-
Heavenly Father, we come before Thee,
-
knee bent and body bowed
-
in the humblest way
that we know how.
-
Father, who controls
and knows all things,
-
both the living
and dying of all creatures.
-
Give us the strength and the wisdom
to do Thy work.
-
In God's name we pray.
-
And all God's people say, "Amen."
-
When Agave sobered up,
-
she looked down and saw
the head of her son Pentheus
-
- right there in her hands.
- She thought he was a wild animal.
-
That's how Dionysus got his revenge.
-
You a heathen, Henry.
-
You know what I got right here?
-
- What?
- Some of that very wine.
-
"When I was a child, I spake as a child.
-
"I understood as a child.
-
"I thought as a child.
-
"But when I became a man,
-
I put away all childish things."
-
Freshman class...
-
I believe we are the most privileged
people in America,
-
because we have
the most important job
-
in America:
-
The education of our young people.
-
Trudell!
-
- Who the hell is he?
- Oh, he's just my husband.
-
I'm gonna cut your head off.
-
We must impress upon our young people
-
that there will be difficulties
that they face.
-
Come on, Trudell.
Come get this whuppin', boy.
-
- Get him down, Trudell.
- Scared, ain't ya?
-
Huh? You with the razor
and twice my size?
-
They must defeat them!
-
They must do what they have to do
in order to do what they want to do.
-
Come on, now.
-
Come on, baby!
-
Education is the only way out.
-
Come on, baby. Get up!
Get up, baby. Come on!
-
The way out of ignorance...
-
Like cuttin' people, huh, boy?
-
Want to cut people, Trudell, huh?
-
Get your hands off me!
-
The way out of darkness!
-
Into...
-
the glorious light.
-
Come on, now! Give it back!
-
- Give it back!
- "To our precious Hamilton..."
-
This isn't funny. Come on.
Dunbar, give it back.
-
Who do you think you are?
Jesse Owens?
-
Have a seat.
-
"I am...
-
"the darker brother.
-
"They send me to eat in the kitchen
when company comes.
-
"But I laugh, and I eat well,
-
"and I grow strong.
-
"Tomorrow, I will sit at the table
when company comes.
-
"Nobody'll dare say to me,
-
"'Eat in the kitchen' then.
-
"Besides, they'll see how beautiful I am,
-
"and be ashamed.
-
I, too, am America."
-
Who wrote that?
-
Langston Hughes, 1924.
-
1925.
-
"Hating you shall be a game
played with cool hands."
-
"Memory will lay its hands
upon your breast,
-
and you will understand my hatred."
-
Gwendolyn Bennett wrote that.
-
She was born in 1902.
-
Unofficially.
-
You see, in most states,
-
Negroes were denied birth certificates,
-
which means I can
lie about my age the rest of my life.
-
You think that's funny?
-
To be born...
-
without record.
-
Mr. Reed, hand these out.
-
I'm going to introduce you
to some new voices this semester.
-
There's a revolution going on.
-
In the North. In Harlem.
-
They're changing the way
Negroes in America think.
-
I'm talking about poets
like Hughes, Bennett,
-
Zora Neale Hurston, Countee Cullen...
-
"Some are teethed on a silver spoon,
-
"with the stars strung up for a rattle.
-
"I cut my teeth
as a black raccoon...
-
...for implements of battle."
-
Meet me after class.
-
What's a professor doing
in the middle of the night
-
dressed like a cotton-chopper?
-
What is a student doing
in the middle of the night
-
throwing his life away?
-
It's funny. I thought
I was defending myself.
-
I remember you.
-
Couple of years ago.
Then you disappeared.
-
What happened?
-
I come and go whenever it suits me.
-
- Suspensions?
- Leaves of absence.
-
Why'd you come back?
-
School's the only place
you can read all day.
-
Except prison.
-
I want you to come by
my house tonight, 7:30.
-
- Corner of June and Campus.
- Why would I do that?
-
Holding tryouts for the debate team.
-
- You sure you want somebody like me?
- No.
-
That's why you're trying out.
-
7:30.
-
June and Campus.
-
"Driven by the wind and tossed..."
-
Do well tonight, Junior.
-
Of the 360 students here at Wiley College,
-
only 45 of you were brave enough
to try out for the debate team.
-
Of that 45, only four
of you will remain standing
-
when the tryouts are over... why?
-
Because debate is
blood sport. It's combat.
-
But your weapons are words.
-
Come on in.
-
Now that Mr. Farmer
has joined us, we can begin.
-
Sit down, Mr. Farmer.
-
Not right there. Over there.
-
- Yes, sir.
- James. Right this way.
-
Good evening, Mrs. Tolson.
-
- Evening.
- Excuse me.
-
We're waiting for you, Mr. Farmer.
-
I'm going, sir.
-
Thank you, Mr. Farmer.
You smell very good, Mr. Farmer.
-
- Thank you, sir.
- You're very welcome.
-
Gentlemen and lady.
-
This is...
-
the hot spot.
-
You will enter it at your own risk.
-
Mr. Tolson, what about
the debaters from last year?
-
Don't ask a question you
already know the answer to.
-
Get up here. You'll be first.
-
Get right here. Hot spot.
-
Debate starts with a proposition.
-
With an idea..."Resolved:
-
Child labor should be regulated
by the federal government."
-
The first debater argues
the affirmative.
-
Affirmative means
that you are for something.
-
Mr. Reed will argue the affirmative.
-
The second debater
argues the negative.
-
Negative means that you are what?
-
Against.
-
Brilliant, Mr. Burgess.
-
You shall argue
the affirmative, Mr. Reed. Go.
-
Well, sir, I'd begin with a quote
from the poet Cleghorn.
-
"The golf links lie so near the mill,
-
"that almost every day,
-
"the laboring children
can look out and...
-
and..."
-
Is that what you learned
from last year, Mr. Reed?
-
To start something,
and not finish it?
-
- Is it?
- No, sir.
-
Sit down.
-
Who's next? You? Stand up.
-
Stand up.
-
It's getting late.
How much longer can you hide?
-
I'm not hiding, sir.
I transferred from my college
-
just to come here
and try out for your team.
-
I am deeply moved. What's your name?
-
Samantha Booke.
-
- Book?
- With an "e."
-
Arise, Miss Booke. With an "e."
-
Into the hot spot,
Miss Booke with an "e."
-
You know, there's never been a female
on the debating team, ever.
-
Yes, sir. I know that.
-
What makes you think
you should be the first?
-
Because, sir, I am just as qualified as...
-
- Quit stammering, Miss Booke.
... anybody else here.
-
- My gender has nothing...
- "Resolved:
-
Welfare discourages hard work."
-
- You'll argue the negative.
- All right.
-
Welfare takes away a man's
strongest reason for working,
-
which is survival.
-
And that weakens the will of the poor.
-
How would you rebut that,
Miss Booke with an "e"?
-
I would say it does not.
-
Most of the New Deal
goes to children, anyway,
-
and to the handicapped,
and to old people...
-
- Is that fact, or conjecture?
- It is a fact.
-
- Speak up.
- It is a fact.
-
- What's your source?
- The president.
-
- Of the United States?
- Yes, sir.
-
That's your primary source? You spoke
to President Roosevelt personally?
-
Of course not. I did not
speak to him personally,
-
but I listened to his Fireside Chat.
-
- Oh, a radio broadcast.
- Yes.
-
- Any other sources?
- Well...
-
Any other sources?
-
Yes, there are other sources.
-
Like that look in a mother's eyes
when she can't feed her kids.
-
Without welfare, Mr. Tolson,
people would be starving.
-
Who's starving, Miss Booke?
-
- The unemployed are starving.
- Mr. Burgess here.
-
He's unemployed.
Obviously, he's not starving.
-
I drew you in, Miss Booke.
-
You gave a faulty premise,
so your syllogism fell apart.
