The Great Debaters - An Important Reminder

We began the new year last week by heading to the theater to see Denzel Washington's latest movie- The Great Debaters. It is the story of the Wiley College debating team from the mid-1930s which went on to be the first black college debating team to debate and beat white college teams. Washington is the team coach and Forest Whitaker in another excellent role is one of the more conservative professors at the school whose son is also on the team.

In the process of developing the team several things happen including the team witnessing a lynching of a black man by a white mob. As such the strong and unforgettable undercurrent of the movie is the great racial chasm that has been the original sin of the American psyche. It was not that long ago- certainly not as far back as the 1930s- that the attitudes and events portrayed were still happening.

In one of the debates there is this line:

The state is currently spending five times more for the education for a white child than it is fitting to educate a colored child. That means better textbooks for that child than for that child. I say that's a shame, but my opponent says today is not the day for whites and coloreds to go to the same college. To share the same campus. To walk into the same classroom. Well, would you kindly tell me when that day is gonna come? Is it going to come tomorrow? Is it going to come next week? In a hundred years? Never? No, the time for justice, the time for freedom, and the time for equality is always, is always right now!

The film makes a powerful statement that this time is now as well. It has gotten very positive reviews with a 79% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. I hope it is not being ignored in the theaters as a racial movie. It is one that we all need to see and be reminded of. We have made progress, but the power and depth of racism still linger. Maybe, just maybe last week's Obama victory in Iowa is a sign that the progress is beginning to happen in ways that are more profound and deeper than we have seen before. Today in New Hampshire may give us more information.

As for the movie, go see it and celebrate our common humanity.

• Note: One of the debaters, the son of the professor, was James Farmer, Jr. Farmer would grow up to be one of the founders of the Congress of Racial Equality, one of the early influential civil rights organizations.