s of these persons are
apt to confuse the well-wishers of the race who do not understand the
situation.

The Negroes holding this point of view are sometimes pleased to refer
to themselves as the Talented Tenth. They are largely city dwellers
who have had more or less of what they term "higher education"--Latin,
Greek, Theology, and the like. A number of these persons make all or a
part of their living by publicly bewailing the wrongs and injustices
of their race and demanding their redress by immediate means. Mr.
Washington's emphasis upon the advantages of Negroes in America and
the debt of gratitude which they owe to the whites, who have helped
them to make more progress in fifty years than any other race ever
made in a like period, is naturally very annoying to this type of
person. In spite of their constant abuse of him Mr. Washington some
years ago agreed to confer with the leaders of this faction to see if
a program could not be devised through which all could work together
instead of at cross purposes. In spite of the fact that the chief
exponent of this group opened the first meeting with a bitter attack
upon Mr. Washington, such a program was adopted, to which, before the
conferences were over, all duly and amicably agreed to adhere. Some of
the more restless spirits among the leaders of the Talented Tenth
soon, however, broke their pledges, repudiated the whole arrangement,
and started in as before to denounce Mr. Washington and those who
thought and acted with him.

After the Atlanta speech Mr. Washington's task was a dual one. While
the active head of his great and rapidly growing institution, he was
also the generally accepted leader of his race. It is with his
leadership of his race that we are concerned in this chapter. His
duties in this capacity were vast and ill defined, and his
responsibility exceedingly heavy. He said, himself, that when he first
came to be talked of as the leader of his race he was somewhat at a
loss to know what was expected of him in that capacity. His tasks in
this direction, however, were thrust upon him so thick and fast that
he had not long to remain in this state of mind. After the Atlanta
speech he was in almost daily contact with what was befalling his
people in all parts of the country and to some extent all over the
world. Through his press clipping service, supplemented by myriads of
letters and personal reports, practically every event of any
significance to his rac