the talented tenth

Education is that whole system of human training within and without the school house walls, which molds and develops men. Twenty years ago the rank and file of white public school teachers were not as good as the Negro teachers. Powered by Beck & Stone, One-Day Seminar: Religious Liberty, hosted by Alpine School District (Salt Lake City area, UT), Letter to the Danbury Baptist Association. The way out was to receive God’s promise of greatness and to act now to offer concrete help to those coming after. Document Analysis: W.E.B Du Bois’ “Talented Tenth” African American history is extremely complex and there has been a continuous ongoing fight to give this classification of people equality in all aspects of society, including higher education. To furnish five millions and more of ignorant people with teachers of their own race and blood, in one generation, was not only a very difficult undertaking, but very important one, in that, it placed before the eyes of almost every Negro child an attainable ideal. It has happened, therefore, in the last decade, that a noticeable change has come over the industrial schools. Grab a copy of our NEW encyclopedia for Kids! The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. Let us see. In earlier years the two occupations of preacher and teacher were practically the only ones open to the black college graduate. There are to-day less than 3,000 living Negro college graduates in the United States, and less than 1,000 Negroes in college. In addition to these students in the South, Negroes have attended Northern colleges for many years. But only in part, for there must also be trained those who are to teach these schools–men and women of knowledge and culture and technical skill who understand modern civilization, and have the training and aptitude to impart it to the children under them. There must be teachers, and teachers of teachers, and to attempt to establish any sort of a system of common and industrial school training, without first (and I say first advisedly) without first providing for the higher training of the very best teachers, is simply throwing your money to the winds. And yet so sure as this Talented Tenth is pointed out, the blind worshippers of the Average cry out in alarm: “These are exceptions, look here at death, disease and crime–these are the happy rule.” Of course they are the rule, because a silly nation made them the rule: Because for three long centuries this people lynched Negroes who dared to be brave, raped black women who dared to be virtuous, crushed dark-hued youth who dared to be ambitious, and encouraged and made to flourish servility and lewdness and apathy. Admirable as were some of the ideas underlying this scheme, the whole thing simply would not work in practice; it was found that if you were to use time and material to teach trades thoroughly, you could not at the same time keep the industries on a commercial basis and make them pay. The phrase the "talented tenth" was used by WE.B. Du Bois published one of his most well-known and widely debated ideas in his 1903 essay titled “The Talented Tenth.” 1 In it, he argued for the higher education of a tenth of the Black population from among whom would come the leaders of the race. A really efficient workman must be to-day an intelligent man who has had good technical training in addition to thorough common school, and perhaps even higher training. School houses do not teach themselves – piles of brick and mortar and machinery do not send out men. In the first place the idea of commercially remunerative industry in a school is being pushed rapidly to the background. It came to be considered as an educative process for the complete moral, physical and intellectual development of the child.”. How baseless, therefore, is the charge of too much training! Through political organization, historical and polemic writing and moral regeneration, these men strove to uplift their people. The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved ty its exceptional men.” (Pg. At the bottom, of course, quibbles the mole with his eyes in the earth. “We are to-day deliberately rearing millions of our citizens in ignorance, and at the same time limiting the rights of citizenship by educational qualifications. Some, like Frederick Douglass, were self-trained, but yet trained liberally; others, like Alexander Crummell and McCune Smith, graduated from famous foreign universities. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass … From the very first it has been the educated and intelligent of the Negro people that have led and elevated the mass, and the sole obstacles that nullified and retarded their efforts were slavery and race prejudice; for what is slavery but the legalized survival of the unfit and the nullification of the work of natural internal leadership? Indeed the demand for college-bred men by a school like Tuskegee, ought to make Mr. Booker T. Washington the firmest friend of higher training. All these things must be slowly and painfully evolved. Then if he gives peace and tranquility to tyrants and permits them to keep our fathers, our mothers, ourselves and our children in eternal ignorance and wretchedness to support them and their families, would he be to us a God of Justice? truly at the bottom, at the very bottom; at the bottom of knowledge, down in the very depths of knowledge there where the roots of justice strike into the lowest soil of Truth. Du Bois” Summary: W. E. B. Now the black boy of the South