Itâs Black History Month, and while this column is about a white man he was, as you will see, an important influence on W.E.B. Du Boisâ post-high school education.
Charles Cornelius Coffin Painter (1833-1895) is an interesting figure from Great Barrington history. Townspeople saw little of him. Born in Draperâs Valley, Va., he attended Williams College and studied for the ministry and was ordained at the Congregational Church in New Marlborough in 1863.
He married Martha Gibson, of that town. In 1869, the couple relocated to Michigan where their son, Charles Fairbanks Painter, was born. By 1879, Painter came back to Great Barrington, parked his family in a home on Castle Street â and, with Thanksgiving and other irregular visits, variously took out-of-town positions with Fisk University, the Indians Rights Association and the American Missionary Association.