Thus DuBois embarked on a mission of racial uplift that called for the most exceptional of his race to lead the lower portion by their example. He called this group "the Talented Tenth," and in an essay of the same title, he declares: "The Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education…is the problem of developing the Best of this race that may guide the Mass away from the contamination and death of the Worst in their own races" (33). He extols the accomplishments of Phillis Wheatley, Benjamin Banneker, Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crummell, and others who achieved greatness despite the crushing weight of white rule. He claims that neither slavery nor lynching nor the raping of black women by white men could break the spirit of "manhood and chastity and aspiration from black folk. A saving remnant continually survives and persists, continually aspires, continually shows itself in thrift and ability and character. Exceptional it is to be sure, but this is its chiefest promise; it shows the capability of Negro blood, the promise of black men" (44). This remnant, however, bore the responsibility of raising up his brethren for, DuBois insists, "…it is, ever was and ever will be from the top downward that culture filters. The Talented Tenth rises and pulls all that are worth saving up to their vantage ground" (45). This program of education and uplift, in DuBois' vision, extended beyond the classroom, and he also demanded increased appreciation for the black family. In "The Talented Tenth," he concedes"that [the Negro people] have no traditions to fall back upon, no long established customs, no strong family ties, no well defined social classes. All these things must be slowly and painfully evolved" (54). He goes on to claim that "…human education is not simply a matter of schools; it is much more a matter of family and group life--the training of one's home, of one's daily companions, of one's social class" (61).

DuBois, in fact, invoked the popular theory of eugenics to reconcile his position as "an elite, yet paradoxically, representative" black man (English 296). Biology made him, and it could also produce a cadre of black middle class families. His call to recognize the black family, then, took an exclusionary tone for, in truth, he advocated the creation and recognition of the right kind of black family. In 1909, with his co-founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, an organization dedicated to promoting interaction among the best individuals of both races, DuBois found a ready audience for his agenda. In that organization's major publication, The Crisis, he writes, "There are to be sure not enough children in the families of the better class" (qtd in English 298). Therefore, as Daylanne English observes, "DuBois' 'Talented Tenth' comprises not just an already uplifted representative body but a carefully breeded, selected, and trained elite" (298). He had captured the attention of the adult middle class, but DuBois needed a vehicle by which to educate their children, the future generation of this elite.

In October 1913, The Crisis printed its first Children's Number, which incorporated photos of African American children and a fairy tale into the monthly's normal political and social news coverage. As an installment of The Crisis, however, the Children's Numbers included many instances of "human hatred," and, therefore, DuBois determined to offer a more positive approach to enlightening and entertaining children. In the October 1919 issue of The Crisis, in a statement titled "The True Brownies," he announced:

We shall hereafter publish not one Children's Number a year, but twelve! Messrs. DuBois and [Augustus] Dill will issue in November, in cooperation with The Crisis, but as an entirely separate publication, a little magazine for children--for all children, but especially for ours, "The Children of the Sun." It will be called, naturally, The Brownies Book, and as we have advertised, "It will be a thing of Joy and Beauty, dealing in Happiness, Laughter and Emulation, and designed especially for Kiddies from Six to Sixteen. It will seek to teach Universal Love and Brotherhood for all little folk--black and brown and yellow and white (qtd in Johnson 17-18).

In January 1920 DuBois and Dill offered their first thirty-two page issue of The Brownies Book, which featured a cover photo of a young black ballerina. Dressed all in white and gracefully posed with her arms reaching toward the heavens, she resembles an angel or, perhaps, a fairy.