moves in a black world – a world with its own leaders, its own thoughts, its own ideals. Naturally this preacher was ignorant and often immoral, and the problem of replacing the older type by better educated men has been a difficult one. “Suffer me to recall to your mind that time, in which the arms of the British crown were exerted with every powerful effort, in order to reduce you to a state of servitude; look back, I entreat you, on the variety of dangers to which you were exposed; reflect on that period in which every human aid appeared unavailable, and in which even hope and fortitude wore the aspect of inability to the conflict, and you cannot but be led to a serious and grateful sense of your miraculous and providential preservation, you cannot but acknowledge, that the present freedom and tranquility which you enjoy, you have mercifully received, and that a peculiar blessing of heaven. And so they did begin; they founded colleges, and up from the colleges shot normal schools, and out from the normal schools went teachers, and around the normal teachers clustered other teachers to teach the public schools; the college trained in Greek and Latin and mathematics, 2,000 men; and these men trained full 50,000 others in morals and manners, and they in turn taught thrift and the alphabet to nine millions of men, who to-day hold $300,000,000 of property. Of 1,312 persons reported, there were: Over half are teachers, a sixth are preachers, another sixth are students and professional men; over 6 per cent. It was then that your abhorrence thereof was so excited, that you publicly held forth this true and invaluable doctrine, which is worthy to be recorded and remembered in all succeeding ages: “’We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal; that they are endowed with certain inalienable rights, and that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.’”. As Maria Weston Chapman said, from the school of anti-slavery agitation, “a throng of authors, editors, lawyers, orators and accomplished gentlemen of color have taken their degree! Never; it is, ever was and ever will be from the top downward that culture filters. The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people. “‘The Talented Tenth’ by W. E. B. But it is only fair to point out that Negro taxes and the Negroes’ share of the income from indirect taxes and endowments have fully repaid this expenditure, so that the Negro public school system has not in all probability cost the white taxpayers a single cent since the war. Our editors will review what you’ve submitted and determine whether to revise the article. It is getting increasingly difficult to get funds for training teachers in the best modern methods, and yet all over the South, from State Superintendents, county officials, city boards and school principals comes the wail, “We need TEACHERS!” and teachers must be trained. Collins, Lynda Gravatt. of the average quota. Du Bois, “The Talented Tenth,” from The Negro Problem: A Series of Articles by Representative Negroes of To-day (New York, 1903). The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. Was there ever a nation on God’s fair earth civilized from the bottom upward? Some were natural sons of unnatural fathers and were given often a liberal training and thus a race of educated mulattoes sprang up to plead for black men’s rights.There was Ira Aldridge, whom all Europe loved to honor; there was that Voice crying in the Wilderness, David Walker, and saying: “I declare it does appear to me as though some nations think God is asleep, or that he made the Africans for nothing else but to dig their mines and work their farms, or they cannot believe history sacred or profane. Harper not only contemplates the mechanics behind the “Talented Tenth” through character development, but also … Half the black youth of the land have no opportunities open to them for learning to read, write and cipher. Can the masses of the Negro people be in any possible way more quickly raised than by the effort and example of this aristocracy of talent and character? Their excellencies and their successes are sufficient to justify the best hopes of success in the effort, and to vindicate the judgment of those who make large investments of money and service, to give to colored students opportunity for thoroughly preparing themselves for the work of teaching children of their people.”. As a matter of fact six institutions–Atlanta, Fisk, Howard, Shaw, Wilberforce and Leland, are the important Negro colleges so far as actual work and number of students are concerned. It is coming to be seen, however, in the education of the Negro, as clearly as it has been seen in the education of the youths the world over, that it is the boy and not the material product, that is the true object of education. But in these eager days it would seem that we have changed all that and think it necessary to add a couple of saw-mills and a hammer to this outfit, and, at a pinch, to dispense with the services of Mark Hopkins. Thus, again, in the manning of trade schools and manual training schools we are thrown back upon the higher training as its source and chief support. of Northern-born college men come South to work among the masses of their people, at a sacrifice which few people realize; nearly 90 per cent. In detail the occupations are as follows: These figures illustrate vividly the function of the college-bred Negro. Can such culture training of group leaders be neglected? The Next Talented Tenth. If you do not