-
- "Syllogism"?
- Your logic fell apart.
-
Major premise:
The unemployed are starving.
-
Minor premise:
Mr. Burgess is unemployed.
-
Conclusion: Mr. Burgess is starving.
-
Your major premise was
based on a faulty assumption.
-
Classic fallacy. Who's next?
-
You were right.
-
Tell us your name.
-
I'm Henry Lowe. With an "e."
-
All right, Mr. Lowe. I will name a subject.
-
You speak a few words...
a pertinent quote from world literature.
-
Go ahead.
-
Beauty.
-
"I heard the old, old men say,
-
all that is beautiful
drifts away, like the waters."
-
Very good.
-
History. And name
the author this time.
-
"History is a nightmare,
from which I am trying to awake."
-
James Joyce.
-
Self-pity.
-
"I never saw a wild thing
sorry for itself."
-
D.H. Lawrence.
-
I love D.H. Lawrence. Have you ever read...
-
Mr. Farmer.
-
Yes, sir?
-
I have eyes in the back of my head
and ears on both sides. Stand up.
-
Tell me the irony in the name
"Bethlehem Steel Corporation."
-
Bethlehem is the birthplace of Jesus,
Prince of Peace,
-
and Bethlehem Steel
makes weapons of war.
-
Very good. Sit down.
-
Good.
-
Who's next?
-
That went well.
How will we know how we did?
-
Samantha.
-
Samantha.
-
Tolson's tough, isn't he?
-
He sure is.
-
I'm James.
-
Is your father Dr. James Farmer?
-
Yes... yes, he is.
-
I'm taking theology from him,
and that man speaks in tongues.
-
French, Greek, Hebrew, Latin...
-
How many languages
does he speak?
-
- Seven languages.
- "Seven languages."
-
He must be the smartest man in Texas.
-
Well, that's not saying much.
-
So why do you want
to be on the team?
-
- I think it would be good training.
- For what?
-
Bein' a lawyer.
-
Lawyer? That's great.
-
You know how many Negro
women practice law in this state?
-
- Two.
- Exactly.
-
One of them's my aunt.
-
Well, look at you, Mr. Farmer.
-
How old are you, anyway?
-
I'll be 16...
-
in 21 months.
-
Young lady. James.
I just wanted to thank you.
-
For what?
-
Well, for your performance tonight.
-
I mean, how many other students
ever stand up to Tolson?
-
- I did.
- No.
-
You answered a question,
and I spouted a few quotes.
-
Miss Booke with an "e,"
-
- she fought back.
- And lost!
-
But you didn't have to lose.
-
Why isn't a Fireside Chat
a legitimate source?
-
Because Tolson says so?
-
Nobody has better access
to those statistics than the president.
-
Now, if you'd have called Tolson on that,
you would have won.
-
I don't know. I'm sure that man
would have come up with something.
-
Good night, James.
-
Can you believe he's
-
- Good night, Samantha.
- 14 years old, and he's in college?
-
You are gifted, all of you.
-
So I want you to know that I chose
this team for balance,
-
and none of you should
take it as a failure...
-
as a denigration of your intellect.
-
Denigrate. There's a word for you.
-
From the Latin word "niger,"
to defame, to blacken.
-
It's always there, isn't it?
Even in the dictionary.
-
Even in the speech
of a Negro professor.
-
Somehow, "black" is always
equated with failure.
-
Well, write your own dictionary.
-
And mark this as a new beginning,
-
whether you make the team or not.
-
The Wiley College Forensics
Society of 1935-1936 is as follows:
-
The debaters...
-
will be Mr. Hamilton Burgess
from last year's team...
-
- Yea!
- Sit down, Mr. Burgess.
-
Mr. Henry Lowe.
-
Our alternates.
-
Miss Samantha Booke. With an "e."
-
And finally...
-
Junior, slow down.
-
- Where's Dad?
- Quiet. He's writing a lecture.
-
- Dad.
- Junior.
-
What is the greatest
weakness of man?
-
Not believing? Doubt?
-
That's it. Thank you, Junior.
-
Matthew 14:31.
-
- That will be the lesson.
- Dad.
-
"O you of little faith,
why do you doubt me?"
-
Dad?
-
What is it, son?
-
I made the debate team.
-
Well, congratulations.
-
And who is on your team?
-
Um, there's four of us.
I'm one of the alternates.
-
Who's ahead of you?
-
Hamilton Burgess and Henry Lowe.
-
And the other alternate's
Samantha Booke.
-
There's a girl?
-
She wants to be a lawyer.
-
- A lawyer?
- She's very intelligent.
-
Is she pretty?
-
I don't know.
I never really noticed.
-
Because extracurricular activities
like the debate team are fine,
-
but you must not take
your eye off the ball, son.
-
Yes, sir.
-
So what do we do here?
-
We do what we have to do,
so we can do what we want to do.
-
What do you have to do right now?
-
- My homework.
- So get to it.
-
Yes, sir.
-
My daddy owns a grocery store
that has apples, bananas, cookies,
-
doughnuts, eggs, figs,
-
and "gonzola" beans.
-
Right. What's a gonzola bean?
-
- Hogwash!
- Hogwash!
-
"Gonzola" bean?
-
Ready, set, go!
-
- Apricots, uh...
- Hogwash.
-
What, no apricots?
-
Look out!
-
What was that?
-
I'm not sure.
-
Sit down.
-
You stay put.
-
Be still.
-
What is it?
-
It's a pig.
-
Hit a pig.
-
Shut up, dog!
-
Junior, get in the car.
-
What the hell happened to my hog?
-
Sorry about that.
Came out of nowhere.
-
I didn't see it coming.
-
You done killed my hog, boy.
-
Truly sorry. Gladly pay you for it.
-
How much...
How much you want?
-
It's gonna cost you $25.
-
Only have a few bucks on me
right now, but I can...
-
I do have a check.
-
My monthly check,
for Wiley College in Marshall.
-
It's for $17.36.
-
You may have that.
-
I will endorse that over to you.
-
You'll do what?
-
I will sign the check over to you.
-
Well, let me see it.
-
It's in the car, with my wife.
-
Gonna walk to the car now.
-
Junior, get in the car.
-
Give me that salary check, Pearl.
-
We need that money, James.
-
Just give me the check.
-
Go on.
-
His wife has it.
-
I thought it was in here.
-
Just relax. It's all right.
-
It's in here. You'll find it.
-
Here it is.
-
Here it is.
-
That check better be good, boy.
-
It's good.
-
Well, pick it up!
-
Here it is.
-
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
Where the hell do you think you're going?
-
You got to help us
get this hog in my truck.
-
Come on. Grab the tail end of that, boy.
-
All right, on three.
-
One, two, three!
-
Town niggers. They think
they're too good to get their hands dirty.
-
- Dad...
- I told you to get in the car.
-
When I tell you to do
something, Junior, you do it.
-
Who's the judge?
-
The judge is God.
-
Why is he God?
-
Because he decides
who wins or loses,
-
not my opponent.
-
Who is your opponent?
-
He doesn't exist.
-
Why does he not exist?
-
He's merely a dissenting voice
to the truth I speak.
-
Who's the judge?
-
- The judge is God!
- The judge is God!
-
Why is he God?
-
Because he decides who wins or loses,
not my opponent!
-
Who is your opponent?
-
He doesn't exist!
-
Why doesn't he exist?
-
Because he is merely a dissenting voice
to the truth I speak!
-
Who's the judge?
-
The judge is God!
-
Why is he God?
-
Because he decides who wins or loses,
not my opponent!
-
Who's your opponent?
-
He doesn't exist!
-
Why does he not exist?
-
Because he is merely a dissenting voice
to the truth I speak!
-
Who's the judge?
-
The judge is God!
-
Louder!
-
The judge is God!
-
Why is he God?
-
Because he decides who wins or loses,
not my opponent!
