The Great Debaters

1. Characters, setting, plot, climax

Character: Samantha Booke, James Farmer Jr., Henry Lowe and professor Melvin
Tolson.
Setting: Wiley college at Texas, and Harvard University at Boston in the year
1935.
Plot: The struggles of a rookie debate team, composed of African-Americans, to
speak for their rights.
Climax: When Harvards debate team accepted Wileys team to go to Boston
for the Debate championship. This was the first time African-Americans were
allowed to debate at Harvard.
2. Write 5 public speaking or debating skills used by Mr Tolson in order to train
the students.

The first debater is in favor, the second is against.

Fallacy. Syllogism: if one of the premises is incorrect, the syllogism
collapses.
The use of credible sources for the argumentation.
There must be an affirmative and a negative posture, so there can be a
debate.
The power of knowledge is the best tool a man can have.

3. Why did Ms Booke could have won her argument against Mr Tolson?
Because the president of the United States should be the most trustworthy and
reliable source of information, isnt it? She also claims that another source
could be the face of desperation and frustration of a mother who cant feed her
children.
4. Mr Farmer Junior uses quotes and cites of things, events, he heard from his
father. Mention 4 and why did he used them for.
We do what we have to do in order to do what we want to do. To explain that
Negroes had to work and fight for their rights.

In Texas they lynch Negroes. My teammates and I saw a man strung up by his
neck and set on fire. We drove through a lynch mob, pressed our faces against
the floorboard. I looked at my teammates. I saw the fear in their eyes and,
worse, the shame. What was this Negro's crime that he should be hung without
trial in a dark forest filled with fog. Was he a thief? Was he a killer? Or just a
Negro? Was he a sharecropper? A preacher? Were his children waiting up for
him? And who are we to just lie there and do nothing. He experienced
firsthand, racial discrimination and violence against color people.
St Augustine said, An unjust law in no law at all. This means that they all
have the right to resist against unfairness, with violence or with social
disobedience.

5. What type of debating format was used in this movie? What is this format
about?
I investigated and I found that the Cross Examination Debate Association
(CEDA) type of debate is the most similar to the one depicted in the movie. The
debating teams are of two people, the teams divide in a posture and its
counterpart. They team at favor, starts presenting its arguments, then the
team against. Then each teams is given time to make their counter arguments
and their conclusions. At the end a winner is chosen.