Midday Matinee: The Great Debaters

Join BAC and Western Campus Student Life for a showing of The Great Debaters (2007). Discussion to follow. Lunch provided.

In 1930s Marshall, Texas, described by James Farmer Jr. as "the last city to surrender after the Civil War," professor Melvin Tolson coaches the Wiley College debate team to a nearly undefeated season that includes the first debate between students from white and Negro colleges and ends with an invitation to face Harvard University's national champions. The team of four, which includes a female student and a very young Farmer, is tested in a crucible heated by Jim Crow, sexism, a lynch mob, an arrest and near riot, a love affair, jealousy and a national radio audience.