-
Who's your opponent?
-
He doesn't exist!
-
Why does he not exist?
-
Because he is merely a dissenting voice
to the truth I speak!
-
Speak the truth!
-
Speak the truth!
-
Yes, sir, I do like to talk.
-
Is that a virtue or a vice?
-
Well, I have to admit I've always wanted
to be the quiet, mysterious type,
-
only I couldn't keep
my mouth shut long enough.
-
Would you punch yourself
in a street fight, Mr. Burgess?
-
No, sir.
-
Then don't punch yourself in a word fight.
-
You don't have to make fun of yourself.
-
Use your humor against your opponent.
-
Mr. Farmer!
-
Yes, sir.
-
Happy Mr. Farmer.
-
Tell us one thing we don't
know about your father.
-
He was the first Negro Ph...
-
One thing we don't know
about your father, Mr. Farmer.
-
He walked from Florida to Massachusetts
to go to college at Boston University.
-
He graduated magna cum laude.
-
Mr. Lowe!
-
Tell us about your father.
-
Why don't you tell us something
about your father?
-
We're trying to get
to know each other, Mr. Lowe.
-
I was trying to get
to know you, Mr. Tolson.
-
I'm not the one on the debate team.
-
Are we not engaged
in a debate right now?
-
All right.
-
I'll take the affirmative.
-
Take the meanest...
most restless nigger,
-
strip him of his clothes
-
in front of the remaining male niggers,
female niggers,
-
and nigger infants.
-
Tar and feather him.
-
Tie each leg to a horse
facing an opposite direction,
-
set him on fire,
-
and beat both horses
until they tear him apart
-
in front of the male,
female, and nigger infants.
-
Bullwhip and beat
the remaining nigger males
-
within an inch of their life.
-
Do not kill them, but put
the fear of God in them,
-
for they can be useful for future breeding.
-
Anybody know
who Willie Lynch was?
-
Anybody? Raise your hand.
-
No one?
-
He was a vicious slave owner
in the West Indies.
-
The slave-masters
in the colony of Virginia
-
were having trouble
controlling their slaves,
-
so they sent for Mr. Lynch
to teach them his methods.
-
The word "lynching"
came from his last name.
-
His methods were very simple,
but they were diabolical.
-
Keep the slave physically strong
but psychologically weak
-
and dependent on the slave master.
-
Keep the body, take the mind.
-
I... and every other
professor on this campus
-
are here to help you...
-
to find, take back,
-
and keep your righteous mind...
-
because obviously you have lost it.
-
That's all you need to know about me,
Mr. Lowe.
-
Class dismissed.
-
Hey!
-
Here you go, honey.
-
Thank you.
-
Want to dance?
-
Yes.
-
Come on.
-
You're a good dancer.
-
Thank you. I...
-
I practice in my room.
-
Keep at it.
-
Excuse me.
-
Your punch.
-
Thank you.
-
I guess I better go
get me some punch.
-
Here, you can have mine if you want.
-
It's good.
-
All right?
-
You know I can take you to a place
-
that plays real music, right?
-
I'm not leaving here, Henry.
-
Just for a spell.
-
I'll bring you right back.
-
And what would my chaperone say?
-
We'll be back before she
ever knows you're gone.
-
What's the matter? You afraid?
-
What's the matter?
-
You afraid?
-
Excuse me.
-
Mr. Tolson?
-
Mr. Tolson!
-
It's time. Let's go.
-
...break your back all day.
-
And it's not right
when they lie to the government
-
and tell them that sharecroppers
are just wage earners
-
so they don't have to split
their farmer's subsidies with you.
-
And that's why
the Southern Tenant Farmers Union
-
wants you to organize:
-
To make things right.
-
How? Strike?
-
Hell, they'll just bring in the Mexicans.
-
We'll organize them, too.
-
Yeah, so they can shoot us all down:
White, colored, and Mexican.
-
That's exactly what they
want you to believe.
-
The farm bosses
want you to believe they'll make war.
-
They won't. They may be fools,
but they're smart businessmen.
-
And once we're organized,
-
they'll see even guns can't stop us.
-
Stopped them in Elaine.
-
Why don't you talk about that?
-
About how they killed
a hundred colored sharecroppers
-
for trying to organize.
-
That was 1919, friend.
-
And that was my daddy
they gunned down, friend.
-
We're sorry about that.
-
But those men stood alone.
-
That's my point.
-
This is 1935.
-
We've got the National
Labor Relations Board.
-
We've got the AF of L.
-
You ain't got shit!
-
He ain't got shit!
-
Here they come!
Here they come!
-
Get the lights! Everybody get down!
-
Get down. Shh!
-
Come on!
-
Let's get out of here!
-
This way! This way! This way!
-
Come on!
-
Come on. Come on!
-
Come on!
-
All right. All right.
-
What are you doing out here? Huh?
-
I saw you... I was
walking by your house,
-
and I saw you dressed funny.
-
I'm dressed like them, son.
-
You think they'd listen to me
if I was wearing a tuxedo? Huh?
-
No, sir.
-
Listen to me.
-
You listening?
-
You cannot tell anybody
what you saw tonight.
-
You understand?
-
Not even my wife
knows about this.
-
I won't tell anybody, I promise.
-
I promise on a stack of Bibles...
-
Jesus.
-
...I won't tell anybody.
-
Come on.
-
Junior?
-
Are you just going to stand there?
-
No, sir.
-
Sorry I'm late.
-
You're sorry?
-
It's 1:00 in the morning.
-
I've been looking everywhere for you.
-
I went to Mr. Tolson's
house after the dance.
-
I thought you might have done that.
-
That's why I went over there.
-
And I talked to Ruth.
-
She said Tolson was gone
and that you weren't there.
-
So I'm going to give you another chance.
-
Where were you?
-
I can't tell you, sir.
-
Good Lord, boy.
-
We've been worried to death about you.
-
Junior...
-
where were you?
-
I can't tell you, sir.
-
Why not?
-
I don't know.
-
"I don't know."
-
"I don't know" is not
an acceptable answer, Junior.
-
Junior.
-
Silence is not an option, either.
-
Son, you been drinking?
-
Honey...
-
Because you must've been drinking
coming up in my house
-
talking about you don't want to tell me
where you been at 1:30 in the morning?
-
Baby, tell me, what's the matter?
-
Mom, nothing's the matter.
-
Something's the matter!
-
Something is wrong!
-
Were you with that girl?
-
- You were with that girl.
- No.
-
Because you're 14 years old, Junior.
-
You've got plenty of time for girls later.
-
I wasn't with Samantha.
-
Junior.
-
Then where were you?
-
Where were you, honey?
-
You don't want to talk?
-
Fine.
-
But you're not leaving this house.
-
What do you mean?
-
Just what I said.
-
You're not leaving this house
until you tell me the truth!
-
What about school?
-
Don't go questioning
what I just said, boy!
-
Mom, what about school?
-
And don't raise your voice!
-
I'm not raising my voice!
-
You raising your voice in the house?
-
Apologize to your father.
-
I'm not raising my voice!
-
You get a job, pay your own way?
-
You're a man now?
-
I'm not raising my voice!
-
Just apologize!
-
I didn't say anything!
-
Why should I apologize?
-
Like you apologized to that pig farmer?
-
What did you say, boy?
-
You go to your room.
-
Okay, Junior...
-
I'm not going to be weak on this, Pearl.
-
I know.
-
I can't allow my son to be corrupted.
-
You're right.
-
Let's just go to bed.
-
I'll take him to school in the morning.
-
All right?
-
All right.
-
I'm going to be honest with you, boys.
-
I'm not well.
-
I'm not well at all this morning.
-
I'm sure sorry to hear that, sir.
-
You look well to me.
-
Don't he look well, Sam?
-
Yes, sir. He looks real good.
-
Now, we got some white fellas
from up north come into our town.
