(NAACP) and the NATIONALASSOCIATION OF
COLORED WOMEN (NACW). When W. E. B.
DUBOIS, WILLIAMMONROETROTTER, and others
met in Buffalo to establish the NIAGARA MOVE-
MENT, a forerunner of the NAACP, the group met
secretly in the Talberts’ Buffalo home.
Talbert was instrumental in forging links be-
tween the NACW and the newly established
NAACP. She was president of the national
women’s organization for four years, from 1916
through 1920. Talbert, who is recognized as one of
the cofounders of the NAACP, served as vice presi-
dent of the organization from 1918 through 1923,
the year of her death. During her tenure, she
called attention to the horrors of LYNCHINGand
lobbied intensely for antilynching legislation such
as the Dyer Bill, brought before Congress in the
early 1920s. One of her last efforts was to preserve
the historic Anacostia, Maryland, home of Freder-
ick Douglass.
Bibliography
Davis, Elizabeth Lindsay. Lifting As They Climb.New
York: G. K. Hall, 1996.
Talented Tenth
The phrase coined by W. E. B. DUBOISthat refers to
the African-American intellectual elite. The phrase
was a direct challenge to the accommodationist
philosophies of BOOKERT. WASHINGTON, who ad-
vocated industrial training, rather than intellectual
advancement, as a means of securing better condi-
tions for blacks. DuBois was distressed that the em-
phasis on African-American labor would relegate
the race to perpetual second-class citizenship and
prevent diverse, powerful, and multifaceted
African-American development and achievement.
DuBois first used the phrase in 1903 in The
Negro Problem.Biographer David Levering Lewis
suggests that DuBois’s perspectives on intellectual
potential informed his work several years before
the HARVARDUNIVERSITYPh.D. and future editor
of THECRISISused the term in print.
Bibliography
Lewis, David Levering. W. E. B. DuBois: Biography of a
Race, 1868–1919.New York: Henry Holt and Com-
pany, 1993.
“Tale of the North Carolina Woods, A”
Arthur Huff Fauset(1922)
A southern local-color story by ARTHUR HUFF
FAUSETthat appeared in the January 1922 issue of
THECRISIS. The evocation of folk history, local mys-
teries, and the vital role of an African-American
sage are reminiscent of the acclaimed regionalist
writings and sketches of CHARLESCHESNUTT.
The story involves a set of racially unidentified
young men who live in a North Carolina commu-
nity but know very little about the folk history of
the place. One afternoon, while sitting on the
branches of an ancient tree, they seize the oppor-
tunity to learn about the tree’s history and the rea-
sons that might explain its unique form. They
decide to question Aunt Sedalia, a sprightly, el-
derly woman whose “face was dark brown in color,
her eyes somewhat slanty, black, and sparkling,
with the fire of a maniac.” She eventually tells
them about the tree, which is rooted on one side of
a river but spans the entire breadth of that same
body of water. According to the self-identified
Queen of Sedalia, the tree began to grow in the
days following the death of a young white boy.
After a snake fatally poisons the son of Colonel
Marks, Queen Sedalia, as she also refers to herself,
begins to pray regularly on the very spot where the
child died. Eventually, a tree begins to grow, and
she is convinced that it has sprouted from the
blood spilled on that site. The story closes without
a dramatic resolution or evidence of the effect that
the story has had on the demanding but untutored
audience.
Fauset’s story suffers somewhat from its un-
complicated stock characters and unpersuasive
story line. It appeared some two years before “The
Marked Tree,” a much more riveting local-color
story by Charles Chesnutt that appeared in the De-
cember 1924 and January 1925 issues of The Crisis.Tales My Father Told MeHallie Quinn
Brown(1925)
One of several works that HALLIEQUINNBROWN
published during the HARLEMRENAISSANCE. The
volume honored her father, Thomas Brown, and
included numerous examples of his selfless and
charitable efforts to improve the lives of others.
The volume reflected Brown’s determination toTales My Father Told Me 507