W. E. B. DU BOIS

This research paper summarizes the concept of African-American leadership contained in W. E. B. Du Bois' 1903 article 'The Talented Tenth' and examines its contemporary relevance in the light of the evolution of that leadership during the rest of the 20th century. Du Bois looked to an emerging educated and cultured class of African-American leaders to lift up the black masses from their deteriorating condition and status in America at the turn of the century. Du Bois' faith in education as the solution to racial discrimination and his abiding pride in his race played a seminal role in shaping the leadership of the early civil rights struggle, but they proved to be inadequate and unrealistic bases for mobilizing mass support.

With their civil rights largely secured, current generations of African American leaders are faced with the challenge of translating middle class gains into broader socioeconomic opportunities for African Americans. New types of African American leadership have been emerging, including women, but since the assassination of Dr. Martin King in 1968, no clear pattern has as yet emerged. Women are likely to play an even more prominent role in African American leadership in the future.

Du Bois said "the Negro race, like all races, is going to saved by its exceptional men" (The Negro 33). According to his reading of history, "it is, ever was and ever will be from th

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alism with pragmatism; nevertheless, the moral justification for the African American cause in America helped forged black unity and gained white liberal support during the campaign for abolition of slavery and the successful civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. Du Bois agreed with Booker Washington's emphasis on Negro self-help but, said Franklin, "seriously doubted his wisdom [in accepting the white separate but equal doctrine] and even his integrity" (xi). Race pride has been translated by a significant segment of African-American leaders in a continuum of black nationalist movements stretching from Marcus Garvey in the 1920s through the Nation of Islam, the Black Muslims and the current movement led by Louis Farakhan. Although Du Bois was later to embrace notions of 'a nation within a nation' and Pan-Africanism, he was intensely patriotic in his youth, as in his eloquent conclusion to his article on 'The Souls of Black Folk' where he asserts that Negroes had as much right as whites to claim based on their sacrifices an American birthright (387). Current Challenges Faced by African American Leaders As a result of the successes achieved by the civil rights movement, Page said "black people can now go anywhere they
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Approximate Word count = 2088
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)