Discovering Buffalo, One Street at a Time

Mary Talbert Blvd, shown in orange. The Talbert Mall property is outlined in red.

Today, we’re continuing our series looking at Mary B. Talbert Boulevard and the Talbert Mall.  If you haven’t read Part 1, I suggest you click this link to start at the beginning.  Part 2 today will cover Mary’s life while she lived here in Buffalo.  Part 3 will be coming on Saturday, September 5th, and will talk about the legacy of Mary Talbert and the Talbert Mall projects.

When we left off in Part 1, Mary had just moved to Buffalo in 1891.  Will and Mary’s daughter Sarah was born in 1892.  Sarah graduated from Central High School in 1911 and the New England Conservancy of Music in 1915.

Phyllis Wheatley Club – Source – Library of Congress

In 1899, Mary became a Charter Member of the Phyllis Wheatley Club.  The Phyllis Wheatley Clubs were the local affiliates of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW).  Phyllis Wheatley Clubs existed across the country, named after an 18th Century Black poet.  The Club created programs and strategies to advance Buffalo’s Black Community.  The second biennial convention of the NACW was held in Buffalo in 1901.  In 1905, the Phyllis Wheatley Club of Buffalo opened a settlement house to help mothers and give job support to women.  They also opened a house for the elderly and donated books by black authors to the public libraries.

African Village Exhibit on the Pan Am Midway.  Note the Pan Am Electric Tower in the background.  Source: Uncrowned Community Builders

In 1900/1901, Mary Talbert challenged the Board of Commissioners of the Pan American Exposition to appoint an African American to the Board and to include an exhibit on modern Black American life, such as Booker T Washington’s Negro Education exhibit that had been featured in Atlanta in 1895 or WEB DuBois’ Negro Exhibit in Paris in 1900.  She protested the Old Plantation Exhibit, which perpetuated the “happy slave” narrative and the “Darkest Africa” village on the Midway.  Many people came out for the protest, and they were successful, the exhibit was included in the Manufacturing and Liberal Arts Building.  Because the exhibit was added later, it was not included in marketing information about the Pan Am, and little information exists about what was included in the exhibit.

In 1905, WEB DuBois and others met secretly in the home of Mary Talbert.  This began the Niagara Movement.  WEB DuBois invited a group of 54 members from 17 different states to come to Buffalo from July 11-13, 1905 to discuss plans to achieve equality.  Twenty-seven delegates from 13 states and Washington, DC came to the meeting in Fort Erie.  It is often said that the Niagara Movement held its first event in Erie Beach Hotel in Fort Erie, Ontario because hotels in Buffalo would not allow them.  This myth has been debunked and more about that can be found in an article by Cynthia Van Ness that can be found at this link.

The Niagara Movement continued as a series of conferences and publications between 1905 and 1909.  The group was led by WEB DuBois who had a difference of opinion with Booker T. Washington as to the best way to achieve equality.  The “Bookerites”, led by Washington felt that economic prosperity and education were more important than civil and political equality.  WEB DuBois and the Niagara Movement were looking to demand civil rights immediately.  Mrs. Talbert was an acquaintance of both Booker T. Washington and WEB DuBois.  In a letter, Booker T Washington asked his wife to ask Mary Talbert to keep her informed about what was going on with the Niagara Movement meetings and who was attending.  The meetings in July 1905 started at the Talbert home and moved to Fort Erie the next day.

By 1908, the Niagara Movement started to falter.  They suffered from lack of press and lack of funds.  In 1909, a race riot occurred and several Blacks were lynched in Springfield Illinois.  Mobs of white men roamed the city – looting, burning, shooting, and assaulting Blacks.  The riot shook both Black and Whites alike and served as a catalyst for a meeting in 1909 which evolved into the forming of the NAACP, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

In 1910, as leader of the Phyllis Wheatley Club, Mary hosted a meeting with Jesse Nash, John Sayles (secretary to Mayor Louis P. Fuhrmann) along with WEB DuBois and Fanny Garrison Villard of the National NAACP organization.  This was the start of the Buffalo NAACP chapter, which officially formed in January 1915.  The first president of the chapter was John Brent, the first Black Architect in Buffalo.

Mary Talbert was a Charter Member of the Empire State Federation of Colored Women and later became its President from 1912 to 1916.  She also served as statistician, parliamentarian, Vice President, and President of the National Association of Colored Women.