-
They're stirring up trouble
between our coloreds and our whites.
-
They say that we need to make a union:
-
The sharecroppers
and the workers all together,
-
colored and white.
-
They need to make a union?
-
How do you boys feel about that?
-
I don't know, sir.
-
I really ain't thought much about that.
-
Well, it's a bad idea.
-
It's a bad idea, take my word for it.
-
Yes, sir.
-
And they say that there was
some kind of secret meeting
-
last night down near the lake.
-
Now, do you boys know about that?
-
No, sir.
-
You don't know about that?
-
- Samuel?
- No, sir.
-
- You didn't hear about that?
- No, sir.
-
- You swear to me?
- Yes, sir.
-
Yes, sir, I swear.
-
All right, then.
-
See you later.
-
Our first debate
-
is one week from today.
-
- One week?
- That's right.
-
I thought Prairie View was first.
-
Prairie View is tough,
so I thought we needed a warm-up.
-
With the best Negro college in the state?
-
That's right, Mr. Burgess.
-
Does that frighten you?
-
Yes, sir.
-
One week's not enough time
to write our arguments.
-
You do the research.
I'll write the arguments.
-
Wait. You...
-
You write the arguments?
-
And you deliver them, Mr. Lowe.
-
What the hell do I look like, a mailman?
-
Hell is where you're headed
if you question me again.
-
In theory, you look like a student.
-
So what you're saying
is I'm not capable.
-
It's not a matter of competence.
-
It's a matter of experience.
-
How do I know you write...
-
I write the arguments!
-
That's the way it's been!
-
That's the way it's going to be!
-
Any more questions?
-
One week.
-
I bring to you
-
our first affirmative debater:
-
From Paul Quinn College,
Otheree Hubbard.
-
Resolved: Unemployment
relief should be ended
-
when the Depression ends.
-
If the Depression ends.
-
I traveled back through history to 1536,
-
when the first Poor Laws
of England were mandated.
-
In those days, the dole...
or welfare, as we call it...
-
was funded by voluntary contributions.
-
But, as time passed,
-
the English devised the Allowance System,
-
the first unemployment relief,
-
only now it was paid
with involuntary contributions,
-
more commonly known as taxes.
-
The Allowance System was a disaster.
-
The only real unemployment relief
is to give a man a job.
-
But to do that, you have
to give the economy life,
-
not tax it to death.
-
When capitalism was young,
-
the old puritanical concept of duty
-
was, "He who does not work
shall not eat."
-
That made sense
when there was more work
-
than men willing to do it.
-
But those days are gone.
-
Now there are millions
who want to work,
-
but find themselves
standing in breadlines.
-
Now, should they not eat
because there are no jobs?
-
People, today we need
a new concept of duty:
-
The right of the individual
to demand from society
-
just as much as he gives to society.
-
We clutch at anything that
even looks like a solution.
-
$60 million a month for public relief?
-
Pay it out if it'll sweep
the hoboes off the streets.
-
One seventh of the population
of the United States on welfare.
-
Fine, as long as it ends our misery.
-
A nation as desperate as this
is a danger to itself.
-
That's right.
-
Once,
-
a Roman general brought peace
to a rebellious province...
-
by killing all its citizens.
-
Even his fellow Romans
were shocked.
-
One of them wrote,
-
*"Solitudinem faciunt,
pacem appellant, "*
-
which means "They create desolation
and call it peace."
-
Now, for all their facts and figures,
-
the Paul Quinn debaters would also
create desolation and call it peace.
-
They would allow the unemployed to die
so the economy can live.
-
A brilliant young woman I know
-
was asked once to support her argument
in favor of social welfare.
-
She named the most powerful source
imaginable:
-
The look in a mother's face
when she cannot feed her children.
-
Can you look that hungry
child in the eyes?
-
See the blood on his feet
-
from walking barefoot
in the cotton fields?
-
Or do you ask his baby sister
with her belly swollen from hunger
-
if she cares about
her daddy's work ethic?
-
He's good.
-
Wiley! Wiley! Wiley! Wiley!
-
Wiley! Wiley! Wiley! Wiley!
-
Wiley! Wiley! Wiley!
-
The only thing that matters
is that big fish eat little fish,
-
and the color of the fish
does not count!
-
If the state of Mississippi
would have turned their heads
-
each and every time
a Negro was lynched,
-
shouldn't the federal government intervene?
-
Wiley! Wiley! Wiley! Wiley!
-
And the winner is...
-
Wiley College!
-
Wiley! Wiley! Wiley! Wiley! Wiley!
-
That's right, Captain.
-
I think I've got the ringleader.
-
Uh, all right,
if that's what you want.
-
Yeah. Okey-dokey, then.
-
Bye-bye.
-
Shit.
-
Who was that?
-
Captain Wainwright.
-
Texas Rangers?
-
He wants me to, uh, hold off
on picking this fella up
-
until him and his boys get up here.
-
Shit. Wants to get
his picture in the paper.
-
Yeah.
-
We do all the work,
they get all the glory.
-
Yep.
-
I guess that's just the way the world is.
-
Isn't that right, Samuel?
-
I have an announcement
to make. Excuse me.
-
Recently, I... uh, we...
-
...sent some letters
to some major universities.
-
Told them all about us, our team,
-
what we've been doing,
-
and, uh, yesterday
we got a response.
-
From Oklahoma City University.
-
Aren't they...?
-
Anglo-Saxon? Yes. Yes.
-
We'll be the first Negro college in America...
-
well, one of the first Negro
colleges in America...
-
to ever debate a white college.
-
All right!
-
University of Oklahoma!
-
Not University of Oklahoma.
Oklahoma City University.
-
The debate will take place
at an off-campus site.
-
Wait. An off-campus site? Why?
-
Because sometimes, Mr. Lowe,
-
you have to take things
one step at a time.
-
So what you're saying is
the crackers in Oklahoma
-
ain't gonna let us on their campus.
-
No, what I'm saying is you have to take
things one step at a time.
-
This is a great opportunity.
-
Thank you very much.
-
Master is going to give us
a crumb off his plate, huh?
-
What? Wha...
-
I think Lowe here is afraid.
-
What am I afraid of, James?
-
I think you're afraid
to debate white people.
-
- Anglo-Saxons.
- Anglo-Saxons.
-
Thank you very much.
-
Mr. Tolson, let me debate.
-
I mean, I'll debate
Anglo-Saxons anywhere:
-
In a dark alley, with no light,
-
with a candle lit and people
chasing you down with guns.
-
Hell, I'll debate Anglo-Saxons anywhere.
-
I ain't afraid.
-
I am.
-
Mr. Tolson, when I came here today,
-
I saw the sheriff outside watching your house.
-
What's going on?
-
Maybe you should ask the sheriff.
-
I've been hearing a lot of rumors
about what you're doing.
-
My dad just called the Dean last week
-
and asked, "What is
a communist doing
-
teaching at a good Methodist college?"
-
My politics are my business,
Mr. Burgess,
-
and I promise you that they
will not endanger the team.
-
But, sir, it is being endangered.
-
I came to Wiley College
to be educated, not investigated.
-
I understand that.
-
I don't want to be dragged into anything.
-
- You're not...
- If my parents find...
-
I'm sorry.
-
Mr. Tolson, please.
-
Just tell me you're not
a communist. Otherwise...
-
Otherwise what?
-
Otherwise what?
-
My father says I have to quit.
-
Nobody wants that.
-
Then tell me.
-
As I said, my politics are my business.
-
I guess I have to resign.
-
Mrs. Tolson, thank you
for a wonderful dinner.
-
You're welcome, Ham.
-
Good luck in Oklahoma, y'all.
-
I know you'll win.
-
All right. Well,
-
if anybody else wants to quit,
I'll understand.
-
Resolved:
-
Negroes should be...
-
should be admitted...
-
I can't hear you!
-
Speak up!
