Talented Tenth (DuBoisopedia ) - UMass Amherst.
The Talented Tenth is a term that designated a leadership class of African Americans in the early 20th century. The term was created by Northern philanthropists, then publicized by W. E. B. Du Bois in an influential essay of the same name, which he published in September 1903. It appeared in The Negro Problem, a collection of essays written by leading African Americans.The Talented Tenth is a phrase made popular by Du Bois in an article published in The Negro Problem in 1903. In the essay, Du Bois issues an argument for the higher education of African Americans. He claims “to attempt to establish any sort of a system of common and industrial school training, without first providing for the higher training.The Talented Tenth by W.E.B. Dubois is a prime illustration of the twentieth century’s evolving opinions and problems. Dubois aids in demonstrating the developing propositions that helped inspire new advancement in the area of revitalizing the black race.
This was nowhere more evident than in their respective speeches, “The Talented Tenth” and “The Atlanta Compromise”. In “The Talented Tenth”, Du Bois asserts that only through the cooperation of the best and the brightest of the black people can the general masses be elevated to the standards that they deserve. He argues that for.Talented Tenth, (1903), concept espoused by black educator and author W.E.B. Du Bois, emphasizing the necessity for higher education to develop the leadership capacity among the most able 10 percent of black Americans. Du Bois was one of a number of black intellectuals who feared that what they saw.
The “Talented Tenth,” a term popularized by W.E.B. DuBois, calls for a group of intellectuals to rise and lead the black race. The idea of a “Talented Tenth” is discussed through select characters in the novel Iola Leroy by Frances Harper: Iola Leroy, Harry Leroy, Robert Johnson, and Dr. Latimer.
