Question: What year was the essay which Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West criticized in their book, "The Future of the Race" first published?

Passages:
The Signifying Monkey: A Theory of African-American Literary Criticism is a work of literary criticism and theory by American scholar Henry Louis Gates Jr. first published in 1988.  The book traces the folkloric origins of the African-American cultural practice of “signifying” and uses the concept of Signifyin(g) to analyze the interplay between texts of prominent African-American writers, specifically Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, Zora Neale Hurston and Ishmael Reed. The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross is an award-winning six-part Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) public television series written and presented by Harvard University scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It aired for the first time in the fall of 2013, beginning with episode 1, "The Black Atlantic (1500-1800)", on October 22, from 8-9 p.m. ET on PBS, and every consecutive Tuesday through to episode 6, "A More Perfect Union (1968-2013)", on November 26.  The companion book to the series, "The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross" (SmileyBooks, 2013), was co-authored by Gates and historian Donald Yacovone.  The two-DVD set of the series was released in January 2014. Finding Your Roots with Henry Louis Gates Jr. is a PBS television series hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr.  The first season aired on PBS from March 25 to May 20 of 2012.  It was broadcast in the 8–9 p.m time slot (EDT).  The series returned for a second season on September 23, 2014 and finished on November 25, 2014.  Season three began airing on January 5, 2016, concluding on March 8, 2016.  Season four is set to air on October 3, 2017. God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse is a 1927 book of poems by James Weldon Johnson patterned after traditional African-American religious oratory.  African-American scholars Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West have identified the collection as one of Johnson's two most notable works, the other being "Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man". Our Nig: Sketches from the Life of a Free Black is an autobiographical novel by Harriet E. Wilson.  It was published in 1859 and rediscovered in 1981 by professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr. It is considered the first novel published by an African-American woman in North America. Race Matters is a social sciences book by Cornel West.  The book was first published on April 1, 1993 by Beacon Press.  The book analyzes moral authority and racial debates concerning skin color in the United States.  The book questions matters of economics and politics, as well as ethical issues and spirituality, and also addresses the crisis in black leadership.  West's collection of moral essays on race relations in America was on the "New York Times" best-seller lists for many weeks.  The profound book continues to be as important today as it was 25 years ago.  Beacon Press will publish a 25th Anniversary edition on December 5, 2017. Harriet E. Wilson (March 15, 1825 – June 28, 1900) is considered the first female African-American novelist, as well as the first African American of any gender to publish a novel on the North American continent.  Her novel "Our Nig, or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black" was published anonymously in 1859 in Boston, Massachusetts, and was not widely known.  The novel was discovered in 1982 by the scholar Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who documented it as the first African-American novel published in the United States.  The novel, "The Bondwoman's Narrative" by Hannah Crafts, published for the first time in 2002, may have been written before Wilson's book. Piedmont is a town in Mineral County, West Virginia, US.  It is part of the 'Cumberland, MD-WV Metropolitan Statistical Area'.  The population was 876 at the 2010 census.  Piedmont was chartered in 1856 and the town is the subject of "Colored People: A Memoir" by Piedmont native Henry Louis Gates, Jr. 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 Future of the Race is a 1996 book by prominent African-American scholars Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West.  It is both commentary and criticism on W. E. B. Du Bois' essay "The Talented Tenth" .  The Vintage Books edition includes the original text by Du Bois.

Supporting sentences:
The Future of the Race is a 1996 book by prominent African-American scholars Henry Louis Gates and Cornel West.  It is both commentary and criticism on W. E. B. Du Bois' essay "The Talented Tenth" .  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.