In honor of Black History Month and for my sheer love of sociology, I want to give a birthday shout out to WEB DuBois, one of the most prominent intellectual leaders and activists of the 1st half of the twenti-first century and of course, a sociologist. He is well known as the author of his article “The Talented Tenth” –the second chapter of a collection of articles which was called The Negro Problem as well as numerous books including The Souls of Black Folk, The Philadelphia Negro, The Gift of Black Folk and many more.

As a Hampton University undergraduate student, I studied under Dr. Lois Benjamin who wrote the book, The Black Elite: Still Facing The Color Line in the Twenty-First Century. In many of our sociology classes, she referenced the importance of Dr. DuBois’ work and told our class that we must strive to be a part of the talented tenth. I know there are many Hampton sociology students who can relate to that message. We look ourselves in the mirror and ask: “Are we a credit to our race?” To some, this may seem dumb or irrelevant, but to us, we are concerned with the images of African Americans. We work hard to be a credit to African Americans and the human race as well.

Below is an excerpt from the Dr. DuBois’ article, “The Talented Tenth”:

The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. 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 away from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own and other races. Now the training of men is a difficult and intricate task. Its technique is a matter for educational experts, but its object is for the vision of seers. If we make money the object of man-training, we shall develop money-makers but not necessarily men; if we make technical skill the object of education, we may possess artisans but not, in nature, men. 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. On this foundation we may build bread winning, skill of hand and quickness of brain, with never a fear lest the child and man mistake the means of living for the object of life.

If this be true,  and who can deny it?  Three tasks lay before me; first to show from the past that the Talented Tenth as they have risen among American Negroes have been worthy of leadership; secondly to show how these men may be educated and developed; and thirdly to show their relation to the Negro problem.

You misjudge us because you do not know us. From the very first it has been the educated and intelligent of the Negro people that have led and elevated the mass,….

Those who have heard me speak, know how much I love my sociology. It is the discipline that allows us to learn from others, and educate others. Its the discipline that teaches compassion through understanding. I have many titles, but I am so proud to be a sociologist. Thank you Dr. DuBois for everything that you did to open the doors. I stand upon your shoulders, today and always.