“When the nation was in need, he inspired them to give us hope.” – Dr. James Farmer Jr. writing of Melvin Tolson, his English professor and debate team coach
As we get a little older we realize so many different people fought for and won the freedom that so many of us take for granted every day. We think first of our military to whom we say a huge and sincere thank you for their service. The families of the men and women serving in the United States Armed Services should also be up there on the list of those we owe appreciation and gratitude. These family members give more than most will ever know and they give it every day of the year, and in many cases, forever, when their loved ones are killed in active duty or by friendly fire.
When thinking of the military contributions, we should also add the medical personnel who often fight on the front lines or near the most active of hot spots taking care of the injured and treating the wounded. These men and women who train hard and long to get the necessary medical knowledge are often overlooked as are the nurses and doctors who staff our local hospitals and emergency rooms in our towns and cities. They, too, pay a price for education and service.
We also think of the great responsibility our elected officials bear on their shoulders. With all of the unpleasant, unkind, frightening news stories we hear each day and with every public servant who messes up in life, there are hundreds of them who don’t. These men and women pay a price to serve their communities, cities, states and nation and many do it with the proper motive and in earnest sincerity. They honestly want to contribute to the good of society. Could we take time to send a note or an email to one of these public servants who is trying to help?
Our police officers and fire fighters are heroes in the lives of the citizens whom they risk their lives to help on a daily basis. Every time an officer or member of a fire fighting team puts on his uniform to go to work, he is laying his life on the line. When was the last time we said “thank you” to one of these local people?
I’ve named some of the more public figures that come to mind on this particularly American holiday, but there are also local individuals in every community who have stepped up to the plate, put forth time, energy and effort and made a lasting difference for not only themselves, but for others as well. Some particularly bright innovators are in the field of education. It is encouraging to find out about them as we go about our daily lives and to remind folks that every individual does have the opportunity and the right to be different and to make change that counts for something.
One group of young people who helped encourage freedom for all that I’ve enjoyed learning about recently was from a small Methodist college in Marshall, Texas. The debate team there in the early 1930s certainly made change an operative word as they did what no other African American group had done before them. I first heard and saw their story in the movie, “The Great Debaters,” produced and directed by Denzel Washington. The powerful movie, inspired by a true story, chronicles the journey of Professor Melvin Tolson (played wonderfully by Washington), a brilliant, but volatile, debate team coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of underdog students from small African-American Wiley College in the deep south into a historically elite debate team. A controversial figure, Professor Tolson challenged the social mores of the time and was under constant fire for his unconventional and ferocious teaching methods as well as his radical political views.
Some critics faulted the movie for its historical inaccuracies, but for the most part, the movie won rave reviews and several of the actors and actresses, including Washington, were name as outstanding in their roles.
Tolson accepted a position as instructor of English in 1924 at the small religious-based school in Marshall. While at Wiley, he taught, wrote poetry and novels, coached football and directed plays. In 1929, Tolson coached the Wiley debate teams, which established a ten-year winning streak beating the larger black schools of its day like Tuskegee, Fisk and Howard. After a visit to Texas, Langston Hughes wrote, “Melvin Tolson is the most famous Negro professor in the Southwest. Students all over that part of the world speak of him, revere him, remember him and love him.”
According to James Farmer Jr., a famed black civil rights activist who was in reality one of the debate team members, Tolson’s desire to win, to eliminate risk, meant that his debaters were actors more than spontaneous thinkers. “Tolson wrote all the speeches and the debate team memorized them. He drilled them on every gesture and every pause. Tolson was so skilled at the art of debating that he also figured out the arguments that opponents would make and wrote rebuttals for them before the actual debate,” said Farmer.
It is interesting to note that Farmer went on after his years at Wiley to become one of the “Big 6” leaders of the American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s. He also founded the Committee of Racial Equality, later known as the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). His father in the movie, Dr. James Farmer Sr., was the first African American in Texas to earn a PHD and was played brilliantly by Forest Whitaker.
In 1930, Tolson pursued a master’s degree in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University and began to write the “Cabbages and Caviar” column for The Washington Tribune. He also helped to organize sharecroppers in South Texas and to urge the citizens to strive for equality in all walks of life.
In 1935, Tolson led the Wiley Debate Team to the national championship to defeat the University of Southern California before an audience of eleven hundred people. In the movie version, the team from the small school in Texas went on to defeat the prestigious debate team of Harvard University, but historians say that never happened. The big win was against Southern California. However, Harvard did allow the movie to be filmed partly on its campus, the first to be done there since 1979.
Other interesting anecdotes from the movie include the fact that the diploma hanging in Dr. James Farmer’s study is an authentic copy provided by the art department of Boston University.
Jurnee Smollett played the role of the first female to serve on the debate team of Wiley College convincingly. The Samantha Booke character was based on the life of Henrietta Bell Wells, who currently is 95 years old living in the Houston area. After seeing the movie for the first time, Wells said that it was accurate and insightful.
Wiley College continues to educate students today and is located in Harrison County on 63 acres of land west of Marshall between Dallas to the west and Shreveport to the east. The college is currently affiliated with the United Methodist Church. On December 19, 2007, actor Washington announced a $1 million dollar donation to Wiley College so they could re-establish their debate team.
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