![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/2011\/04\/TALENTEDTENTH.jpg\")
<\/a>William Edward Burghardt (aka–W.E.B) Du Bois was the first African-American to earn a PH.D. from Harvard. \u00a0He went on to be a history professor, editor of “The Crisis,” and author of, “The Souls of Black Folks” as well as his autobiography.<\/p>\nIn 1903 he wrote<\/p>\n
“The Negro Race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. \u00a0The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth…”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In contrast to, Booker T. Washington who advocated a focus on the trades, Du Bois, said, “Was there ever a nation on God’s fair earth civilized from the bottom upward? \u00a0Never, it is, ever was and ever will be from the top downward that culture filters. \u00a0The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth the saving up to their vantage ground.”<\/p>\n
In their book, “The Future of the Race,” Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West reflected upon Du Bois almost one years later. \u00a0They observe that today, “If it is the best of times for the black middle class–the heirs of Du Bois’ Talented Tenth–it is the worst of times for an equally large segment of our community.”<\/p>\n
Are you one of The Talented Tenth?<\/p>\n
Join the Groove<\/strong>: \u00a0What do you think of the ‘Talented Tenth” concept? \u00a0Was Du Bois right or wrong? \u00a0If he was correct, then what happened to the ‘Talented Tenth’…why have we not seen the desired result? Is there application for this concept beyond the African-American community?<\/strong><\/p>\n
(Original art by John Jennings<\/a>) (What’s The Sankofa Institute?<\/a>)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
What do you think about W. E. B. Du Bois’ concept of The Talented Tenth? William Edward Burghardt (aka–W.E.B) Du Bois was the first African-American to earn a PH.D. from Harvard. \u00a0He went on to be a history professor, editor of “The Crisis,” and author of, “The Souls of Black Folks” as well as his…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":79,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[28,27],"class_list":["post-1171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sankofa-leadership-institute","tag-talented-tenth","tag-w-e-b-du-bois"],"yoast_head":"\n
The Sankofa Institute Online: The Talented Tenth - The Jazz Theologian<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Sankofa Institute Online: The Talented Tenth - The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What do you think about W. E. B. Du Bois’ concept of The Talented Tenth? William Edward Burghardt (aka–W.E.B) Du Bois was the first African-American to earn a PH.D. from Harvard. \u00a0He went on to be a history professor, editor of “The Crisis,” and author of, “The Souls of Black Folks” as well as his…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Jazz Theologian\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-04-20T16:23:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-04-20T17:09:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/2011\/04\/TALENTEDTENTH-194x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Robert Gelinas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Sankofa Institute Online: The Talented Tenth - The Jazz Theologian","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Sankofa Institute Online: The Talented Tenth - The Jazz Theologian","og_description":"What do you think about W. 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William Edward Burghardt (aka–W.E.B) Du Bois was the first African-American to earn a PH.D. from Harvard. \u00a0He went on to be a history professor, editor of “The Crisis,” and author of, “The Souls of Black Folks” as well as his…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html","og_site_name":"The Jazz Theologian","article_published_time":"2011-04-20T16:23:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-04-20T17:09:43+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/2011\/04\/TALENTEDTENTH-194x300.jpg"}],"author":"Robert Gelinas","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html","name":"The Sankofa Institute Online: The Talented Tenth - The Jazz Theologian","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/2011\/04\/TALENTEDTENTH-194x300.jpg","datePublished":"2011-04-20T16:23:27+00:00","dateModified":"2011-04-20T17:09:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/2011\/04\/TALENTEDTENTH-194x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/jazztheologian\/files\/2011\/04\/TALENTEDTENTH-194x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/2011\/04\/the-sankofa-institute-online-the-talented-tenth.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Sankofa Institute Online: The Talented Tenth"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/","name":"The Jazz Theologian","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Robert Gelinas on Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/5e3ecb360405bd8603a61c7115194e01","name":"Robert Gelinas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/fbe\/fbe4a8ffc24002390e969652fba5c72bx96.jpg","caption":"Robert Gelinas"},"description":"\"For more information visit: Jazztheologian.com Robert Gelinas is Lead-Pastor (and resident Jazz Theologian) of Colorado Community Church\u00e2\u20ac\u201da multi-cultural, interdenominational community of 3000+ followers of Christ in the Denver area. Author of Finding the Groove: Composing a Jazz-Shaped Faith (Zondervan) and the upcoming, Strange Fruit: The Cross as a Way of Life (2011). Founder of Project 127, a ministry dedicated to seeing the day when there are no children waiting for homes in Colorado's foster care system. Robert deeply desires to see the body of Christ mobilized to serve the least of these. The poor, the down and out, the disenfranchised and disabled, those deemed unimportant and the unborn. He believes that God loves all people yet he has a special heart for the poor and the poor in spirit, the miserable and the marginalized. A Contributing Editor for Leadership Journal and Urbanfaith.com. He acquired a B.A. in Bibilcal Studies from Colorado Christian University and a Master of Arts in World Christianity (Missiology) from Denver Seminary. Robert is married to the love of his life, Barbara, and they have six energetic children (3 boys & 3 girls--one bio, five adopted--two from Ethiopia). Friend of God...Passionate about the Body of Christ...Lover of this thing called jazz! Please visit Jazztheologian.com for contact info., speaking schedule, videos, Facebook and Twitter.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/author\/rgelinas"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/79"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1171"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1174,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1171\/revisions\/1174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/jazztheologian\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}