-
Resolved...
-
Negroes should be admitted
to state universities.
-
My partner and I will prove
-
that blocking a Negro's admission
to a state university
-
is not only wrong, it is absurd.
-
The Negro people are not just a color
in the American fabric.
-
They are the thread
that holds it all together.
-
Consider the legal
and historical record.
-
May 13, 1865:
-
Sergeant Crocker, a Negro,
-
is the last soldier to die in the Civil War.
-
1918: The first U.S. Soldiers
-
decorated for bravery in France
-
are Negroes Henry Johnson
and Needham Roberts.
-
*1920: The New York Times announces*
-
that the "N" in Negro would hereafter
be capitalized.
-
To force upon the South
what they are not ready for
-
would result in nothing
but more racial hatred.
-
What?
-
Dr. W.E.B. DuBois...
-
he's perhaps the most eminent
Negro scholar in America.
-
He comments...
-
"It's a silly waste
of money, time, and temper
-
"to try and compel a powerful majority
-
to do what they are
determined not to do."
-
My opponent so conveniently chose
to ignore the fact
-
that W.E.B. DuBois is the first Negro
-
to receive a Ph. D
from a white college called Harvard.
-
Dr. DuBois, he adds,
-
"It is impossible...
impossible for a Negro
-
to receive a proper education
at a white college."
-
The most eminent
Negro scholar in America
-
is the product of
an Ivy League education.
-
You see, DuBois knows all too well
the white man's resistance to change.
-
But that's no reason to keep
a black man out of any college.
-
If someone didn't force upon the South
something it wasn't ready for,
-
I'd still be in chains,
-
and Miss Booke here would be
running from her old Master!
-
I do admit it.
-
It is true.
-
Far too many whites are afflicted
with the disease of racial hatred.
-
And because of racism,
-
it would be impossible
for a Negro to be happy
-
at a southern white college today.
-
That's true.
-
And if someone is unhappy,
-
it is impossible to see how they could
receive a proper education.
-
That's right.
-
Yes, a time will come
-
when Negroes and whites
will walk on the same campus
-
and we will share
the same classrooms.
-
But sadly, that day is not today.
-
As long as schools
are segregated,
-
Negroes will receive an education
that is both separate and unequal.
-
By Oklahoma's own reckoning,
-
the state is currently
spending five times more
-
for the education of a white child
-
than it is spending
to educate a colored child.
-
That means better textbooks
for that child than for that child.
-
Oh, 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 in the same classroom.
-
Well, would you kindly tell me
when is that day gonna come?
-
Is it gonna come tomorrow?
Is it gonna 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!
-
Thank you.
-
What is this?
-
I told you it was holy wine.
-
Put hair on your chest.
-
If you say so.
-
Good, ain't it?
-
You know where the bathroom
is if you need it.
-
Yeah.
-
And my weapons were words.
-
I didn't need a gun. I didn't need a knife.
-
You see...
-
Meet me outside in five minutes.
-
And then what?
-
Yes, I did, honey,
-
and nobody knows that
better than you know.
-
Oh, I'm fine.
-
How are you doing, Pearl?
-
Pearl!
-
Yes, I do. Where's your husband?
-
- He's in the study.
- Okay.
-
Dr. Farmer.
-
Congratulations, Melvin.
-
Thank you.
-
You've put us on the map.
-
Well, your son is doing a great job.
-
His research is impeccable.
-
That's good to hear.
That's good to hear.
-
Listen, there are people around town
-
who aren't very happy
with your off-campus activities.
-
They're calling you a radical.
-
In fact, I wouldn't be a bit surprised
-
to find out one morning
when I woke up
-
that you were strung up to a tree.
-
They'd have to catch me first.
-
This is serious, Melvin.
-
Very serious.
-
A hungry Negro steals
a chicken, he goes to jail.
-
A rich businessman steals
bonds, he goes to Congress.
-
I think that's wrong.
-
Now, if that makes me a radical,
a socialist, a communist, so be it.
-
Amen... Amen on that.
-
- Jesus was a radical.
- Careful.
-
Yes, He was. Jesus was a radical.
-
Mental institutions are filled with people
-
who have confused themselves
with Jesus Christ.
-
I'm not confused.
-
You're convinced you're Jesus Christ now?
-
- No.
- You're convinced you're Jesus Christ?
-
You know what words do.
-
- Okay.
- Come on now.
-
Amen.
-
Don't want to confuse
yourself with Jesus Christ.
-
I'm not confused. I'm convinced.
-
I'm not, uh, I'm not judging you.
-
I'm just concerned
about your methods.
-
What methods?
-
James was there that night, wasn't he?
-
He was not with me.
-
Is he involved in this?
-
Of course not, James.
-
I've done everything in my power
to keep him out of this.
-
- To keep him out?
- Yes.
-
Are you telling me
he wants to be involved?
-
Maybe this is something
you should discuss with him.
-
I'm discussing it with you right now,
-
and I don't feel like I'm getting
a straight answer.
-
You're getting a straight answer.
-
I think that you were
there with him that night.
-
He was not with me.
-
He's a 14-year-old boy.
-
I understand that.
-
I'll do whatever I have to do
to protect him.
-
Is anybody thirsty?
-
Here you are.
-
Thank you. Thank you, Ruth.
-
You're welcome.
-
Okay.
-
Ruth, this is a fine party.
-
Thank you.
-
I think it's time
for some sweet potato pie.
-
Please.
-
I'll help you with that.
-
Not the time to talk about it.
-
Congratulations.
-
Thank you.
-
It's so beautiful out here.
-
Yeah.
-
I was born near here,
a little further up the lake near Jefferson.
-
I've been coming here
since I was a little boy.
-
Your parents still live around here?
-
No, no. They're, uh, they're gone.
-
My grandparents raised me.
-
And my Pah-Pah, he, uh,
-
spent his life doing
the levees around here...
-
for free, of course.
-
He was a slave?
-
My grandma was always
telling me to be good
-
or else the Confederates would rise up
out of Marshall Cemetery and get me.
-
Boy.
-
What?
-
I've just never seen
this side of you before.
-
What side?
-
You seem so calm,
-
so peaceful.
-
It's what the lake does to me.
-
I'm happy when I'm out here,
you know?
-
It's funny.
-
Part of me wants to just stay out here
by the lake, you know?
-
Read books all day and hunt
and fish when I get hungry.
-
And the other part
wants to go everywhere,
-
you know, see everything.
-
I want to go to New Orleans and New York
and Chicago and even San Francisco.
-
I just want to go...
-
walking down the road and...
-
just disappear.
-
Well, maybe you could
take me with you.
-
- Lord.
- What?
-
It's the school band,
and they're outside.
-
What? Jesus!
-
I thought you said nobody
ever comes around here.
-
Nobody ever does
come here, Samantha.
-
Hold on! Hold on!
-
Henry, come on!
-
Henry.
-
Get dressed.
-
What's going on?
-
We're gonna go get
Mr. Tolson and Samantha,
-
head back to the campus,
and have a pep rally.
-
Come on, get dressed.
-
You know what?
You go get Tolson,
-
and I'll meet up with y'all later on campus.
-
Come on, Lowe.
-
You know it's going to be fun.
-
I guess I'll tell them
you're going to join us later?
-
He's going to join us later.
-
He just has to clean
his house, that's all.
-
Great news. Great news.
Great news!
-
My phone has been ringing off the hook.
-
University of Michigan
wants to debate us.
-
So does SMU. So does Georgia.
-
Where's Mr. Lowe?
-
When do I get to debate?
-
Sooner than you think, James.
-
Sooner than you think.
-
When?
-
When you're ready.
-
I'm ready now.
-
Mr. Tolson, I do not mind if James...
-
What's wrong?
-
Maybe I'm tired of this.
-
Of what?
-
Of watching other people debate.
-
When am I going to get
a chance to prove myself?
