William Edward Burghardt Du Bois, a historian, sociologist, racial scholar and founder of many human rights organizations, including the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), fought for equality and social justice during a crucial period in U.S history.
With hopes of giving Du Bois more recognition, the UMass Faculty Senate voted on Feb. 13 to create the W.E.B. Du Bois Center to promote public engagement on issues of racial and social justice.
The intellectual center will primarily be associated with the Special Collections and University Archives Department on the 25th floor, and will bring together some of the great assets here at UMass including papers of W.E.B. Du Bois, said Jay Schafer, director of libraries.
The main focus of the center will revolve around a fellowship program, consisting of doctoral and postdoctoral students, as well as community activists, the Du Bois home site in Great Barrington, a series of seminars, publications and colloquial and educational initiatives.
Working with faculty, fellows will spend nine months in residence life on campus, while conducting research, participating in seminars, assisting the center will the annual Du Bois lecture, and publishing scholarly materials of Du Bois’ legacy.
Along with the new center will come a completely digitized collection of Du Bois’ works. Digitizing the collection will facilitate the process for scholars and researchers to access a multitude of documents.
“Significant effort will take at least two years to digitize the entire collection,” Schafer said.
In order to create all that the center entails, a significant amount of support and fundraising must be present. The Randolph W. Bromery Library Endowment Fund, a fund that wishes to enhance the legacy of Du Bois, has already given its support to the center.
Other fundraising activities will be explored as well to support the project and the fellowships being offered, Schafer said.
In addition to the compliance of the new center, it is only coincidence that it fell during the same period of the centennial celebration of the founding of the NAACP, and Black History Month.
The date of completion has yet to be determined.
Jessica Kemp can be reached at jmkemp@student.umass.edu.
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