The Great Debaters
A drama based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at Wiley College Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school’s first debate team, which went on to challenge Harvard in the national championship.
- Director: Denzel Washington
- Genre: Biography | Drama
- Tagline: When the nation was in need, he inspired them to give us hope.
- Runtime: 127 minutes
Cast
Denzel Washington : Melvin B. Tolson
Nate Parker : Henry Lowe
Jurnee Smollett : Samantha Booke
Denzel Whitaker : James Farmer Jr.
Jermaine Williams : Hamilton Burgess
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Based on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of debate coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) at historically black Wiley College to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks. In the movie, the Wiley team eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate Harvard University.
The movie also explores the social milieu of Texas during the Great Depression including not only the day-to-day insults and slights African Americans endured, but also a lynching. Also depicted is James L. Farmer, Jr. who, at 14 years old (Denzel Whitaker), was on Wiley’s debate team after completing high school (and who later went on to co-found C.O.R.E., the Congress of Racial Equality). According to the Houston Chronicle, another character depicted on the team, Samantha Booke, is based on the real individual Henrietta Bell Wells, “the only female member of the 1930 debate team from Wiley College who participated in the first collegiate interracial debate in the United States.”[3] Melvin B. Tolson also happens to be a major African American poet whose papers are housed at the Library of Congress.
The key dialog line, used several times, is a famous paraphrase of Augustine of Hippo (354-430): “An unjust law is no law at all.” Read more
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