Dennis L. Powell: “Vote in Honor of Those Who Could Not”

On the Saturday before the Sunday (July 21) announcement of President Biden’s decision to step-away from a re-election run and nominate Vice President Harris’ step-up to the Presidential run in November, Our Time Press met Dennis L. Powell at The DuBois Freedom Center, located at the former Clinton A.M.S Zion Church in Great Barrington, Mass. It is the first museum site dedicated to DuBois, who attended the church on Elm Court.

Now in his 10th year as President of the Berkshire County NAACP, Powell informed he is known as “the Conscience of Berkshire County” in that Massachusetts area. Rightfully so.
He knows the great history of the area and the contributions of many Black people icons, born and raised there, to American culture, arts, Civil and Human Rights. He also knows the uncomfortable moments.

“In my youth I was a member the NAACP and I experienced being subjected to race issues during those early years in the Berkshires. Later, I was never able to use my voice because I had to protect my children.

“But now that my children are grown, and they are protecting their children, I use my voice for those who feel compromised and unable to use their voices. My role is to speak truth to power, to tell stories that are true and not watered down, to carry the mantle.

“They talk about Critical Race Theory. I call it Critical Race History because when you document something it is no longer a theory. Our real history is in the Library of Congress, and you will find the real history.

“It was not thought that Black people would ever get to the point where would learn to read, so our history was being recorded at the same time they were making sure we didn’t read.

“One of the stories he knew about from a young age was the life and contributions of Berkshires’ native son, WEB DuBois. A tour of the site was part of the itinerary of the WEB DuBois Annual Forum of writers, authors and scholars.

“We have made great changes and strides in Berkshire County, and this is a great story here at this church, a black church, attended by WEB DuBois in his youth. It was a meeting place where the congregants conducted their business. It is a reason it is important that Black people now get to tell their story and not rely on others.

“In this area of Berkshire Country where we are standing now, the houses were owned by Black women, and there were businesses owned by Black women, including restaurants. Morton Davis who owned a lumber mill provided the beams he hewed himself for this area. He is the one who sold DuBois property.

“There was James Van Der Zee the photographer who lived in Lenox, Mass. before moving to Harlem; Elizabeth Mum Bett Freeman; James Weldon Johnson of Stockbridge who wrote Lift Every Voice and Sing, and many others.
“It is a great story, but it should not fill everyone with glee. Hopefully, the story of this place and others like it are told in such a truthful way that people are uncomfortable because it is an uncomfortable history.

“As President of the Berkshire NAACP, I am concerned with how history can be misinterpreted, glossed over. If I have not made you uncomfortable telling the true stories, then I have wasted your time and mine.
“It is not a comfort zone. It is a safe zone. There’s a difference. If you come here thinking you’re going to hear the truth and not feel uncomfortable then you are in the wrong place.
Are there learning spaces for young people?

“In Pittsfield, we’re creating a mural of the Massachusetts 54th regiment to be completed in time and unveiled for Juneteenth 2025.
“We want to design it in such a way that we can use all the students in the local schools to be involved in painting it.

“The experience will bring them ownership of history and bring them into it.
And the relationship between art and history?
“This is what made W.E.B. DuBois so magnificent. He was about art and culture. Also, as an example, Frederick Douglass used art to tell his story through imagery as the most photographed individual of his time. More than Lincoln. He used his own image to tell a story and to highlight history.

“Whether it is music, art, spoken word, there is a deep, rich connection documentation of history.
Your own personal and academic history include mastery of the culinary arts as a graduate and former faculty member of the Culinary Institute of America.
“We don’t credit cuisine here in America as cuisine that came from Africa. The biggest crop in the south was Rice. The Africans knew how to do rice. So much of that history is eliminated, erased.

“As the president of the Alumni Association at the Culinary Institute, I organized a team of chefs for an international cooking competition held in Basel, Switzerland. We competed against 17 countries and won first place.
You told a Berkshire Eagle reporter that you were an excellent soldier.
“I am a person who always believes that once you commit to something, you commit 300 percent.”

So as leader of New England’s oldest Civil Rights institutions, do you see the role of the NAACP expanding as you strive to be relevant while still committing to the struggles of the past?

“Unfortunately, we’ve been combating hate, and … and because of #45 we have gone backwards. NAACP was founded because of the senseless lynchings that were happening.
If this church memorial/museum a symbol of hope, and what aspect of its history should we pay most attention to when we enter?
“I think all of it. Pay attention to all of it.

“Stand in that moment and it will take you back into history. When I was in Ghana I went to the coast where they held the slaves. When you walk down into that cave, you enter total darkness, you feel the tears of that place and you feel an energy, you realize that these people were housed in that dank setting in total darkness around the clock.

“It was their latrine, their everything in total darkness. It is a spiritual reckoning. Standing in there was so surreal because it let me know that my direct ancestors made it out of there. Out of that darkness. My ancestors made it. So many did not. But I am here.
“And now they are talking about young people not wanting to vote this November and what they don’t like: politics, the candidates, process and so on.

“A friend told me she wasn’t going to vote, and I said to her, ‘a no vote is a vote. If you say you admire me, then vote in honor of me. Vote in my honor because as black people, we did not always have the privilege to vote. We had to fight for our right to vote, but you always have had that privilege. Vote in honor of the women who could not vote.
“Find someone to vote in honor of, but vote.’
Bernice Elizabeth Green
Gt. Barrington, MA
1/19/24