ABSTRACT
W. E. B. Du Bois felt that the advancement of black Americans would be contingent upon an elite cadre of college graduates, who could function as leaders of the masses. This strategy, which met with both favor and disapproval, Du Bois denoted as the Talented Tenth. His thesis was that a small, select group of Blacks, the Talented Tenth, must be so educated that they "may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races." His thinking along this line stands out as one of his most significant theoretical contributions, perhaps his most elaborately developed, and one that remained remarkably consistent throughout his career. His first formal statement of the theory of the Talented Tenth appeared in 1903 in an essay entitled, appropriately "The Talented Tenth," which both begins and ends with the same statement: "The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men."
