Also, of the three main debaters, only one represents a real person.ĭenzel Whitaker, a 17-year-old actor whose parents named him after Washington, portrays James Farmer Jr., a Wiley debater who went on to found the Congress of Racial Equality, a prominent civil rights organization. The school defeats Harvard in the movie, for one thing.
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The movie fictionalizes the story somewhat. “He’s so cute,” one woman gushed, even before she’d had a chance to see him. Screams erupted in waves as the purple Wiley College cap Washington wore bobbed into view as he slowly made his way down the red carpet. People arrived more than an hour early to catch a glimpse of the actor and filmmaker at the town’s only movie theater, where The Great Debaters showed on four screens. Politicians and dignitaries from surrounding counties attended a cocktail reception for Washington, who also is the director. The movie’s local premiere was the biggest event most people here could recall. The next day, Strickland divulged that the actor had pledged $1 million but asked him to delay announcing it.Īttention drawn to the school because of the movie also was key to Wal-Mart pledging $100,000 for a scholarship fund and a Dallas businessman promising $300,000. 13, the actor-director said he wanted to make the boast true again.”We’ll try to help the school and get the debate team back on its feet,” he told journalists. When Washington and three young actors from the movie came to town to host premiere screenings Dec. Enrollment has increased to 926 today from 520 in 2000 - the highest it has been in decades.Ī sign on the campus’ main street boasts: “Home of the Great Debaters.” Similar words greet callers to the school, even though the school hasn’t had a debate program since the 1940s. “We’re very fortunate that the movie happens to be coming out at a very critical juncture for us,” he said.įor the first time in years, Wiley will end 2007 in the black. Wiley officials hope the increased visibility the movie brings will help fundraising and recruitment, but Strickland said the school actually began rebounding several years ago because of renewed emphasis on fundraising and better fiscal management. Ironically, integration hurt schools such as Wiley as many of the best students and teachers migrated to better-funded white schools. The Methodist Church considered closing the school.One of the Wiley students Tolson taught and inspired was Heman Sweat, who would go on to win a lawsuit in 1950 that forced the University of Texas law school to admit African-Americans. Tolson, the brilliant teacher that Washington portrays, resigned in 1947 to teach at Langston University in Oklahoma.The football program collapsed in the 1960s. He was describing the appeal of the movie, but he could’ve been talking about Wiley College.The school, a collection of red-brick buildings in Marshall, 150 miles east of Dallas near the Louisiana border, began its decline less than a decade after its debate team’s greatest success.Melvin B. The movie, which stars Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker, has been nominated for a Golden Globe award for best drama.With its inspirational message and strong support from Oprah Winfrey, who produced it, it has a good chance of finding an audience.If so, its success would echo the surprise triumph of the 1935 debate team.Strickland is hoping it also heralds the rebirth of the Methodist Church-affiliated college, which has faced decades of dwindling enrollment and finances.”It’s the Goliath and David story in a different kind of setting,” Strickland said.
Strickland, the president of the tiny school.With the release Tuesday of The Great Debaters, that is about to change. Few Texans know it, either.”There are people who live here in Marshall who don’t know the story,” said Haywood L. Why didn’t I know?”Smollett shouldn’t feel bad. “I didn’t know anyone who did know the story. MARSHALL - Jurnee Smollett, a 21-year-old actress with Louisiana roots, had never heard of Wiley College when she got the script last year for the movie that just might change her life.She knew nothing of Wiley’s greatest moment, the day in 1935 when a debate team from the struggling black school beat the defending national champions from the University of Southern California in a nationally broadcast debate.”I was ashamed that I didn’t know that story,” she said recently while promoting the film, The Great Debaters, in Dallas.
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