A unity of opposites: The black college-educated elite, black workers, and the community development process

W. E. B. Du Bois, in a classic essay written in 1903, outlined his vision of the role the black college educated elite should play in the struggle of African Americans.' When Du Bois wrote his treatise, however imperfectly formulated, blacks confronted a very complex situation.2 It was a nadir and high point for them; a time of despair and a time of hope. By 1900, African Americans had lost their constitutional rights and were facing increased violence, exploitation, and the spread of Jim Crow racism. At the same time, the black proletariat was growing, institutions were maturing, the middle class was expanding, and a new protest movement was about to spring forth. 3 These conditions combined with the dramatic transformation of U.S. society to construct the setting in which a black cultural middle class, dominated by the college-educated elite, emerged.4.