Movie to feature Wiley College historic debate team
Melvin B. Tolson (center) led the Wiley College
debate team to U.S. prominence in 1935. The story is depicted
in the movie "The Great Debaters," scheduled for release Dec. 25.
UMNS photos courtesy of Wiley College.
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A UMNS Report
By Linda Green*
Oct. 19, 2007
It is not every day that Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey do a
movie together about a historically black college with fewer than 1,000
students.
But that’s what happened when the pair learned about a David and
Goliath matchup in which Wiley College's 1935 debate team won a national
championship against perennial oratorical powerhouses.
United Methodist-related Wiley College is a historically black school in Texas.
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In 2004, the United Methodist-related college in Marshall, Texas,
began to receive inquiries from Hollywood about Melvin B. Tolson, leader
of Wiley's first debate team.
"We started getting calls and researching ourselves for them," said Veronica Clark, Wiley's director of public relations.
The Wiley staff learned that over a 15-year period, Tolson’s teams
lost only one of 75 debates. The Wiley Forensic Society competed against
historically black colleges, but earned national attention with its
debates against the University of Southern California and Harvard
University.
"After we did our research, it was submitted to Mr. Washington and
the production company, and from there a script was developed," said
Clark.
The Great Debaters
Scheduled for release Dec. 25, "The Great Debaters" is being produced
by Winfrey's Harpo Productions. Washington is both director and star.
Filming began in early 2006 and wrapped over the summer. Most of the
scenes were filmed in Louisiana with brief scenes on the Wiley campus
and at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.
"This is exciting. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Not to mention that a great story is being told …"
–Veronica Clark, Wiley College
"Everyone is extremely excited," Clark said. "It is not everyday that
Denzel Washington and Oprah Winfrey want to do a movie about a college,
especially one about a college our size." The liberal arts college has
926 students enrolled.
"As soon as we learned of the movie at Wiley, the alumni have just
been bombarding the college with telephone calls," Clark said. "This is
exciting. It just doesn’t get any better than this. Not to mention that a
great story is being told about newbies coming onto the debate scene
and doing so well."
The Marshall community also was excited about Washington’s arrival.
"He came to campus in sweatpants and a baseball cap," said Clark. "He
was here to work (and) he was very approachable."
Since racial diversity was needed in the film, students and community
members came out in droves. Other actors in the film include Forest
Whitaker, Columbus Short, Jermaine Williams, J.D. Evermore, John Heard,
Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker, Justice Leak, Jurnee Smollett and Denzel
Whitaker.
The story of Melvin Tolson
Tolson was born in 1898 in Moberly, Mo., to a Methodist Episcopal
pastor and his wife. His father served churches in Missouri and Iowa.
A graduate of historically black Lincoln (Pa.) University, Tolson was
hired by Wiley College in 1924 to teach English and speech. He also
coached junior varsity football, directed the theater club and organized
the Wiley Forensic Society.
A monument to Tolson and his achievement stands on the campus.
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Tolson was a mentor and teacher to civil rights activist James Farmer
Jr. and Herman Sweat, an African American who was refused admission
into the University of Texas Law School. Action by the law school
resulted in a Supreme Court decision that challenged the "separate but
equal" doctrine of racial segregation, a policy established by the 1896
case of Plessey vs. Ferguson.
He left Wiley in 1947 to teach at historically black Langston (Okla.)
University. That same year, Liberia declared him its poet laureate.
Beginning in 1952, he served two terms as mayor of all-black Langston.
He died in 1966.
Resurrecting a legacy
The movie has instilled a sense of pride in the students and the
Marshall community. The debate team, defunct after Tolson left the
school in 1947, was resurrected in the last academic year and won a
debate against Morehouse University. Clark called the win "icing on the
cake."
In an interview with the Marshall (Texas) News Messenger,
Washington said he thought the Wiley debaters "would be just a really
wonderful story to tell. It's about the spoken word –– something you
don't see much in film –– and about education and about debating."
Washington said this part of the story of blacks in America needs to
be told –– that there is a huge gap between the end of the Civil War and
the climax of the civil rights struggle in 1964. He called the movie a
"David and Goliath" story.
He also said the spoken word is an important part of current hip-hop
culture, and the debating film shows the roots of that tradition. "Our
oral history is rich and deep, and debating is a big part of it, a part I
didn't know about. It's something I want to share on the film with
others," he told the newspaper.
Wiley College is the first historically black college west of the
Mississippi River. It was founded in 1873 by Bishop Issac Wiley of the
Methodist Episcopal Church and the Freedman's Aid Society to prepare the
newly emancipated people for the future. The college is one of 11
historically black United Methodist-related institutions of higher
education and is financially supported by the denomination's Black
College Fund.
*Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Linda Green, (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Resources
Wiley College
The Great Debaters |