Mae & The Great Debaters

Melvin B. Tolson was a fascinating Black man with a compelling story, in the opinion of Academy Award-winning actor Denzel Washington.
• • Washington plans to direct The Great Debaters, a movie about Tolson’s Wiley College debate team. On April 1, 1935, the team from Wiley, a black college in Marshall, Texas, upended the debate arena by beating the defending national champion University of Southern California.
• • Joy Flasch, who penned a biography on Melvin B. Tolson, included this anecdote:
• • “When Mae West heard about the amazing record of the little Texas team, she asked to meet it, and for years Tolson proudly displayed the autographed picture she gave him.”
• • Intellectual talent and titles, though, did not shield the team from the overt and sometimes violent racism of the time and region. . . .
• • Text condensed from: "Star to play Tolson" By James S. Tyree
THE NORMAN TRANSCRIPT (NORMAN, OK)
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Mae West
• • Photo: 1935 Mae West (born 1893 in Brooklyn, NY)
NYC
Mae West.