Amenia Conference. Mary is in the center of the photo, fourth from the left in the 2nd row.  Source:  Library of Congress

In 1915, Mary was a part of the NAACP Conference, called the “Amenia Conference” in Amenia, New York (near Poughkeepsie) at Joel Spingarn’s estate, Troutbeck.  Joel Spingarn was a Jewish man from New York City who fought for racial justice and was influential in the NAACP, one of the first Jewish members of the organization.  He served on the board of NAACP for more than 25 years, as Chairman of from 1913-1919 and President from 1930 until his death in 1939.  The NAACP’s highest honor award is named after Mr. Spingarn.  This conference was held one year after Booker T Washington’s death, with the hopes of uniting the activist movement with Washington’s contingency.  The attendees agreed to a unity platform at this conference, agreeing to work together on civil rights issues.

Mary Talbert addressing servicemen during WWI. Source: Kautz Family YMCA Archives, University of Minnesota 

Second myth debunked:  It is often written that Mary Talbert served as a nurse with the Red Cross during WWI.  This is not true.  In Mary’s own words, after Armistice for the First World War, she went overseas for four months to serve with the YMCA in the Meuse sector near the Argonne Forest.  Of her time there, she said, “I helped the boys who buried 26,000 American dead…we remained in France until the last American soldier was in a grave properly located and marked”.  Sixteen Black women went to Europe to support the YMCA’s war efforts.  Many organizations did not allow Black women to serve overseas during the war effort.  The YMCA was one of the only organizations to allow them.  The YMCA recruited these women to work with the 400,000 black soldiers stationed in Europe.  These women were called secretaries.  She offered classes and prayers for the soldiers stationed there.  She had led Liberty Bond drives during the war and had raised $5 million to support war efforts.

Mrs. Talbert and other YMCA Secretaries used their war work abroad to help secure participation in international conferences after the war.  Gatherings of many groups were occurring, coinciding with the peace treaty negotiations.  Mary attended the Women’s Peace Conference in Zurich in May 1919, as well as the Congress of Women held in Norway in 1920.  Several black women were forbidden by the US government to attend many of these international peace talks.  The US feared that sending too many “protesters” would draw attention to some of the US government’s deficiencies.  Mary’s influence was strong enough that she was one of the few women allowed abroad.  While she was abroad, she went on a tour of Europe and was a guest of Lord and Lady Aberdeen in England and Queen Wilhelmina in the Netherlands.  Mary Talbert became one of the first black women to join the Women International League for Peace and Freedom.

Mary Talbert was an early supporter of the Dyer Anti Lynching Bill, sponsored by Missouri Congressman Leonidas Dyer in 1918.  The bill would make lynching a federal offense.   She spoke publicly in favor of the bill in 1920, even before the Anti-Lynching Crusaders were founded in 1922.  She traveled thousands of miles across the country speaking to crowds of both black and white audiences.  Her motto was “a million women united to suppress lynching”.  The legislation passed in the House of Representatives in January 1922, but was held up in the Senate due to filibusters by the Southern Democrats.  Between 1882 and 1968, nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress.  According to the Tuskegee Institute, 4,743 people were lynched during those years, with almost 70% of the victims being Black.

Mary Talbert described post-WWI Buffalo as “a hard nut to crack”.  Conditions for Blacks had declined.  As the Black population of Buffalo increased, so had the discrimination and segregation tactics by the white residents.  When Mary arrived in Buffalo in the 1890s, the Black population of the city was about 1,100, out of a population of 255,000.  By the 1920s, the Black population had grown as Blacks had come from the south to work in the new industrial production of war equipment during WWI.  After the War, many of those jobs ended.  Employment for Blacks was hard to come by and in the 1920s, many Blacks lived on little to nothing.  Blacks continued to come north during the Great Migration, and the City government did little to help conditions, which were deteriorating in the Black communities.  While Buffalo had nationally known champions for Black rights in people like Mary Talbert and her neighbor Reverend Nash, they mostly ignored the problems that were happening and didn’t use them to help spearhead policy changes that could have helped improve conditions for the Black community.  She was considered to be the most well-known Buffalonian in her time, fighting for change across the country and internationally.  Mary was invited to speak across the country and was published in many newspapers and journals during her lifetime.  The Buffalo Express interviewed her in 1923 and reported that it was likely she was better known outside of Buffalo than inside Buffalo.  She didn’t like publicity and was often very modest about her accomplishments.  In 1920, when she spoke in Cincinnati, advertisements described her as “Our Greatest Woman!  Madam Mary B Talbert.”

In 1921, she spoke in front of the International Council of Women in support of equal right of inheritance for illegitimate as for legitimate children.

Frederick Douglass Home. Source:  National Parks Service

During her time as President of the NACW, the group purchased and restored the home of Frederick Douglass in Washington DC.  On March 5, 1921, the deed to the house was received by Mary Talbert, representing the NACW.  She also served as President of the Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association, which maintains the home.

