The future of the race
By: by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West.
Contributors: West, Cornel.
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: A.A. Knopf; Distributed by Random House
Published: 1996
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 196
Subjects: African Americans -- Social conditions -- 1975-; African American leadership; African American intellectuals; Upper class -- United States; United States -- Race relations
Description: In a ground-breaking collaboration, and taking the great W. E. B. Du Bois as their model, two of our foremost African-American intellectuals address the dreams, fears, aspirations, and responsibilities of the black community - especially the black elite - on the eve of the twenty-first century.

In 1903, the influential historian, editor, and co-founder of the NAACP, W. E. B. Du Bois, published his now famous essay "The Talented Tenth." "The Negro race," it began, "like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men." For the young post-Civil Rights era group of leaders, of which Henry Louis Gates, Jr., and Cornel West have become such a significant part, "The Talented Tenth" was held up as a model for the social, political, and ethical roles of the new "crossover" generation.

Du Bois's belief in an educated class dedicated to reform became their inspiration and their credo.

Now, nearly a century after Du Bois set forth the role of the educated black American, Gates and West explore this pivotal aspect of his intellectual legacy - and, in so doing, they not only re-examine Du Bois's ideas on leadership but also respond to the challenges of the present. The problems are clear and urgent. Since the day Martin Luther King, Jr., died, the black middle class has quadrupled. Yet, simultaneously, the size of the black underclass has disproportionately and tragically skyrocketed.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-196).