Happy Friday Obots!
Today we celebrate the inspiration for one of my favorite movies of all-time, the Wiley College Great Debaters.
(Above, the 1930 team with coach Melvin Tolson)
The story of the team, began in 1924 at Wiley College, a small liberal arts college in Marshall, Tex., founded a half century earlier by the Methodist Episcopal Church to educate “newly freed men.”
Melvin B. Tolson arrived at the all-black school that autumn to teach English and other subjects. He also started a debate team.
Mr. Tolson, who would win wide distinction as a poet, saw argumentation as a way to cultivate mental alertness. Wiley was soon debating and defeating black colleges two and three times its size.
In 1930, Mr. Tolson decided to break new ground. He managed to schedule a debate with the University of Michigan Law School, an all-white school. Wiley won. Other debates with white schools followed, culminating with Wiley’s 1935 victory over the national champion, the University of Southern California.
Mr. Tolson’s stunningly successful debate team was portrayed in “The Great Debaters,” directed by Denzel Washington. Describing the cinematic young debaters in The Chicago Sun-Times, the critic Roger Ebert wrote, “They are black, proud, single-minded, focused, and they express all this most dramatically in their debating.”
In 2007, Denzel Washington announced a donation of $1 million USD to Wiley so the team could be re-established.
The Wiley College Debate Team, now also known as the Melvin B. Tolson/Denzel Washington Forensics Society of Wiley College, is currently under the direction of Dr. Shannon LaBove. The purpose of The Wiley College Debate Team is not only to compete at a national and regional level, but also to instill a strong work ethic, a drive for academic excellence and a spirit of ethical competition in our student leaders.
In the 2009–2010 season the Wiley Debate Team continued to win a plethora of awards and achievements at many of the tournaments covering the Texas and Louisana regions. One of the most historical tournament for the team was the Western Round-Up Swing at McNeese State University on November 20–22, 2009. This was a history making tournament as then two-year old Wiley College Forensic Team won their first overall tournament trophy.
The team was nationally ranked fourth in Debate at the 2010 Pi Kappa Delta National Tournament—the same national tournament the team was denied participation at over seventy-five years ago. Captain Sean Allen and Member Terrance Muse received first place in Duo Interpretation. Captain Caress Russell received first place in Poetry Interpretation. Novice Members Tanreka Smith & Jendayi Douglas received third place in Novice Parliamentary Debate. Many other rewards of Excellence were rewarded to the team for Student Congress, Extemporous Speaking, and other various categories.
The team provides the public with honors and reward updates as well as current schedule on their website.
Also, read more about the late Henrietta Bell Wells, the only female and freshman on the 1930 team in this New York Times article in remembrance of her achievements. (she is pictured at the top of the post with her teammates)