Mary Talbert Spingarn Medal. Source: Uncrowned Community Builders

In 1922, Mary Talbert was awarded the Spingarn Medal.  This is the highest award of the NAACP, given for “the highest or noblest achievement by a living American Negro during the preceding year or years”.  Mary was present the medal for her continued service to women of color.

Before her death, she had been scheduled to lead a group of more than 200 black clergymen on a tour of the Holy Land and Egypt, but was forced to postpone the trip due to her poor health.

Mary Talbert died on October 15, 1923, of coronary thrombosis.  She was 57 years old.  She is buried in the Talbert family plot at Forest Lawn Cemetery.  Her obituary in the Buffalo News called her “probably most noted woman in the world”.

To learn more about Mary’s legacy and the legacy of the Talbert Mall apartments, you can read Part 3.

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Sources:

1. “3 New Projects to Provide 1724 More Dwelling Units”. Buffalo Evening News. October 30, 1954, pg. 8.”Crime Engulfing Buffalo Project”. New York Times. July 19, 1971, p 26.
2. “Editorial” Buffalo American. March 4, 1926, p. 2.
3. “Frederick Douglass’ Properties Handed Over to New Owners!” The Competitor, v.3, no2. April 1921, p 34.
4. “Death of Peyton Harris” Buffalo Morning Express. Feb 3, 1882 p.4.
5. “Death Takes Prominent Race Woman” Detroit Independent, October 19, 1923.
6. “Downtown Oberlin Historic District”. US Department of the Interior, National Parks Service. Prepared by O.H.I.O. 2002. Accessed from ohiohistory.org
7. “Ghetto Growth Traced” Buffalo Courier. February 16, 1968, p 26.
8. “Home of William Talbert May be Made a Shrine”, Commercial Advertiser, March 4, 1926
9. “Housing Site Opens After Renovations”. Buffalo News. Nov 17, 1993.
10. “Local Woman Benefactor of Negro People” Buffalo Morning Express. July 15, 1923. Sec 8, p1.
11. “Memorial Tribute” Buffalo Courier Express. July 31, 1935, p 9
12. “Mrs. Talbert, Champion of A Race, Dead”. Buffalo Express Oct 16, 1923.
13. “Mrs. Talbert, Local Woman Who Has Worked for Advancement of Race for Twenty-Five Years”. Buffalo Morning Express. Nov, 30, 1919, p.36.
14. “Negro Women Support Talbert Home Project” Buffalo News. December 11, 1939.
15. “To Plant Trees Honoring Two Negro Pioneers”. Buffalo Courier. June 1, 1932.
16. Allen, Carl, et al. “Killing Prompts Tenant Call for Better Security City Safety Official Vows Cooperation at Frederick Douglass Towers”. Buffalo News, November 10, 1992.
17. Campagna, Darryl and Tom Ernst. “Housing Authority Honors Three” Buffalo News. June 16, 2001.
18. Culp, D. W. Twentieth Century Negro Literature or A Cyclopedia of Thought on the Vital Topics Relating to the American Negro. J.L. Nichols& Co: Toronto Canada, 1902.
19. Esmonde, Donn. “Buffalo Woman Near Forgotten as Civil Rights Figure”. Buffalo News. Feb 28, 2000.
20. Hine, Darlene Clark, ed. “Mary Morris Talbert Burnett”. Black Women in America: An Historical Encyclopedia. Brooklyn NY: Carlson Pub, Inc. 1993.
21. Locke, Henry. History of Blacks in Buffalo. Buffalo Courier Express, 1973. Booklet found at F129.B8.L7 at Buffalo Library.
22. Mather, Frank. Who’s Who of the Colored Race: A General Biographical Dictionary of Men and Women of African Descent, Volume 1. Chicago, 1915.
23. McNeil, Harold. Douglass Towers Plan Reviewed. Buffalo News. Jan 22, 1999.
24. Morton, Marian. And Sin No More: Social Policy and Unwed Mothers in Cleveland 1855-1990. Cleveland Public Library, 1993.
25. Nahal, Anita and Lopez D. Matthews, Jr. “African American Women and the Niagara Movement.” Afro-Americans in New York Life and History, Vol 32, Issue 2. July 2008.
26. Payerchin, Richard. “Oberlin Historians Share Favorites of Forgotten Lore”. Morning Journal. April 29, 2019.
27. Reif, Michelle. “Thinking Locally, Acting Globally: The International Agenda of African American Clubwomen, 1880-1940”. The Journal of African American History, vol 89, no.3.
28. Tan, Sandra. Razing of Douglass Towers Heralds Redevelopment of Housing Complex. May 3, 2000.