From Wikipedia: The Talented Tenth

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The phrase "talented tenth" originated in 1896 among White Northern liberals, specifically the American Baptist Home Mission Society, a Christian missionary society strongly supported by John D. Rockefeller. They had the goal of establishing Black colleges in the South to train Black teachers and elites. In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote The Talented Tenth; Theodore Roosevelt was president of the United States and industrialization was skyrocketing. Du Bois thought it a good time for African Americans to advance their positions in society.

The "Talented Tenth" refers to the one in ten Black men that have cultivated the ability to become leaders of the Black community by acquiring a college education, writing books, and becoming directly involved in social change. In The Talented Tenth, Du Bois argues that these college educated African American men should sacrifice their personal interests and use their education to lead and better the Black community.

He strongly believed that the Black community needed a classical education to reach their full potential, rather than the industrial education promoted by the Atlanta Compromise, endorsed by Booker T. Washington and some White philanthropists. He saw classical education as the pathway to bettering the Black community and as a basis for what, in the 20th century, would be known as public intellectuals