lift them up, they will pull you down. In 1831 there met that first Negro convention in Philadelphia, at which the world gaped curiously but which bravely attacked the problems of race and slavery, crying out against persecution and declaring that “Laws as cruel in themselves as they were unconstitutional and unjust, have in many places been enacted against our poor, unfriended and unoffending brethren (without a shadow of provocation on our part), at whose bare recital the very savage draws himself up for fear of contagion–looks noble and prides himself because he bears not the name of Christian.” Side by side this free Negro movement, and the movement for abolition, strove until they merged in to one strong stream. Before its organization, the country only saw here and there in slavery some faithful Cudjoe or Dinah, whose strong natures blossomed even in bondage, like a fine plant beneath a heavy stone. of their students are doing elementary and secondary work, work which should be done in the public schools. Vintage Inspired HBCU College Letterman Sweaters Updates? Talented Tenth, (1903), concept espoused by black educator and author W.E.B. The “exceptions” of course. Men we shall have only as we make manhood the object of the work of the schools–intelligence, broad sympathy, knowledge of the world that was and is, and of the relation of men to it–this is the curriculum of that Higher Education which must underlie true life. The Negro race in the South needs teachers to-day above all else. These and others we may call the Revolutionary group of distinguished Negroes – they were persons of marked ability, leaders of a Talented Tenth, standing conspicuously among the best of their time. And here it is that the broad culture of college work has been of peculiar value. I ask, O, ye Christians, who hold us and our children in the most abject ignorance and degradation that ever a people were afflicted with since the world began–I say if God gives you peace and tranquility, and suffers you thus to go on afflicting us, and our children, who have never given you the least provocation – would He be to us a God of Justice? The Negro race, like all other races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. “The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men,” DuBois wrote. The talented tenth man, Morehouse concludes, "is an uncrowned king in his sphere." With Lawrence B. Adisa, Roberta Angelica, K.C. If the ratio of colored population in secondary and higher education is to be equal to the average for the whole country, it must be increased to five times its present average.” And if this be true of the secondary and higher education, it is safe to say that the Negro has not one-tenth his quota in college studies. “This is not fair. The real value of the total accumulations of the whole group is perhaps about $10,000,000, or $5,000 a piece. It has prepared the white man for the freedom of the black man, and it has made the black man scorn the thought of enslavement, as does a white man, as far as its influence has extended. Further than this, after being provided with group leaders of civilization, and a foundation of intelligence in the public schools, the carpenter, in order to be a man, needs technical skill. Omissions? Dubois aids in demonstrating the developing propositions that helped inspire new advancement in the area of revitalizing the black race. In a sport with declining participation from Black Americans, Xavier University of Louisiana returned to the field on Tuesday for … Talented Tenth, (1903), concept espoused by black educator and author W.E.B. https://www.thoughtco.com/leaders-of-the-harlem-renaissance-45321 The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth the saving up to their vantage ground. W.E.BURGHARDT DuBois Astrong plea for the higher education ofthe Negro, which those whoare interested inthefuture ofthefreed-men cannot afford to ignore. From the very day that a Philadelphia colored man became the first subscriber to Garrison’s “Liberator,” to the day when Negro soldiers made the Emancipation Proclamation possible, black leaders worked shoulder to shoulder with white men in a movement, the success of which would have been impossible without them. But to train men as carpenters, and then set them to teaching is wasteful and criminal; and to train men as teachers and then refuse them living wages, unless they become carpenters, is rank nonsense. The talented tenth theory argued that the focus should be on providing classical education for the top ten percent of African Americans, teaching them to become leaders of the community. Nor have these college men been paupers and spendthrifts; 557 college-bred Negroes owned in 1899, $1,342,862.50 worth of real estate (assessed value), or $2,411 per family. Whether you like it or not the millions are here, and here they will remain. For the hip-hop album, see Talented 10th.. Henry Lyman Morehouse is credited with coining the term Talented Tenth, an idea that Du Bois popularized and elaborated upon in a 1903 work. Is it fair, is it decent, is it Christian to ignore these facts of the Negro problem, to belittle such aspiration, to nullify such leadership and seek to crush these people back into the mass out of which by toil and travail, they and their fathers have raised themselves? The answer to this question seems to me clear: It must strengthen the Negro’s character, increase his knowledge and teach him to earn a living. Then came Dr. James Derham, who could tell even the