Segregation As Depicted In 'The Great Debaters'

The Great Debaters is an extraordinary and inspiring movie; it incorporated a rich story. The move is based on a true story; the story dates back to the 1930‘s. It was about four African-American students from Wiley College who are on the school’s debate team, throughout the movie we see the discrimination they faced in the South.

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.

The director of the film “Remember the Titans”, Boaz Yakin uses the technique, dialogue, to show how the football team, the Titans, from T. C. Williams, a high school in Alexandria, Virginia, USA helped their city to overcome racism.

In schools during the 1930’s, the education system failed to present authentic African American History in schools and African Americans were taught that their history meant nothing because most history books gave little or no space to the black man's presence in America.

Imagine being an African American person living in a world of segregation but he still has a dream, a dream to become a boxer in a league predominantly white and being looked down on because of his skin color. Segregation in the 1900’s was cruel and divided because “After the Civil War, millions of enslaved African Americans hoped to join the larger society as equal citizens” but unfortunately were not embraced as equals by much of white America (History Staff). Nearly 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, African Americans in southern states still lived in an unequal world of segregation.

In 1971, T.C. Williams High School football team, the Titans, broke racial barriers in Alexandria, Virginia’s schools and communities. “Remembering the Titans” is a classic true story in which racism was the key issue of the movie. In the movie, black students were being integrated in T.C.’s all white school and the school district decided to bring in a new head coach, Herman Boone who was black. Therefore, the district demoted the high school football head coach and hall of famer nominee, Bill Yoast, who was white. This demotion cause outraged in the school, within the football team and the community. As the movie progressed, we see racism in uncertainty with one significant leadership lesson that a common goal and a little trust can bring

During the time that Lerone Bennett wrote his article, Lincoln, a White Supremacist, the Civil Rights Movement was occurring. Those of African American descent were fighting for their right of equality. African Americans were treated poorly by the means of “Separate but equal.” Segregation, forcing one group to be inferior to another, was very widespread. Bennett, being of African American descent, would have faced the unfair, but “equal” rules of the time. Bennett is a prolific writer and a social historian. Bennett graduated from Morehouse College in 1949 and was an executive editor of Ebony Magazine. The main idea of Bennett’s article is, is Abraham Lincoln a white supremacist? Bennett’s purpose is quite clear. He is trying to persuade the

The Union was in a state of exceedingly high tension as it split into two on the issue of slavery. It was a question of moral integrity and whether it should be allowed to continue. Racism permeated the institution of slavery. The color of a man’s skin did not keep him from fighting for freedom in the wars that took place in America, although it was a way white people sought to justify their mistreatment of them. Slaves were viewed as inferior beings by southern whites and as the abolition movement gained momentum in the north, the slave owners began to see northerners as inferior as well for sympathizing with such barbarians. The Dred Scott case only serves to further this point; slaves were by law not seen as citizens. Consequently,

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

All of a sudden it seemed as though someone dropped a sepia colored veil over my eyes as I walked down a rocky, narrow street that ran adjacent to a railroad track. Living in New York, I have never really encountered segregation here, in Alabama, it's much different. Walk down one street- predominantly Black; walk down another 2 minutes away-predominantly White. You may be thinking that there is some difference in socioeconomic status- this being the cause of the separation, and while this may be the case up north, it is not so here. Blacks and whites both living in low-income neighborhoods, separately. This summer I've been given the opportunity to do Bible work-- which means that I go from door to door in different neighborhoods offering people booklets about the Bible, with

The movie tells of Coach Herman Boone, a black man, receiving the head coaching position of a newly integrated high school football team. This integration led to high racial tensions in the town of Alexandria, located in Virginia, and T. C. Williams High School. In the beginning of the movie, the audience learns that the white coach, Coach Yoast, was not only the original head coach, but was also up to get into the Hall of Fame. When he is passed over for the head coach position, in favor of an outsider who was black, the tensions between the black and white players grow deeper. Eventually, Coach Yoast decides to stay on as the defensive coach and his white players decide to follow him and join the team under Coach

Race relations has been a big problem in the history of the United States. Segregation was the act of separating one race from another. In the U.S. it was ultimately the African Americans being separates from the whites. Two famous cases that were taken by the Supreme Court that dealt with segregation was Plessy v Ferguson and Brown v Board of Education. Plessy v Ferguson dealt with segregation in public places, Brown v Board of Education had to do with segregation in schools, and the Supreme Courts decision on these cases changed the course of history in America.

Today, we are living in the age when societies are integrated. Our schools are integrated, businesses are integrated, and the last President of the United States was African American. But only 150 years ago African Americans were considered property in half of the country and the thought of free African Americans with the same rights granted in the United States Constitution as Caucasians were

The Great Debates is a drama that was released in the year 2007, it is based on a real life story of an African American man named, Melvin B. Tolson. Academy Award winning actor Denzel Washington plays Melvin B. Tolson in the movie. Melvin B. Tolson was a professor at Wiley College Texas. In the year 1935, Mr. Melvin B. Tolson, motivates the students to join their school’s first debate team. The team made it all the way up to compete with Harvard in the national championship, furthermore, Harvard was known as the best. The debate team was a team of four students, three boys and one girl. However, in this true life movie actor Denzel Washington engaged in numerous good communication ethics in more than one scene (Washington, Black, Forte, Roth,

The winning continued as Wiley College was the first black American college to debate a white college. They went to debate Oklahoma City University which was a white college and they defeated the white college. In their pursuit for championship Willey college debate team receives an invitation to debate the Harvard University. (However, the true