too difficult to accomplish that. Du Bois finally sold the property to a neighbor in 1954, who had the house (by then dilapidated) torn down.〔Glassberg and Paynter, p. 245〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「W.E.B. Du Bois Boyhood Homesite」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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