W. E. B. DU BOIS' TALENTED TENTH AND AFRICAN-AMERICAN LEADERSHIP
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 the top downward that culture filters. The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth the saving up to their vantage ground" (The Negro 45). According to Du Bois, "the problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line" (The Souls, 221). The key to overcoming racial discrimination and securing full civil rights for Negroes was education. Du Bois was not against practical training, but "the object of all true education is not to make men carpenters, it is to make ...