-
You're our best researcher, James.
-
We could not do this without you.
-
You do plenty without me.
-
Excuse me.
-
- James!
- What?
-
James, you wait!
-
That was so mean
what you said in there.
-
All right, uh, look,
-
I don't want to lose your friendship.
-
How can you lose something
that you never had?
-
You were never my friend?
-
Maybe I don't want
to just be your friend.
-
Maybe it hurts me
to be your friend.
-
- What's going on?
- What's going on?
-
Grab his hands.
-
Mr. Tolson!
-
Where is he?
-
Calm down, Henry.
-
Have you seen him?
-
No, they won't let us.
-
They didn't do nothing to you, did they?
-
- No, we're fine.
- Deputy,
-
I'm Dr. James Farmer
of Wiley College.
-
This is William Taylor,
Mr. Tolson's attorney.
-
And this is his wife Ruth.
-
Hello.
-
I'd like to see my client, please.
-
William!
-
Sheriff Dozier. Dr. James Farmer...
-
Hello, William. How you doing today?
-
Fine, sir, thank you. And you?
-
Oh, not too bad, not too bad.
-
Me and William, we go way back.
-
I knew William when I was a boy.
-
Could I see my client now, Sheriff?
-
Your client?
-
Well, the fact of the business
is, William,
-
your client is kind of busy right now.
-
Busy doing what?
-
Sheriff. Sheriff.
-
We have a situation.
-
Get some of your boys out there.
-
All right, men.
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
Let him go! Let him go!
-
They with you?
-
That's right.
-
See? This is what happens to a town
when you let the unions in.
-
Starts trouble.
-
People get all riled up about nothing.
-
One of them's liable to get hurt,
if you catch my drift.
-
Sheriff, since it's clear
-
that you have no evidence
to arrest Mr. Tolson,
-
I suggest you let him go.
-
You suggest it?
-
Who the hell are you?
-
Couple of months ago,
-
there was a raid
on Floyd Tillman's barn.
-
It was a peaceful and lawful
gathering of sharecroppers
-
who were brutally attacked
by a gang of violent vigilantes.
-
Now, witnesses say
that you were there.
-
If you led that raid, Sheriff,
-
you're the one who broke
the law, not Tolson.
-
Are you threatening me, boy?
-
No, sir.
-
I wouldn't do that.
-
But I cannot speak
for those people outside.
-
An unjust law is no law at all.
-
What does that mean?
-
A mass slaughter
-
of citizens, both white and colored,
-
by Texas Rangers?
-
Is that really what you want
as the Sheriff of this county?
-
Now, if you let Tolson go home,
-
I believe...
-
I believe that these folks outside,
they'll go home as well.
-
That pig wasn't worth $25.
-
What?
-
You owe my father some money.
-
Have a seat, Mr. Farmer.
-
Oh, Lord.
-
Um...
-
SMU has cancelled.
-
University of Georgia sounds
like they will follow suit.
-
Why?
-
I've been blacklisted.
-
They're talking about censuring me.
-
Dean Clay and the board
have asked me
-
to stop working with
the sharecroppers, or else.
-
They say that it is not my fight.
-
So... things are bad.
-
My academic career's in jeopardy.
-
My debate team has nowhere to go.
-
Anyone know who Antaeus was?
-
Sure. He was a gigantic
wrestler in Greek mythology.
-
His mother was, uh, Gaea,
the goddess of Earth,
-
and, uh, I mean, he was unbeatable
-
because anytime someone
threw him down to the Earth,
-
it would make him stronger.
-
That's correct.
-
It would make him stronger.
-
Defeat would make him stronger.
-
You are my students.
I am your teacher.
-
I think that's a sacred trust.
-
So what do I say to you now?
-
Quit because the Dean says so?
-
Because the sheriff says so?
-
Because the Texas Rangers say so?
-
No.
-
I am diametrically opposed to that.
-
My message to you is to never quit.
-
We are not quitting.
-
Good.
-
What do you want us to do?
-
Debate Harvard.
-
- Harvard?
- Harvard University.
-
They're the reigning
national champions.
-
If we defeat them, we defeat the best.
-
Mr. Tolson, sir, with all due respect,
-
um, Harvard ain't going to debate us,
-
not little old Wiley College
in Marshall, Texas.
-
They know who we are, Henry.
-
I've been writing them letters,
sending them articles.
-
But how do we get a letter back?
-
By continuing to win.
-
Dr. Farmer has informed me
-
that Howard University is going to be
at Prairie View next week.
-
We annihilated Fisk.
-
If we eliminate Howard,
we will have beaten
-
the two best Negro colleges in America,
-
and I can guarantee you
that I will see to it
-
that Harvard does not ignore that.
-
All right?
-
Yeah.
-
Just look for it on there.
-
You see it on there?
-
I've been looking the whole time.
-
Prairie View, Texas. The 127.
-
You show me where to look
because it's not on...
-
127 near Waxahachie.
-
It's not there.
-
It's there. You just can't find it.
-
I see 2, and I see 7.
-
Right. Now look for a 1 in front of it,
and you got it.
-
- After 126...
- Okay.
-
Before 128.
-
I really don't think...
-
You don't see it.
-
When did you get this map?
-
What are you doing?
-
I'm gonna cut him down.
-
Get back in the car. Shut the door.
-
Nobody move.
-
Just get down.
-
Get down, get down.
-
Get down, too. You get down, too.
-
There's niggers in that car!
-
Come on, come on!
-
Get out of the car!
-
Get out of that car!
-
Stop that car right now!
-
All right. Everybody sit tight,
-
and, uh...
-
I'll get the keys.
-
How you doing, Miss Becker?
-
I'm fine. You all right?
-
Yes, ma'am.
-
I got your rooms all ready.
-
Thank you.
-
Henry.
-
Henry!
-
Henry!
-
They ain't going to wake up.
-
Come on.
-
Ha!
-
See you.
-
All right. Be good, all right?
-
Hey, baby. How you doing?
-
Why are you still up?
You waiting on me?
-
What's the matter, baby?
Come on!
-
Hey!
-
Samantha!
-
Shut up. Let's go.
-
Hey, preacher boy.
-
Shut up. Let's go.
-
Come on.
-
Where are we going?
-
Back to our room.
-
Got him, Mr. Tolson.
-
Okay. Just sit... sit...
-
Not in that bed, though. Get up.
-
Come here.
-
Give me a hug.
-
Stop!
-
You're worthless.
-
What?
-
You think you're the only one hurting?
-
Um...
-
Okay, I'm sorry... for everything.
-
For, uh, for drinkin', yeah,
-
I apologize.
-
I'm not talking about me.
-
You're right.
-
I'm gonna go talk to her.
-
No, no, you won't, Lowe.
-
She doesn't need
to see you like this, okay?
-
I'm just going to talk to her.
-
Leave me alone.
-
Lowe!
-
Calm down, boy!
-
Stop! Stop!
-
I'm not playing with you.
-
Calm... Calm down!
-
You crazy?
-
You're never gonna forget what you saw
out there, do you understand?
-
You're never gonna forget
what you saw out there.
-
Hanging's the easiest
part of it sometimes.
-
Sometimes they cut
the little fingers off,
-
your toes, your nose, your ears.
-
Sometimes they cut
your privates off.
-
Sometimes they skin you alive.
-
You'll never be able to forget.
-
What do you think he did?
-
He didn't have to do nothing, James!
-
He didn't have to do nothing!
-
In Texas they lynch Negroes!
-
Do you understand?
-
So it doesn't matter
how good we are, does it?
-
What are you talk... What?
-
This is all useless.
-
What are you talking about?
-
I mean we're just a bunch of Negroes
-
debating each other
on subjects we all agree on.
-
Now, James, don't talk like that, all right?
-
- Why not?
- Because you can't!
-
Not you.
-
Bye! God bless you!
-
Where's Samantha?
