The Great Debaters

Introduction
The Great Debaters is a 2007 American biopic period drama film
directed by and starring Denzel Washington and produced by Oprah
Winfrey and her production company, Harpo Productions. It is based on an
article written about the Wiley College debate team by Tony Scherman for
the 1997 Spring issue of American Legacy.[1]
The film co-stars Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Nate Parker, Gina
Ravera, Jermaine Williams and Jurnee Smollett. The screenplay was
written by Robert Eisele. The film was released in theaters on December
25, 2007.[2]
Plot
Based on a true story, the plot revolves around the efforts of debate
coach Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington) at historically black Wiley
College to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American
South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch
mobs were a pervasive fear for blacks. In the movie, the Wiley team
eventually succeeds to the point where they are able to debate Harvard
University. This was their 47th annual debate team.
The movie also explores the social constructs in Texas during the
Great Depression including not only the day-to-day insults and slights
African Americans endured, but also a lynching. Also depicted is James L.
Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), who, at 14 years old, was on Wiley's debate
team after completing high school (and who later went on to co-found
C.O.R.E., the Congress of Racial Equality). According to the Houston
Chronicle, another character depicted on the team, Samantha Booke, is
based on the real individual Henrietta Bell Wells, the only female member
of the 1930 debate team from Wiley College who participated in the first
collegiate interracial debate in the United States. Wells also happensto be
a poet whose papers are housed at the Library of Congress.
The key line of dialogue, used several times, is a famous paraphrase
of Augustine of Hippo: "An unjust law is no law at all."
Another major line, repeated in slightly different versions according
to context, concerns doing what you "have to do" in order that we "can
do" what we "want to do." In all instances, these vital lines are spoken by
the James L. Farmer Sr. and James L. Farmer, Jr. characters.
Story
A black debate team competes with white schools during civil unrest
in America. It is the mid-1930s and Professor Tolson assembles a black
debate team at Wiley College. He trains them with the goal that they

compete with white debate teams across the country to prove that they
are just as good, maybe even better. The team is composed of Samantha,
James (the youngest member and the son of another Wiley professor),
Henry, and Hamilton. As the team competes across the country, they
experience first-hand the injustice and terror of racism. They witness a
lynch mob murder a black man and are deeply bothered by the incident.
Prof. Tolson, who secretly engages in political activity deemed illegal in
those days, also faces adversity. Despite such trials, the team fares well,
to the point of being asked to compete against the leading team in the
country, Harvard University. At the debate, James, initially a researcher, is
given the chance to debate with Samantha, eventually winning the
contest. The team then continues their winning streak for the next ten
years.