The African American Community in Rural New England

Book excerpt: The African American Community in Rural New England: W. E. B. Du Bois and His Boyhood Church: W. E. B. Du Bois and His Boyhood Church (formerly published in hardcover as Sewing Circles, Dime Suppers, and W. E. B. Du Bois: A History of the Clinton A. M. E. Zion Church) is a story of a small New England church's role in the national civil rights movement. Featuring more famous figures such as Du Bois, this book also tells the story of the church's lesser known members who struggled to keep it in existence, all the while fighting for their rights in a shifting social climate. The African American Community in Rural New England is the often heroic tale of a small group of African Americans who founded and have maintained their church in a small New England town for nearly 140 years. The church is the Clinton African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and the town is Great Barrington, Massachusetts - the hometown of the leading African American scholar and activist W. E. B. Du Bois. Du Bois attended the church as a youth and wrote about it; these writings are one source for this history. The book gives readers a broad view of the details of the church's history and recounts the story of its growth. Du Bois plays a crucial role in the national fight for social justice, of which the church was and remains an important part.