-
She's not going with us.
-
Why not?
-
Why do you think?
-
I took her to the bus station.
-
She wanted to go back to school.
-
You wanted your chance.
-
This is it.
-
But how can any Negro
-
defend the punishment of prison
-
when he's seen so much oppression
in his own life?
-
Yeah!
-
How?
-
Because crime itself
is a form of oppression,
-
and Negroes fall victim
to more violent crime
-
than any other race in America.
-
For us,
-
prison not only offers protection,
but retribution.
-
Yes, indeed!
-
And for the criminal, it is a dark gift:
-
The hardship that introduces
a man to himself,
-
that rouses his passion
for freedom...
-
Yes, sir!
-
...his hope for redemption!
-
Oh, yeah!
-
Our next debater from Wiley College,
-
Mr. James Farmer, Junior.
-
Mr. Farmer?
-
Mom?
-
Mom!
-
Honey.
-
Hey.
-
Hi.
-
So?
-
We lost.
-
I'm sorry.
-
Uh, this came.
-
Harvard.
-
Wonder what it says.
-
Go on and open it and read it.
-
- Looks like somebody opened it already.
- Not me.
-
You didn't open it already?
-
No.
-
You are not a good liar.
-
Out loud.
-
"Dear Mr. Tolson,
-
"thank you for informing us
-
"about your historic victory
over Oklahoma City.
-
"I'm sure you realize
our season is nearly over,
-
"but today we received another letter
from Wiley College
-
written by Mr. Henry Lowe"?
-
With an "e"?
-
"He told us from a student's perspective
-
about your"... ahem...
"about your undefeated season."
-
Well, we're not undefeated anymore.
-
Don't matter.
-
"We wish to extend an invitation to..."
-
"We wish to extend an invitation
-
"to debate Harvard Crimson
here in Cambridge.
-
Let us know if this is agreeable to you."
-
Honey...
-
Don't you tell anybody.
-
No.
-
No, you don't have to thank me.
-
I just wanted to show you
I could write, too.
-
That's good. Thank you.
-
But you could do me a favor.
-
What's that?
-
Keep Samantha on the team.
-
Why would I do that?
-
Mr. Tolson, it was a rough night.
-
Yes, it was, Mr. Lowe, for all of us.
-
And she walked out on us
at the last minute.
-
No, sir. She did not walk out on us.
-
She walked out on me.
-
It's good tea.
-
Resolved:
Capitalism is immoral.
-
We will be arguing the affirmative.
-
To a bunch of Wall Street bankers.
-
Mr. Tolson, I owe you
and my teammates...
-
You're late. Come in. Sit down.
-
Samantha, I am not...
-
Resolved.
-
Okay, you got macaroni
and cheese, fried chicken,
-
black-eyed peas for good luck,
-
red beans and rice,
corn bread, candied yams.
-
I put some peach cobbler in there, too,
-
and some bread pudding.
-
I know you don't like bread pudding,
but I put it in there anyway.
-
Thank you, Mom.
-
Okay.
-
Good luck, son.
-
Dad?
-
Yes, Jim.
-
You give Boston my regards.
-
You hear?
-
Yes, sir.
-
James!
-
Come on! Train's leaving.
-
Coming!
-
- Bye, Mom.
- Bye-bye.
-
I love you.
-
Bye, sis.
-
Love you!
-
Love you, too.
-
All aboard leaving for Texarkana, Little Rock,
-
St. Louis, and all points north!
-
All aboard!
-
I'm not going with you.
-
What?
-
I cannot leave this state.
-
It's a condition of my bail.
-
You can't let them stop you.
-
They're not stopping me.
-
I just don't want to
jeopardize your opportunity.
-
You can win without me.
-
This is what you wanted
to do all along, isn't it?
-
He's right.
-
Why didn't you tell us this before?
-
Because I didn't want
to hear your arguments.
-
I knew they'd be too good.
-
All right, Mr. Lowe, you're in charge.
-
Whatever your instincts
tell you, you listen.
-
Yes, sir.
-
Let's go.
-
Let's go.
-
What are we supposed
to do without you?
-
Win.
-
Chicago Express, with service to Hartford,
-
New York, and Philadelphia,
-
now boarding, Track 29.
-
I thought somebody was
supposed to meet us.
-
Wiley College?
-
- Yes.
- Yes.
-
I'm Harland Osbourne.
-
Harvard has put me in charge of you
for the time that you'll be here in Boston.
-
- How you doing? I'm Henry Lowe.
- Mr. Lowe.
-
- James Farmer, Jr.
- Mr. Farmer.
-
- Samantha Booke.
- Of course. Miss Booke.
-
We should be going.
My car's out front.
-
I've got it.
-
Oh, thank you.
-
Just so you know,
-
you'll be staying on campus
in Douglas Hall.
-
I've got to tell you,
-
this debate is stirring up
a lot of excitement.
-
- Really?
- Oh, yeah.
-
It's gonna be broadcast
all over America.
-
Can we see where we're
going to debate?
-
Of course.
-
Hello, Harvard!
-
Excuse me.
-
You supposed to be here?
-
I guess we'll find out, won't we?
-
Well, look.
-
"Mr. Farmer."
-
$5.00?
-
Lowe, I got $5.00.
-
Yeah, I did, too. It's called per diem.
-
Hoo-hoo!
-
You want me to hold it for you?
-
No, not my $5.00.
-
I got $5.00. I got $5.00.
-
Me, too.
-
Well, mine is crispy.
-
James, this is high tea, all right?
-
We nibble. We do not devour.
-
How do you know?
-
I don't.
-
Hello. I'm Wilson.
-
This is for you.
-
Thank you.
-
I can't accept that, sir.
-
It would be inappropriate.
-
It would be inappropriate.
-
Who's it from?
-
It's from Harvard.
-
Maybe it's more money.
-
"We have been informed
by Tau Kappa Gamma
-
"that your team delivers...
-
"canned speeches:
-
"Arguments written by faculty
rather than students.
-
"Therefore, we are
changing the topic.
-
"You will have
the same amount of time
-
"to write new arguments
as the Harvard team:
-
48 hours."
-
Coaches help students all the time.
-
Yes, sir.
-
"Both teams will be delivered
-
the same reference books."
-
Yes, sir.
-
"Our new topic:
Resolved:
-
"Civil disobedience is a moral weapon
in the fight for justice."
-
Wiley College will be
arguing the affirmative."
-
Thank you, sir.
-
I can't reach Mr. Tolson.
Nobody knows where he is.
-
They're setting us up to lose.
-
We can't win without him.
-
*You're wrong.
We can't win without him.*
-
Thoreau?
-
"... less desponding free spirits,
-
is in her prisons..."
-
"Under a government
which imprisons any unjustly,
-
the true place for a just man..."
-
Here's your coffee, sir.
-
Thank you, Mr. Wilson.
-
Just Wilson.
-
Thank you, Wilson.
-
"... has provided for her freer
-
"and less desponding spirits..."
-
But you have to use
the Massacre at Amritsar.
-
Agreed, James,
-
but we'll save it for the rebuttal.
-
We're going to save the best for last
-
because you have
to leave the audience...
-
I think we should get into Gandhi's
concept of Satyagraha.
-
I don't agree.
-
I don't think people
are gonna understand what...
-
what... Sadagara?
-
Sactchmaget? Sactchma...
-
Satyagraha.
-
From the Sanskrit.
-
Meaning truth and fairness.
-
I told you.
-
It's... It's obvious to me
-
that we should begin
the debate with Gandhi.
-
That's exactly why I won't do it.
-
Why should I do the obvious thing?
-
Because that's what wins debates!
-
Listen to what you're saying.
This is Harvard, okay?
-
The first thing you think
when you think civil disobedience is what?
-
That's why we should use Gandhi!
-
But Gandhi is a strong point!
-
I want to win! Do you want to win?
