BF2S Forums Talented Tenth vs economics security

It's black history month so we might as well have one thread about black history.

W. E. B. Du Bois, founder of the NAACP, published an article called the Talented Tenth, wikipedia describes it as the following

Du Bois used the term "the talented tenth" to describe the likelihood of one in ten black men becoming leaders of their race in the world, through methods such as continuing their education, writing books, or becoming directly involved in social change. He believed they needed a classical liberal education to reach their true destiny as what would in the 20th century be called public intellectuals:

this idea came in conflict with Booker T. Washington, who Du Bois considered an "uncle tom", since Washington theorized that if black people wanted to one day be equals with whites, they will need to achieve economic security. Thus Booker T began to advocate farming among other industrial jobs as the way for black to move up in the world. Du Bois saw this as damning black people to menial labor forever. Booker rationalized it in quotes like this

No race can prosper till it learns that there is as much dignity in tilling a field as in writing a poem.

So who do you think had the better idea on black advancement? Considering that the vast amount of black people still live in poverty, do you think Du Bois's idea has become a reality or is moving towards becoming reality?