History of achievement

Trail and guide celebrate the contributions of African Americans, the famous and the ordinary, to the Berkshires

September 10, 2006|Judith Gaines, Globe Correspondent

GREAT BARRINGTON -- Ninety-one-year-old Mae Brown was touring the 18th-century Sheffield home where a woman called Mumbet once was enslaved. In 1781, Mumbet took her owner, Colonel John Ashley, to court and became the first slave in Massachusetts to successfully sue for her freedom -- a case that contributed to the state's decision in 1783 to outlaw slavery.

Brown, a former Lenox High School teacher, said the case demonstrates a philosophy she learned as a child. ``I was taught that if they close the door on you, go in the window."

That's the spirit behind the new Upper Housatonic Valley African American Heritage Trail to be unveiled this week, which celebrates the lives and accomplishments of African- Americans who made their mark in Western Massachusetts and beyond.

Trail organizers note that travelers to the Berkshires can visit the restored homes of authors Edith Wharton and Herman Melville, see the paintings of Norman Rockwell in a museum dedicated to him, or spend a night in one of the grand ``cottages" built by Lenox entrepreneurs. They can read about the contributions of white writers, musicians, dancers , and other local artists, business people, and more. But the achievements of the region's African- Americans have often been overlooked.

As Rachel Fletcher, a Great Barrington resident and co chairman of the heritage project, put it: ``To the extent that the Berkshires have a public face, the community has looked at it through white eyes."

For the past two years, Fletcher and an extended group of educators, church leaders, politicians, historians, other community activists, and longtime residents have been trying to correct this oversight. The result of their efforts can be found in a series of events that began last month and continue through October. The centerpiece is the creation of the heritage trail, which traces key events and locations in the history of the region's African-Americans, and the release this Thursday of a 250-page trail guide.

The heritage trail passes through 29 towns in the Upper Housatonic Valley from Kent, Conn., at its southern end to Lanesboro, in the north. It includes 34 principal sites, some open to the public and easily accessible, others undeveloped locations or private residences viewable only from a distance. They span the period from the first stirrings of the American Revolution until 1960.

Although African- Americans have always been a small proportion of the area's population -- never more than about 5 percent -- ``they created a very rich culture and heritage," said Frances Jones Sneed, a historian at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams and the other cochairman of the project.