{"id":344,"date":"2008-05-01T14:11:00","date_gmt":"2008-05-01T20:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/2008\/05\/01\/great-debaters-coming-to-dvd-may-13\/"},"modified":"2008-05-01T14:11:00","modified_gmt":"2008-05-01T20:11:00","slug":"great-debaters-coming-to-dvd-may-13","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/2008\/great-debaters-coming-to-dvd-may-13\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Debaters Coming to DVD May 13"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/addenda\/uploaded_images\/GreatDebatersCover-770465.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" src=\"http:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/addenda\/uploaded_images\/GreatDebatersCover-770427.jpg\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a> A controversial figure, challenging the social mores of the time, Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) used unconventional and ferocious teaching methods to shape a debate team at Wiley College, a small African American university in Texas during the 1930s. Fighting against all odds and paving their way to success, the team reaches a pivotal moment when they are faced with one of their greatest challenges yet, going up against Harvard University&#8217;s critically acclaimed national championship debate team.<\/p>\n<p>This inspiring film captures a time in history that is difficult to remember where racism was rampant in our country. Denzel proficiently tackles the story in a compelling fashion with high drama that at times makes you cringe, yet brings a smile to your face at the end. There are some graphic depictions of violence but they are paramount to telling the story and historically accurate.<\/p>\n<p>Two-time Academy Award winner Denzel Washington directs and leads an ensemble cast including Oscar winner Forest Whitaker, Kimberly Elise, Jumee Smollett and up-and-coming actors Nate Parker and Denzel Whitaker. Winner of four NAACP Image Awards including Best Motion Picture, THE GREAT DEBATERS chronicles Professor Melvin B. Tolson, a brilliant and steadfast debate team coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of students from a small African American college into a historically renowned debate team.<\/p>\n<p>THE GREAT DEBATERS garnered numerous awards including a Golden Globe nomination for Best Motion Picture, the African American Film Critics Award for Best Picture, the Stanley Kramer Award and the Freedom of Expression Award.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A controversial figure, challenging the social mores of the time, Professor Melvin Tolson (Washington) used unconventional and ferocious teaching methods to shape a debate team at Wiley College, a small African American university in Texas during the 1930s. Fighting against all odds and paving their way to success, the team reaches a pivotal moment when [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paSd8M-5y","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kidsfirst.org\/ranny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}