Review of "The Great Debaters"

When I saw the preview of "The Great Debaters," the movie didn't stand out to me. I just thought it was about a group of debaters who could possibly win a championship against another school, much like the other popular team movies that have come out over the years. However, I saw a movie clip of Denzel Washington on 106 & Park giving a lesson on Willie Lynch to his students, and I made a promise to see the film this weekend. "The Great Debaters" is based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson (played by Washington), a professor at Wiley College in Texas. In 1935, he inspired students to form the school's first debate team and helped bring more firsts: the first black female debater Samantha Booke (played by Jurnee Smollett) and the leader of the first Black college to win a national championship. He also brought along two other team members: a stubborn but very intelligent and charismatic debater Henry Lowe (played by Nate Parker) and James Farmer Jr. (played by Denzel Whitaker). Forest Whitaker plays James Farmer, the college president, the first black man to earn a PhD from Texas, and a man who stood up for a legal case for Washington's character.

The movie immediately grabbed me when I heard the opening lines of my favorite poet's, Langston Hughes, creation "I, Too, Sing America." Not only did this movie give the audience English lessons through poetry and quotes of prominent African Americans, but it also gave some very important African American history lessons about topics like civil disobedience, the connection between Willie Lynch and lynching in the south, communism versus Methodist practices, the contradictions of W.E.B. DuBois, hinted at the story of Emmitt Till along with other young, black boys who were tortured before being lynched, a disturbing scene where the students came face to face with a lynch mob and a young, black man burned and hung from a tree, and how a sheriff in the town they lived in was the ringleader in a peaceful protest.