And you shall have a new hid-ing place that day. (Sundquist, 502)
Transcript:
June 13, 1961
Mr. George P. Fitzpatrick,
President of the Searles
High School Alumni
Association,
Dear Mr. Fitzpatrick:
I have your kind invitation of June 9. for Saturday, June 24. I regret to say that on June 15, I fly to Europe to rest in a Sanatarium until about August I. I sahll not therefor be able to accept your invitation much as I would like to.
Several years ago I spoke at one your anniversaries held in Stockbridge, I emphasized then that the Housatonic river should not be used as a sewer. May I follow that thought further, and emphasize before the Searles graduates a further development of that theme. The Housatonic River is the natural Main Street of the Town of Great Barrington. It should be a clear and limpid stream, flowing gently through grass, trees and flowers; flanked by broad roadways and parks as the life stream of a town. In the midst of its passage, where now rises the monstrosity of a private school should be a lake and beach for public bathing. This would emphasize Great Barrington as a centre for millionaires, not for money-mak- but as town of homes as it used to be; as aplace where men dreamed and thought and sought the meaning of living and cared little about how much they could make or steal.
Does this sound very silly to the pupils of the Searles today? I hope not.
I am very sinserely yours
Of the Class of 1888
Du Bois, W. E. B. (William Edward Burghardt), 1868-1963. Letter from W. E. B. Du Bois to Searles High School Alumni Association, June 13, 1961. W. E. B. Du Bois Papers (MS 312). Special Collections and University Archives, University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries. https://credo.library.umass.edu/view/full/mums312-b154-i213.