The Great Debaters: The Wiley College Debate Team Essay

Amid the 1930's it was a defining moment for African Americans lives since they needed to change their life. In the film The Great Debaters by Denzel Washington shows the debaters overcame racism in the debating community. The debaters used their experiences as the minority group to create an emotional attachment with the audience. The team was not a respected team by the white community but rather the team constantly pushed towards to reach their goals. Regardless of being the minority group, the team uses credibility and emotion to win their debate competitions.

This film focuses on being a confident and decisive person in life, through passionate and informed topics. Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners.¹ After watching this film it does strike a cord of wanting to be able to reach out to others and share my own opinions in a strong, confident manner. To inspire others on something I may be passionate about in life, to share a different aspect of life that others have not lived. I can't say exactly how much this film has impacted my views on public speaking although the film itself

The movie, The Great Debaters, takes place in the 1930s and explores the struggles of three students from Wiley College’s debate team. The first character introduced is the youngest student from the team, 14 year old, James Farmer Jr. He is an ambitious young man who strives to live up to his father’s expectations. James struggles with fear throughout the movie. He is sheltered and does not understand the severity of the racial conflict of the time. This trait is evident in the film in two key scenes. The first is when his family is out for a drive and his father accidently hits a white man’s pig. James’s father is very cautious during this interaction and James witnesses the incident from the car. This interaction has a major impact on James and gives him a greater understanding of the racial conflict. The second incident occurs when James is unsuccessful in his first debate. When given other opportunities to debate, he questions himself and fears failure. This fear plays a role in the debate team’s future competitions.

Conflict is one of many challenges in everyday life. It is presented to us in many ways such as trying to figure out how to get your homework done on time, finding a way to win the football game, or something just as simple as trying to get out of doing your chores. However, there are times in everyone's life where your conflict is beyond the norm. These could include standing up to your school bully, trying to save someone’s life, or as many would say the greatest conflict in human history, the Nazis rise to power. There are many ways to solve a conflict in general no matter how morally wrong it is. However, history has shown time and time again that the best way to solve a conflict is to stand up to it while also

Most of the discussion dealt with historical overview on slavery and how it pertained to today’s society. The audience was reminded early on in the discussion that race does exist in its consequences and that we must not overlook those consequences. The speaker at this portion of the discussion was a woman who seemed extremely fond of her topic. Her gestures and speech inflections were much exaggerated to the point where it almost drew attention away from her topic. It was just ironic to me how a Caucasian woman could speak with such “emotion” when she was never herself enslaved!

With the need for constant change comes conflict. There are several strategies for handling conflict, avoidance,

We watched the movie “The Great Debaters” in class. This movie is about a debating team from Texas. "The last city to surrender after the Civil War" (The Great Debaters. Nate Parker. 2007. Film.). This is quote is how James Farmer, describes his town. The Debating team is home to Wiley College. The english teacher, Mr. Tolson, coaches the debate team to an almost undefeated season. They debate against white who dislike the blacks so this makes it harder on them competing. It then ends with an invite to go to Harvard University's and face their team. The team of four, which includes, Samantha Brooke, James Farmer, Henry Lowe and Hamilton Burgess faced many challenges such as racism and sexism. They face racism because they are an African American

The Vice Presidential debate, held at Longwood University on October 4th, was between the Democratic candidate, U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, and Republican candidate, Indiana Governor Mike Pence. Specific issues were asked about by the moderator, Elaine Quijano, such as specific qualities of the candidates that would make them good leaders if tragedy were to occur. However, the candidates used much of their allotted time to target the opposing presidential candidate and would then interrupt their opponent multiple times throughout their answer. Comparing the citizenship qualification of the United States to Germany may be helpful in solving the current immigration problems facing our country. The Vice Presidential debate showed the differences in opinion on immigration; the Republican campaign looks to build on the current enforcement-only policies and the Democratic campaign seeks to secure the country while attempting to help immigrants and their families.

This is an ideal conversation between Gary Howard, Peggy McIntosh, Joel Spring, and myself. I will address issues such as racism, white privilege, and the American school system. The purpose of this interview is to see each of their different views. I would also like to see the contrast between their perspective and also the points they agree on.

An Alternate Perspective Rather than focusing on the external factors of an individual, one must learn to view a person’s internal perspective as seen in the film The Great Debaters under the direction of Denzel Washington (2007). Understanding another person’s internal perspectives means being empathetic and aware of their circumstances. By learning to see another person’s viewpoint with new eyes, dignity can be afforded to that individual. Marshall, Texas is home to the historically black, Wiley College, where in 1935, Professor Melvin Tolson’s unique vision for a group of students leads them to experience a series of consecutive victories on their road to challenging Harvard at the National Speech and Debate Championship. The team includes

Avoiding conflict is a pivotal and detrimental part of my life. For as long as I can remember I have attempted to avoid conflict at all cost. I assume Sigmund Freud would attribute this trait to the lack of a real father figure in my life or possibly the excess amount of condescending, over bearing, and verbally abusive reprimands I received from my step-father. When confronting someone who has wronged you results in a worse outcome than being passive you tend to learn very quickly that it’s easier to live emotionally oppressed than it is to live physically oppressed. It’s been a long time since those days and I am not the young kid I once was but, sometimes I still try to avoid conflict like my life depends on it. The most recent, or even

The guest speaker at graduation talks about how the white kids will get new microscopes and equipment while the black schools would get fields to play on in order to become athletes (Angelou 151). The black school children were not given an adequate chance to succeed academically and were only believed to be athletes. The only positives the speaker noted from the black schools were the successful basketball and football players (Angelou 151). The speaker does not value the black students in the least bit or their future. The speaker’s attitude reflects the southern ideals that white students have more potential simply because of the color of their skin, rather than their ability. The black students were cornered into a box in regards to academics and Angelou demonstrates the lack of opportunity they received compared to the white

In the 2007 classic “The Great Debaters”, we are introduced to the historical makings of an all black debating team from Wiley College in Texas. With in this movie we are introduced to the restless south of the 1930’s were Negros, first handedly experienced the realization of racism. The movie centers on Melvin Tolson, a professor at small Wiley College and his distinguished team of debaters, Samantha Booke, Henry Lowe, and James Farmer Jr, who despite being in the midst of racial segregation in the South, aim to compete against Harvard University.

When conflict arises, most individuals respond differently than others, by showing an emotional, perceptual, or physical response. In some incidences, I feel confident enough to confront the conflict head-on to resolve as quickly as possible. While there are a few people I try to avoid conflict with, including a confrontation with my spouse. My personal experiences with conflict are only identifiable through disagreements that my

While conflict is a part of social relationships, there are many conflicts that are escalated beyond the normal day-to-day interactive conflicts. Day-to-day interactive conflicts such as disagreeing about what to cook for dinner or when to mow the lawn are inevitable and for the most part, relatively easy to negotiate. However, more serious conflicts arise during the course of daily living as well: in which religion to raise children if parents come from differing ideological backgrounds or how much to spend on family vacations. Daily living and conflicts within the family are not the only conflict, however. Conflicts at work, in social situations, in political debates, and in global issues create tension in daily life as well. Both