Talented Tenth Treatment

Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam Somebody is responsible for the unexplained disappearance of over 100 Black men and women from streets and homes in gentrifying neighborhoods around New York City. Many of the missing were homeless men and women, some with criminal pasts. Many others were just regular working people who were probably in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some fear that a vigilante white supremacist group is responsible. The police will not investigate the sudden increase in missing person report filings. The media has not investigated what is believed by most outside of the affected communities to be mere urban legend. The streets are those of a deserted ghost town after dark. Parents do not allow their children to leave their homes unescorted. Mayor Richard Gianelli, New York’s most powerful mayor in decades, rides the crest of his exceptional approval ratings into an election year. He has taken credit for the resulting drop in street crime statistics and nobody, not the media nor the police force, wants to make the enemies list of the current and future mayor.

Bedford Stuyvesant, Brooklyn is in the midst of a development boom. Old historic brownstones are being renovated, or leveled to make room for the million-plus dollar residences of the young professionals moving in from the suburbs. Families who have occupied these homes for years either sell or are forced out by urban developers using the city’s eminent domain powers.

Nobody who is affected by these disappearances has enough political juice to make themselves heard, nobody except Amari Truth, a former player in the cocaine game who has reformed himself and has become a respected community activist. He started the

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam Imani House, a neighborhood community development and education center that he runs out of his residence, a restored historic brownstone in Bedford Stuyvesant’s oldest section. Everyone in the community has heard the rumors that he renovated the house with some of the proceeds of his former drug empire, but nobody in this community seems concerned about its origins. Imani House has become a safe haven for the children of the community and the primary destination for all who need job training, food or just a place to have their problems addressed. Amari Truth is the Bedford Stuyvesant community’s Godfather and advocate and was among the first to hear of the disappearances. Some of his constituents at Imani House have disappeared or have missing family members. Worried family members show up at Imani House in increasing numbers with wedding photos, drivers licenses and passport photos, any identification that they think may help Amari to locate their loved ones. They know that if nobody else will help them, Amari Truth, with his strong contacts and street credibility, will at least try to. It is this credibility that allows Amari to convince the leaders of the two largest rival crews in New York to call a truce to use their weapons, not to kill each other, but to protect their communities from an invisible threat. Amari knows that the street war that could result will not help to solve the mystery, however, and it is not until the disappearance Johnny Ray Morgan, when Amari is able to formulate a plan. Johnny Ray was a low level street hustler whom Amari had helped turn toward the right path with GED training and a job at Home Depot. Johnny Ray’s grandmother, Alberta Morgan, approached Amari for help after she had been repeatedly snubbed by the NYPD and City Hall. The police knew Johnny Ray’s past and they figured that he was not worth wasting the resources needed for an investigation. Alberta turned to Amari as her last

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam resort because she knew that Johnny Ray, newly married, and with a newborn son, would never have deserted his new family and his new job that he loved. Alberta’s granddaughter, Zora Neale, is a rising star journalist with the N.Y. Times with her eyes on the White House bureau, but Zora has a busy life and an influential circle of friends. She doesn’t associate much with her family and her old neighborhood although she loves her grandmother dearly. Alberta has not been able to convince Zora to write a story about her cousin’s disappearance, nor has she been able to convince her son, Frank Neale, a NYPD Commander, to initiate an investigation. Frank and Zora both agree with the police assessment of Johnny Ray.

Amari sends a press release to the Times requesting that Zora cover his news conference to announce a mayoral campaign bid. It was just a rouse top get Zora assigned to attend what is actually a community rally to plead for police protection from whomever has been abducting men and women from the community. After the rally, Amari and Alberta double-team Zora and apply enough guilt to get Zora to agree to meet Amari and his staff at Imani House. An unsuccessful abduction attempt provides the only living witness to what is now known to be forced abductions. Before he dies, the witness provides a solid clue for Amari that convinces Zora that there is probably foul play. The attackers were white men in police commando uniforms who joked amongst themselves about a Black man with a Jewish sounding name. Zora’s frosty attitude toward Amari changes once they meet. She witnesses, first hand, his efforts for the community and she sees a wall full of the pictures of missing men and women that were provided by their worried relatives. Zora agrees to make inquiries at City Hall and at One Police Plaza. With each

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam official “no comment” she receives, she begins to suspect a government cover up and that the individuals involved are well funded and well connected. Zora is unable to convince her editor to allow her to investigate the story. Their priority is Black billionaire Wendell Watkins, whose eye Zora caught at a news conference that was called by the Mayor to honor him. Wendell Watkins is a self-made man with extensive New York real estate holdings. He is an avid follower of Dr. W.E.B. DuBois. He believes that he is among the most talented 10% of his race, the “Talented Tenth” who were mandated by Dr. DuBois to bring the “Negro” race out of second class citizenship and into a position of prosperity. Watkins plans to do so by any means necessary, even at the expense of those of the race who are deemed “unworthy”. He has surprised Zora with an offer of an exclusive interview. It is access to this man that her editors have been craving for years. Zora feels an attraction for Wendell Watkins and is intrigued about the prospect of such a prime opportunity, but she is outraged by the Mayor’s use of the drop in crime statistics for his reelection platform and his refusal to acknowledge that vigilantes may be roaming the streets of his city and attacking some of its citizens. Zora angers her superiors by ambushing the Mayor with pointed questions at a news conference after he had just announced his successful anti crime initiative as the cause of the drop in crime. She resigns from the paper rather than to accept a demotion, but this does not deter Wendell Watkins from continuing to pursue her. Watkins offers her a freelance opportunity to cover his activities, running his multibillion dollar empire that includes real estate development and media outlets. This gives Zora an opportunity to become acquainted with the wealthiest Black man in the country while working on a feature that would reach readers worldwide. As their relationship evolves into something more than strictly

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam business, Zora can envision her fantasy life as a superstar journalist with a billionaire husband.

