The Great Debaters

Yesterday I watched the movie "The Great Debaters" for the first time, and it really moved me.  It follows the story of the debate team from a small African-American college in Texas in the 1930s.  The movie goes into detail about what it was like living in the South at this time.  The viewer clearly sees the distinct social divide between whites and blacks, even though slavery was abrogated seventy years before.  The movie follows the four members of the debate team, who are extremely intelligent African Americans, and it is interesting to see how white people in the South, although much less educated than these African Americans, hectored and disparaged these people.  There was one point in the movie when the team was driving to a debate at night, and they came upon an angry white mob that was lynching an African American for no reason except for the fact that he was black.  This left a stigma upon the team, and they never forgot what they saw there.

This really helped me to understand what is currently going on 

today in our society.  When Barack Obama was elected to the presidency, I wondered, "Why is everyone making such a big deal about this?"  Yes, I understood that it was a 

historic event because he will be the first African-American president.  However, growing up in the liberal household that I did, I did not understand why he couldn't he just be someone running for president.  Why does he have to be labeled as "The first African-American President?"  I feared that all that he would be remembered for would

be his race, not his accomplishments.  However, I now understand why America was so passionate about Barack Obama.  It is one thing to learn about black oppression in history class, but it is another thing actually see it happen like I did in "The Great Debaters."   At the end of the movie, when the debate team becomes the first African-American team to not only debate against Harvard, but also win, it gave me the same feeling as I had when I watched Barack Obama win the election: A feeling of hope for the future.