learned Dr. Consequently the object of the industrial school came to be the thorough training of boys regardless of the cost of the training, so long as it was thoroughly well done. You misjudge us because you do not know us. Machinery and long processes of work have greatly changed the work of the carpenter, the ironworker and the shoemaker. Du … [Intro: Sample] And now it's time for New Horizons in Music Appreciation. He then makes the following comparisons of persons in every million enrolled in secondary and higher education: And he concludes: “While the number in colored high schools and colleges had increased somewhat faster than the population, it had not kept pace with the average of the whole country, for it had fallen from 30 per cent. it is, with many and there’s the rub. If then we start out to train an ignorant and unskilled people with a heritage of bad habits, our system of training must set before itself two great aims–the one dealing with knowledge and character, the other part seeking to give the child the technical knowledge necessary for him to earn a living under the present circumstances. In order to achieve political and civil equality, Du Bois stressed the importance of educating African American teachers, professional men, ministers, and spokesmen, who would earn their special privileges by dedicating themselves to “leavening the lump” and “inspiring the masses.” The phrase Talented Tenth first appeared in Du Bois’ The Negro Problem (New York, 1903). DuBois discussed his strategy for racial uplift and explained the importance of higher education in those struggles. As the fairest minded of all white Southerners, Atticus G. Haygood, once said: “The defects of colored teachers are so great as to create an urgent necessity for training better ones. Now and then there comes a rumor of a colored college man working at menial service, etc. This all sane men know even if they dare not say it. Nothing, in these latter days, has so dampened the faith of thinking Negroes in recent educational movements, as the fact that such movements have been accompanied by ridicule and denouncement and decrying of those very institutions of higher training which made the Negro public school possible, and make Negro industrial schools thinkable. In grade the best of these colleges are about a year behind the smaller New England colleges and a typical curriculum is that of Atlanta University. Men of America, the problem is plain before you. Different approaches to the problem of popularizing … The “Talented Tenth,” a term popularized by 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. Do you think that if the leaders of thought among Negroes are not trained and educated thinkers, that they will have no leaders? All men cannot go to college but some men must; every isolated group or nation must have its yeast, must have for the talented few centers of training where men are not so mystified and befuddled by the hard and necessary toil of earning a living, as to have no aims higher than their bellies, and no God greater than Gold. The Talented Tenth Lyrics. This is the history of human progress; and the two historic mistakes which have hindered that progress were the thinking first that no more could ever rise save the few already risen; or second, that it would better the uprisen to pull the risen down. Few persons realize how vast a work, how mighty a revolution has been thus accomplished. On the contrary a hundred half-trained demagogues will still hold the places they so largely occupy now, and hundreds of vociferous busy-bodies will multiply. Submit. I am an earnest advocate of manual training and trade teaching for black boys, and for white boys, too. Please refer to the appropriate style manual or other sources if you have any questions. Recently, I received the greatest opportunity to participate in the city's "Dress to Impress" program. Du Bois was one of a number of black intellectuals who feared that what they saw as the overemphasis on industrial training (as evidenced, for example, by the plan proposed by Booker T. Washington in the 1895 Atlanta Compromise) would confine blacks permanently to the ranks of second-class citizenship. The Talented Tenth of the Negro race must be made leaders of thought and missionaries of culture among their people. This is the history of human progress; and the two historic mistakes which have hindered that progress were the thinking first that no more could ever rise save the few already risen; or second, that it would better the uprisen to pull the risen down. No others can do this work and Negro colleges must train men for it. And yet one of the effects of Mr. Washington’s propaganda has been to throw doubt upon the expediency of such training for Negroes, as these persons have had. ” He starts by explaining that the African American elite must guide the rest of the African Americans away from the worst of the race. Out of the colleges of the North came, after the blood of war, Ware, Cravath, Chase, Andrews, Bumstead and Spence to build the foundations of knowledge and civilization in the black South. Du Bois used the term "the talented tenth" to describe the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in social change. And trade teaching for black boys, and Information from Encyclopaedia Britannica Horizons in Music the talented tenth moral physical. All college-bred Negroes, gathered by the right ideals and guided by intelligence machinery not... 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