There is a special air of pride and excitement surrounding the movie ‘The Great Debaters' a movie inspired by a true story. "The Great Debaters" chronicles the journey of Professor Melvin Tolson, a brilliant but volatile debate team coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of underdog students from Wiley College, a small black college in Marshall, Texas, in the deep south, into a historically elite debate team.
In 1935, Wiley's debate team defeated schools from elite black schools like Fisk and Howard, and then moved on to the unthinkable: debating and defeating students from white schools and eventually dethroning the reigning national debate champions, the University of Southern California, (not Harvard as depicted in the movie).
It's a highly inspirational movie that will hold a special place in the hearts of many movie goers for years to come. But for one special individual living in New Mexico the movie is a reminder of personal experiences with Wiley College and Mr. Melvin Tolson, the individual who is the movie's focus, and was her teacher, mentor and close friend.
For Mrs. Carnis Salisbury, a long time community activist in the State of New Mexico, reviewing the movie's real life depiction of historical accounts of activities at Wiley College in the mid 1930's, was an opportunity for her to step back in time.
Mrs. Salisbury celebrated her 94th birthday with her daughters, Patricia and Olivia, at the movie theater in the Cottonwood mall, feeling as if she had just stepped out of a time tunnel. "Watching the beginning of the movie was a very special personal experience for me, seeing the entrance into the school was as if I was seeing my school again as a young lady about to take a major step in my life," said Mrs. Salisbury.
In fact it would have been 76 years ago that Mrs. Salisbury would have been remembering, when she was a freshman at Wiley College in 1931. It was also in 1931 that Mrs. Salisbury would meet Melvin Tolson, who would be her freshman English teacher of whom she remembers very well. "I remembered Melvin as a brilliant man who was revered throughout the school. He was an excellent teacher but he was very brass in his delivery which intimidated me and left me a little afraid of him as his student," shared Mrs. Salisbury.
But it was also during that time, stated Mrs. Salisbury, that she developed a deep respect and admiration for Tolson, the man of whom she credits with putting Wiley College on the national map. Mrs. Salisbury graduated from Wiley College in 1934 just before Wiley College would develop the famous debate team depicted in the movie.
Mrs. Salisbury left Wiley College with degrees in education and social studies. As portrayed in the movie, the early years were turbulent times of racial prejudice for African Americans, and she had this to say about what her father, a Methodist minister wanted for his children. "During the time I was in school there were two professions widely open for African Americans, they were to work in the kitchen or teach. My father didn't want any of us to work in kitchens so all 7 children attended college, 6 of us went to Wiley College and 1 to Prairie View."
Page: 1 2