Based on the true story of Melvin B. Tolson's 1935 debate team at Wiley University in Marshall, Texas, The Great Debaters is a movie every young person should see, not because Denzel Washington will probably win an Academy Award (although that is a great reason to see the movie, indeed), but because Professor Tolson's debaters can teach us a thing or two about perseverance and the importance of education in our lives.
While I don't care for Tolson's poetry (I am a fan of his essays and the column he wrote for the Washington Tribune entitled Caviar and Cabbage), I am fascinated by his techniques for motivating his students. First, let me point out that he has been criticized by both the African American community for using the Latin and Greek Dead White Guys method of instruction and by many conservatives for espousing Communism (he lived in the same Progressive Era as Oklahoma's very own Woody Guthrie).
But, neither of these "small" criticisms would have worried Melvin B. Tolson. He was never afraid that teaching the dominant language norms would deracialize his students; on the contrary, he recognized that access to the language of power is what enables people of any color to succeed. Here is how Minerva Sloss, a former student of Tolson's (Wiley 1947) summarized his lasting effect on his students:
Although he constantly pounced on the "wrongs"and "cruelties" of the world,
most of us began to know him not as a rebel American, but one who truly loved
America, yet also loved his ancestral African heritage. He believed we should be
ever aware of the inequalities in our nation, that this knowledge, however, should
not make us bitter: but should make us realize the necessity of being ever prepared
mentally, physically, and academically to cope with these inequalities. . . . I
believe my acceptance of myself as a black woman with capabilities to go as far as
my educational preparations, aspirations and physical endurance would permit
. . . became more realistic as a result of my experiences in his class. . . . I learned much more than mere facts: I learned about life, about myself, my fellowman, my own people. I learned to be concerned about others, that each human being, black
or white, is unique and plays a part in the development of our great humanity. *
And, to me, Ms. Sloss hit upon why going to see this movie with one's children is important. Tolson epitomizes what every human being should experience, regardless of and with regard to color, race, ethnicity, or gender. Every teen should see how far we have come, what it took to get us here, and why we can't allow our apathy to ever regress us back to those places in human history in which freedom and the human spirit were repressed.
Tolson recognized education as a means to uplifting the human spirit. It might be idealistic, but I dare to believe that in 2008 we can hope that parents, teachers, and teens can aspire to Tolson's kind of dogged perseverance combined with a moral and ethical covenant with the rest of mankind. One can dare to believe.
*Quoted from David Gold, English professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, 2003.
