Washington -- If the assertion, popular among mainstream writers, is true that the age of public intellectualism is dead, no one told the growing number of Black scholars and their rapidly growing non-campus following.

 For example, a standing-room-only crowd recently gathered in a church here and enthusiastically applauded the news that an international organization of African-American scholars -- funded by a Rockefeller Foundation grant -- is in the works.

 What was unusual about the statement was that it came from Harvard University's Henry Louis Gates Jr. He was responding during a brief question-and-answer session as he shared the stage with his colleague in Harvard's Department of Afro-American Studies, Cornel West.

 Such a joint appearance would have been a rarity decades ago. But, even in a town where book-signing appearances are as common as political press releases, this little-publicized gathering drew a turn-away crowd.

 Drs. Gates and West were here to promote their book, "The Future of Race." But their remarks and the way the audience embraced them reflected a growing phenomenon: Black scholars are more accessible and more colloquial than ever -- and their constituents (and their offspring) are eager to hear them, talk to them and, to underscore the good-natured spiritedness of the relationship verbally joust with them.

 Talented Tenth's Grandchildren?

 These events put in bold relief the availability of today's corps of Black scholars. To some people, the phenomenon is viewed as nothing more than shallow marketing. There was some isolated grumbling in the crowd about why Black people ought to take seriously any assessment of the state of affairs of African Americans from a man referred to by West as "Brother Skip."