Research Catalog

Title

The future of the race / by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West.

Author

Gates, Henry Louis, Jr.

Publication

New York : Alfred A. Knopf, 1996.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

West, Cornel.

Description

xvii, 196 pages; 21 cm

Summary

• 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.

Subject

• African Americans > Social conditions > 1975-
• African American leadership
• African American intellectuals
• Upper class > United States
• United States > Race relations

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 179-196).

Contents

Preface / Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Cornel West -- Parable of the Talents / Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- Black Strivings in a Twilight Civilization / Cornel West -- Appendix: W. E. B. Du Bois and "The Talented Tenth" / Henry Louis Gates, Jr. -- Appendix: "The Talented Tenth," W. E. B. Du Bois, 1903 -- Appendix: "The Talented Tenth Memorial Address," W. E. B. Du Bois, 1948.

ISBN

067944405X

LCCN

96014450

OCLC

ocm34410652

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries