The Amenia Conferences were hosted by the NAACP under W.E.B. Du Bois’s leadership at the home of Joel and Amy Spingarn, longtime owners of Troutbeck and Jewish-American civil rights activists.

This dedication is thanks to students from Arlington High School in Dutchess County who were awarded a grant from the William G. Pomeroy Foundation for a historical marker to commemorate the Amenia Conferences. This is the second historical marker to be placed at Troutbeck—the first commemorates Troutbeck’s first proprietor, Myron Benton and his frequent guests, Naturalists Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and John Burroughs, but the celebration of the property's historical significance in civil rights activism is the epitome of what the Troutbeck Symposium is all about: uncovering and amplifying lesser-known narratives.

The ceremony commenced with words from Charlie Champalimaud, Troutbeck’s Director of Program, a land acknowledgement by students Kennadi Mitchell and Teagan O’Connell from Salisbury Central School who gave thanks to the Muncie Lenape, Mohican and Schagticoke people by saying, “This guardianship has brought us to this very moment where we may learn from one another. We honor and respect the continuing relationship that exists between these peoples and this land.”

Dr. Kendra Field, Associate Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Race and Democracy, and Dr. Kerri Greenidge, Associate Professor of History, both at Tufts University and co-founders of the African American Trail Project and The Du Bois Forum, spoke and read from Du Bois’ writings about the significance of the Amenia Conferences:

“We talked of many matters at Amenia – of education, politics, organization, and the situation in the South. The Amenia Conference was a symbol. It not only marked the end of the old things and the old thoughts and the old ways of attacking the race problem, but in addition to this it was the beginning of the new things. Probably on account of our meeting the Negro race was more united and more ready to meet the problems of the world than it could possibly have been without these beautiful days of understanding. How appropriate that so tremendous a thing should have taken place in the midst of so much quiet and beauty, a place of poets and fishermen, of dreamers and farmers, a place far apart and away from the bustle of the world and the centers of activity. Those who in the future write the history of the way in which the American Negro became a man must not forget this event and landmark in 1916.”
— W. E. B. Du Bois

MaryNell Morgan, a friend of Du Bois’ granddaughter, sang a cappella from Du Bois’s Sorrow Songs, used in his formative 1903 work, The Souls of Black Folk, before Kara Gordon and Sheik Bowden of Arlington High School unveiled the historical marker.

Professor Hasan Kwame Jeffries, Associate Professor of History at The Ohio State University, who is one of the esteemed educators participating in the annual Troutbeck Symposium, which followed for the next two days, closed with:

"It would be one thing if it was just a marker, but it's a marker and a symposium. It's the kids that said 'This is what needs to go here,' connecting the past to the present. The Amenia Conferences represent useful aspects of history from which we can draw lessons. The work that students are doing to uncover not just what happened here but in their local communities, that's history we all should know about. It's giving them the tools, the excitement to continue to dig and search for truth that can't be buried, that will require them—that will inspire them—to build this nation into the more perfect union that we are all striving for."⁠

In addition to educators, historians and archivists from our region's historical societies were present for the moving dedication on an exquisite May Day evening. Assembly Members Didi Barrett and Anil Beephan joined for the ceremony and gave Gordon and Bowden formal certificates of thanks for their efforts to tangibly mark the Amenia Conferences for all to see. Troutbeck received a certificate of Recognition from New York State Senator Michelle Hinchey.

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