Strong words

Debaters celebrates the power of ideas to change the world | Janna Henrichsen

In 1935, America struggled in the Great Depression; war in Europe was recent history and a looming threat; and Harlem had seen a renaissance. The Great Debaters touches on all these events while settling comfortably into the little town of Marshall, Texas, home of Wiley College, a black school buried in the Jim Crow South. Here Melvin B. Tolson coached the Wiley College debate team from championship to championship, and then into the history books.

The Great Debaters tells the compelling story of the team's rise to glory with the conviction that words are our most powerful weapon for change. One scene forcefully illustrates the point: Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington) has been arrested. James Farmer Sr. (Forest Whitaker in a powerhouse performance) comes to the jail with Tolson's wife and lawyer and quietly persuades the racist sheriff to release Tolson without incident.

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January 12, 2008, Vol. 23, No. 1

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