The African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church is the church attended by Ossian Sweet's family in the South. Founded in the early 1800s by former African slaves, the AME preaches that "blacks deserved to be treated as equals" with whites, and would accomplish this by being "more frugal, more hardworking, better educated than their white neighbors" (51). These are the values that Ossian's parents instill in him from birth. As a young man, Ossian's parents except him to "take up their burdens" (63) via physical work on their land, but later, they encourage him to better his life by pursuing an education at the AME-funded Wilberforce University. There, Ossian continues to uphold the values of hard work and education in his pursuit of excellence. 

As an idea, W.E.B. Du Bois's Talented Tenth represents the group of black "scholars and scientists, professionals and poets" (74) who will lead black America through their intelligence and resources. In Ossian Sweet's life, though, the Talented Tenth of Detroit represent the "upper reaches of black society" (115) towards which he strives. Detroit's Tenth includes many of the doctors at Dunbar Memorial, religious leaders, attorneys, and others. They exercise a considerable amount of activist potential, including political actions, and assisting with defense and fundraising for cases like Ossian's.