Amari, plans and executes a sting operation with the help of his urban militia. His young crew members succeed in thwarting an abduction attempt, fighting off their attackers with their superior weaponry while taking one of the wounded attackers back to Imani House for interrogation. Amari calls in Zora and her Uncle Commander Neale to attempt to gather whatever information they can. While not providing any details, the wounded attacker, before he dies of his wounds, smiles at the mention of dealing with a Black man with a Jewish-sounding name. This clue is of no significance in Zora’s mind as she continues to spend time with Wendell Watkins, traveling on his private jet and in his limousines, becoming accustomed to the perks of privilege, but Zora’s world is turned upside down, however, when she meets Wendell Watkins’ trusted second hand man and legal counsel, Leonard Goldbourg, Esq., a Black man with a Jewish-sounding name. Zora discovers, after further investigation that Watkins Real Estate Development Corp. has extensive real estate holdings in the areas most affected by the abductions and that Watkins enjoys a sweetheart deal with the city that allows him to buy distressed properties in these areas for a fraction of their assessed value. He has been redeveloping these properties to provide a mix of middle class and luxury housing for which he receives millions of dollars in government grants and tax subsidies along with the huge income generated by the commercial developments that he is building in the same areas. Zora takes this information to Amari who discovers that many of those who have disappeared live not only in the same neighborhood as Watkins’ properties, but in some

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam cases, live in some of the very properties that have been recently acquired by Watkins. Zora reluctantly admits that the evidence she is uncovering seems to indicate that the man whom she admires so much may be involved in one of the worst crimes ever committed against a community.

Zora, Amari and Frank know that a much larger sting operation will be necessary if they are to learn the whereabouts of the missing people, dead or alive. Frank enlists a group of his loyalists from NYPD to work with the young crew members who will be the human bait, planted on strategic street corners in the affected neighborhoods. They plan for the crews to be abducted without incident, their movements tracked using electronic transmitters on “loan” from the NYPD. While the sting operation is underway, Leonard Goldbourg finds out that Zora is working with Amari Truth. He and Wendell use their influence in the city government to apply pressure in the form of NYPD surveillance and harassment of Amari and his staff at Imani House. His relationship with Zora is ends when he cannot convince her to abandon her “folly” with Amari and his “hoods”.

The crews are finally abducted after three nights of waiting. Frank and his men gear up for a battle as they monitor the transmitters from their while speeding toward a destination where they hope to find over 100 living detainees rather than a mass grave. Zora and Amari follow close behind them in Amari’s SUV. As the signals all become stationary, they know from map coordinates that the crew members have been taken to an abandoned prison facility and that the chances are good that the rest of the missing men and women are also being detained there.

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam Frank, his men, Zora and Amari know that the young crew members are in great danger. They frantically race against time to reach the young crews who have been reunited along with all of the other missing men and women at the abandoned prison. The captive crew members study the movements of the armed guards who are posted around the compound. They begin to suspect that whatever their abductors have planned for them is about to happen and that there will be no time to wait for their rescuers. They begin to organize dozens of other crew members who had been abducted in the weeks and months prior, into a plan to disarm the guards.

Zora, riding as Amari drives, continues to study her laptop which contains the files of documents that she has extracted from the computers of Wendell Watkins and Leonard, Goldbourg. She comes across a particularly disturbing document that indicates to her that the captives, if they are still alive, will not be alive for very long unless they get to them soon. She calls ahead to Frank and his men who gear up for a firefight.

At the compound, the crew members make their move to neutralize the guards. They are joined by many men and women of all ages who form organized mobs to overcome and disarm some of the guards. As the remaining guards open fire and some of the detainees are struck and killed and it seems that the guards have begun to turn the tide as explosions are heard in the distance. The two-truck convoy of Frank and his men blasts through the guard stations, followed by Amari and Zora. The rescuers drive straight into the melee and open fire on the guards. Zora jumps out of the car to assist a wounded woman as Amari tries in vain to restrain her. Amari jumps from the truck and tackles

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Treatment of Talented Tenth Screenplay © 2001 Cliff Pulliam Zora, and is grazed and stunned by a bullet in the process. Wendell and Leonard, accompanied by their armed guards, attempt to escape in the confusion of the battle, but they are apprehended at the front gate by the arriving N.Y. State Troopers who had been radioed back them up.

All of the guards are either killed or place into police custody, along with Wendell Watkins and Leonard Goldbourg. The surviving refugees are transported in buses to a tearful reunion with a crowd of their loved ones waiting for them in front of Imani House on a closed DeKalb Ave in Brooklyn. Zora becomes a journalistic hot ticket and Amari becomes a legend. The End?

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