The GREAT DEBATERS

This movie is inspired from the true story taking place in Marshall, Texas., in 1935

Most of the time life pushes you around; different people respond in different ways, and
some, just let life push them around.

Others get angry and push back----And as a Transman,(Transgender), I understand this, ooooh too well.




Unlike a small East Texas College in 1935 the students there, as to their families were pushed around by generational racism and its violence.

So they fought back... Not so much with weapons of destruction; no their arsenal was the empowerment of words, knowledge and education.

For these people education was the way out; a candle in the dark.
The way out of ignorance, the way out of darkness, and into the glorious light to be seen as an equal.

The time finally came for taking aggressive action and to soothe the ache of intolerance.

The Great Debaters from historically Black Wiley College and their coach Melvin Tolson took that honorable and difficult task.

Professor Tolson a controversial figure inspired his students to form a debate team and challenged the social mores of the times.
The movie explores the relations between people or classes of people in Texas during the Great Depression.

Like valiant knights on a noble quest, acumen zeal was their sword, and their armour was the inner fire of passion for truth.

They showed strength & courage when Jim Crow laws were in effect and common in the deep South.

A "stupid law" for a lack of better words that mandated racial segregation in all public facilities.

The movie focuses on three of the four debaters and their coach.
Henrietta Bell Wells, the only female on the team and inspired to be an minor African American Poet. A lawyer who took the first Freedom Ride to Alabama.
I honor her poetry, wisdom and courage.

Young James Farmer, Jr., 14 at the time, son of a preacher/educator.
Later Farmer went on to be co-founder of "C.O.R.E." Congress of Racial Equality. Brilliant!

Henry Lowe the restless one at the time. A brave heart who went on to study theology at the University of California and became a minister.

Finally Melvin Tolson, professor, activist, "Mayor" and mentor. Became a world renowned poet amongst many, many other achievements.

These four hearts and souls were tested by the hubris, insolence of the idiosyncratic thinking of the deep South.

At one point while driving late at night to a debate for the following day, they make a wrong turn and Tolson & his team encounter a "lynching & burning" of a Negro man.

They see the crowd all assembled in a semi circle; men, women, children resembling that of a pack of wild hyenas protecting "their kill."

Tolson slows his car down and cuts the lights; they come to a stand still watching the mob of the night.
Suddenly the mob turns away from the hanging...their attention is focused on the movement inside the car.

As the pack scans they shine a light onto Tolson and realize whose in the vehicle. They attack with screams of lunatics & obscenities. Like the smut from their mouths, they throw rocks, sticks, trying violently to chase down the car.

I used hyenas as a metaphor to the lynchers as the hyena is not a prideful animal and hunts in stealth; much unlike the lion, tiger, or panther.

No...a hyena is a nocturnal scavenger hunting in "clans" (how appropriate), and its screams are like the lynchers, resembling that of a maniacal laughter.

Taking the "wrong turn", barely escaping the crazed mob left them fearful,confused and inflamed with anger.
Being as it was horrific to the heart, and to the core of their strength it was a crucial point getting them back on the path to truth and victory.

So they did. With bravery, skill and chivalry; showing strength and courage that equal to a knight. With the forces of evil mustered against them they went headlong into the unknown without fear.

The Great Debaters went on to win the first collegiate interracial debate and beat the reigning champions, The University of Southern California in 1930.

As a very young man, and highly intelligent James Farmer Jr., summed it up "Doing what you have to do in order that we can do what we want to do."

And did it with pride, intellect and unashamed, I quote him:

"We saw a man strung up by his neck and set on fire. "What was this Negro's crime that he should be hung without trial in a dark forest with fog..."
"Was he a theft?" "Was he a killer?" "Or just a Negro." "Was he a share cropper, a preacher?"
"Were his children waiting up for him?"
"And who are we to just lie there and do nothing?" No matter what he did the mob was the criminal. But the law did nothing---Just left us wondering.... "WHY??????"

My opponent says, "Nothing that erodes the rule of law can be moral."
BUT there is no rule of moral when Negros are denied housing, turned away from schools, hospitals, AND NOT WHEN WE ARE LYNCHED!"

"St. Augustine of Hippo said, "An unjust law is no law at all."
"Which means I have the right, the duty to resists with violence or civil disobedience.
"You should pray I use the latter."
A very brave young man at the time...But nevertheless, A MAN.



" ALL MEN ARE CREATED EQUAL".
And so we are.
Now.. it is about my people. My Transgender Family.
We are tired of trying to establish a place in society, the "pecking-order" if you will.
A society that continues to deny US, when legally, WE cannot be denied by government.

It is said that the "pecking-order' can determine whether you live or die...

And-- if it comes to US verses THEM..........make no mistake; Fight and Fight we will for it is our constitutional right.

~LJS

"We all inhabit this small planet. We all breathe the same air. We all cherish our children's future.
AND WE ARE ALL MORTAL." ~JFK