-
Yes, I want to win, but he's right!
-
This is not getting us anywhere!
-
Tolson told me I was in charge!
-
He didn't put you in charge!
-
You're "in charge" does not mean...
-
So I can make decisions.
-
We're not starting with Gandhi!
-
Yes, we are!
-
Do you hear yourself?
You sound like a kid!
-
Well, you are a kid!
-
Fellas, come on!
-
- I'm an idiot?
- Yes!
-
To hell with you!
To hell with you!
-
To hell with this debate!
-
To hell with me?
To hell with me?
-
Just because I disagree with you?
-
If you're gonna walk out, fine!
-
We're not chasing you!
-
We are so tired of chasing you!
-
He's coming back, isn't he?
-
See if I care!
-
How you doing, man?
-
You're beautiful when you're asleep.
-
Henry, I...
-
Yeah, I know, I know.
-
But you can't stop me
from looking at you.
-
Can everybody shut up and go to bed?
-
James, come on, wake up.
-
No.
-
James.
-
Come on, James, get up.
-
What?
-
What is this?
-
That's my notes.
-
What are you giving them to me for?
-
Because you're debating, not me.
-
What?
-
It's your turn, James.
-
You serious?
-
You're crazy.
-
At 14, you're just as good as me.
-
The judges will love you.
-
No. No. You can't quit.
-
I'm not quitting, Samantha.
-
Tolson made me captain,
and he said you were ready.
-
Yeah, but you saw me at Howard.
-
I was horrible.
-
That's right. You did terrible, didn't you?
-
Stunk up the whole joint, right?
-
So you should just quit, right?
-
You should just give up.
-
No.
-
Who's the judge?
-
What?
-
Who's the judge?
-
The judge is God.
-
And why is he God?
-
Because he decides who wins or loses,
not my opponent.
-
And who is your opponent?
-
He doesn't exist.
-
Why doesn't he exist?
-
Because he is a mere a dissenting voice
-
to the truth that I speak.
-
That's right.
-
Speak the truth.
-
Direct from Harvard Memorial Hall
-
in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
-
this is WNBC Radio,
bringing to you live
-
tonight's history-making debate
-
between little Wiley College
from Marshall, Texas,
-
and the Harvard University Debate team,
-
the first time ever
-
a Negro college has faced
the national champions.
-
Harvard's Dean of Students
-
is making his way to the podium now.
-
The crowd, as if on cue, falls silent.
-
On this historic occasion,
-
we welcome the distinguished team
from Wiley College,
-
our illustrious judges, you the audience,
-
and through the wonder
of radio, the nation.
-
Harvard University celebrates
its 300th anniversary this year,
-
and, in Franklin Delano Roosevelt,
its fifth President of the United States.
-
*But no university, no matter how grand
or august in its history,*
-
*can afford to live in the past.*
-
*So, in the spirit of tomorrow,*
-
*I introduce to you today:*
-
The debaters from Wiley College:
-
Miss Samantha Booke,
-
Mr. James Farmer, Junior.
-
What?
-
Mr. Farmer will argue the first affirmative.
-
Resolved:
-
Civil disobedience is a moral weapon
-
in the fight for justice.
-
But how can disobedience
ever be moral?
-
Well, I guess that depends
-
on one's definition of the words.
-
Word.
-
In 1919, in India,
-
10,000 people gathered in Amritsar
to protest the tyranny of British rule.
-
Has it started?
-
Your brother's talking.
-
Just sit down.
-
General Reginald Dyer
trapped them in a courtyard
-
and ordered his troops
to fire into the crowd for ten minutes.
-
379 died...
-
men, women, children...
-
Shot down in cold blood.
-
Dyer said he had
taught them a moral lesson.
-
Gandhi and his followers responded
not with violence
-
but with an organized
campaign of non-cooperation.
-
Government buildings were occupied.
-
*Streets were blocked
with people who refused to rise,*
-
*even when beaten by police.*
-
Gandhi was arrested,
-
but the British were soon
forced to release him.
-
He called it a moral victory.
-
The definition of moral:
-
Dyer's lesson or Gandhi's victory?
-
You choose.
-
From 1914 to 1918,
-
for every single minute
the world was at war,
-
four men laid down their lives.
-
Just think of it.
-
240 brave young men
were hurled into eternity
-
every hour of every day, of every night,
-
for four long years.
-
35,000 hours.
-
8,281,000 casualties.
-
240.
-
240.
-
240.
-
Here was a slaughter
-
immeasurably greater than
what happened at Amritsar.
-
Can there be anything moral about it?
-
Nothing...
-
except that it stopped Germany
-
from enslaving all of Europe.
-
Civil disobedience isn't moral
because it's non-violent.
-
Fighting for your country with violence
-
can be deeply moral,
-
demanding the greatest
sacrifice of all:
-
Life itself.
-
Non-violence is the mask
civil disobedience wears
-
to conceal its true face...
-
anarchy.
-
Gandhi believes one must always act
-
with love and respect
for one's opponents,
-
even if they are Harvard debaters.
-
Gandhi also believes
that lawbreakers must accept
-
the legal consequences for their actions.
-
Does that sound like anarchy?
-
Civil disobedience is not something
for us to fear.
-
It is, after all, an American concept.
-
You see, Gandhi draws his inspiration
-
not from a Hindu scripture,
-
but from Henry David Thoreau,
-
who I believe graduated from Harvard
-
and lived by a pond
not too far from here.
-
My opponent is right about one thing.
-
Thoreau was a Harvard grad,
-
and, like many of us, a bit self-righteous.
-
He once said, "Any man
more right than his neighbors
-
constitutes a majority of one."
-
Thoreau the idealist could never know
-
that Adolf Hitler
would agree with his words.
-
The beauty and the burden
of democracy is this:
-
No idea prevails without
the support of the majority.
-
The people decide
the moral issues of the day,
-
not a majority of one.
-
Majorities do not decide
what is right or wrong.
-
Your conscience does.
-
So why should a citizen
-
surrender his or her conscience
-
to a legislator?
-
No, we must never, ever kneel down
-
before the tyranny of a majority.
-
We can't decide which laws
to obey and which to ignore.
-
If we could...
-
I'd never stop for a red light.
-
My father is one of those men
-
that stands between us and chaos:
-
A police officer.
-
I remember the day
his partner, his best friend,
-
was gunned down in the line of duty.
-
Most vividly of all,
-
I remember the expression
on my dad's face.
-
Nothing that erodes
the rule of law can be moral,
-
no matter what name we give it.
-
Bravo!
-
Why doesn't he say something?
-
In Texas...
-
they lynch Negroes.
-
*My teammates and I*
-
saw a man strung up by his neck
-
and set on fire.
-
We drove through a lynch mob,
-
pressed our faces
against the floorboard.
-
I looked at my teammates.
-
I saw the fear in their eyes...
-
and worse...
-
the shame.
-
What was this Negro's crime
-
that he should be hung, without trial,
-
in a dark forest filled with fog?
-
Was he a thief?
-
Was he a killer?
-
Or just a Negro?
-
Was he a sharecropper?
-
*A preacher?*
-
*Were his children waiting up for him?*
-
And who are we to just
lie there and do nothing?
-
No matter what he did,
the mob was the criminal.
-
But the law did nothing,
-
just left us wondering why.
-
My opponent says
-
nothing that erodes the rule
of law can be moral.
-
But there is no rule of law
in the Jim Crow South,
-
not when Negroes are denied housing,
-
turned away from schools, hospitals,
-
and not when we are lynched.
-
St. Augustine said,
-
*"An unjust law is no law at all,"*
-
which means I have a right,
-
even a duty, to resist...
-
with violence or civil disobedience.
-
You should pray I choose the latter.
-
Bravo!
-
*In tonight's debate*
-
between Harvard University
and Wiley College...
-
And the winner is...
-
Wiley College.
