The Great Debaters
English 10
Inspired by a true story, The Great Debaters takes us into the Jim
Crow South of the mid 1930s—a time when blacks endured the daily
humiliation of discrimination, and racial violence always simmered
just beneath the surface. The film tells the story of the debate team
at Wiley College, a small Black college in Marshall Texas. Denzel
Washington plays the part of the brilliant but unpredictable English
professor and debate team coach, Melvin B. Tolson. Professor Tolson teaches his students the
power of reason and words and creates a powerful debate team, able to go head to head
and mind to mind, against any team in the country. At the height of an incredible run in
1936, the team even travels to face off the Harvard debate team in Boston. (The historic
debate was actually against the reigning champions, the University of Southern California
debate team. Tolson inspires his small, underdog team to believe in themselves, their cause
and the power of their words to persuade people and bring about social change.
Melvin B. Tolson, second from left, with the 1930 debate team at Wiley College in Marshall, Tex.
The following poems are recited by Tolson. Explain the meaning and the context of the
poems based on the movie’s themes. Look at the poetic devices too!
I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes, 1902 - 1967
I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.
Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.
Besides,
The Great Debaters
English 10
They’ll see how beautiful I am
And be ashamed—
I, too, am America.
From The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes, published by Knopf and Vintage Books. Copyright © 1994 by
the Estate of Langston Hughes. All rights reserved. Used by permission of Harold Ober Associates Incorporated.
Saturday’s Child- by Countee Cullen
Some are teethed on a silver spoon,
With the stars strung for a rattle;
I cut my teeth as the black racoon-For implements of battle.
Some are swaddled in silk and down,
And heralded by a star;
They swathed my limbs in a sackcloth gown
On a night that was black as tar.
For some, godfather and goddame
The opulent fairies be;
Dame Poverty gave me my name,
And Pain godfathered me.
For I was born on Saturday-"Bad time for planting a seed,"
Was all my father had to say,
And, "One mouth more to feed."
Death cut the strings that gave me life,
And handed me to Sorrow,
The only kind of middle wife
My folks could beg or borrow.
1. What themes or important messages can you take away from this movie?
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