Top Reasons Why You Must See This: The Great Debaters

5. Forrest Whitaker....You know Forrest and his crooked eye is one of the best ever to do it. And the sweetest man too. 4. Denzel. Nuff said. 3. Oprah....You know anything Oprah puts her name on is worthy. 2. Had you ever heard of this group of black college students from a historically black college, Wiley College in Marshall, TX, that went on the road debating the best white kids across the country and whippin their asses???? Of course you didn't.....but now you can. 1. By supporting this movie, you can possibly be helping to keep this school open. "No one knows whether the story will raise the college’s fortunes, but Wiley, which has not been able to support a debate team for decades, is suddenly feeling the glow of celebrity. Enrollment has soared past 900 for the first time in at least 40 years. The administration building was given a face-lift, compliments of the moviemakers, who also manicured the campus with new greenery. There are hopes to revive the debate program, and in a movie tie-in, Wal-Mart is to endow a Melvin B. Tolson Scholarship Fund with $100,000" The other interesting fact, which isn't in the movie, is that "even though they beat the reigning champions, the Great Debaters were not allowed to call themselves victors because they did not belong to the debate society, which did not allow blacks until after World War II. " The Great Debaters comes out December 25th. Put it on your list of things to do. In the meantime, all of this information and so much more comes from this fantastic article I read in the New York Times. Please make it your business to read it: For Struggling Black Colleges, Hops of a Revival