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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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?