The Great Debaters A Reaction to the Film The movie was based on a story of the historical Wiley College of Marshall, Texas of 1930 that participated the first collegiate interracial debate against Harvard University during the Great Depression, a time of racial struggle of the African Americans against Jim Crow laws (where lynch mobs were pervasive fear for blacks). Story line portrayed Professor Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington) as an activist and organizer who was also a debate team coach at his school. His passion to empower students in the use of positive achievement as a form of non-violent resistance led them to use their logic and argument to make a point of their ideas and thoughts. His great determination successfully turned a group of underdog students into a historically elite debate team in America. They won a few series of debate championships, including that from an invitation to debate against the Harvard University team. Insights gained from the movie are as follows: 1. Skills in argumentation and debate 2. Persuasion, the appeal to the emotions 3. Proposition, the subject of argumentation 4. Fallacies, the errors in argumentation "Keep the body, kill the mind," the famous line of Melvin B. Tolson relates to the method of argumentation where it influences the belief or behavior of the hearer and stirring his feelings. It also sets apart the peculiarity between conviction and persuasion, which the latter is much given emphasis - being an appeal to emotions. The term proposition in the movie rings a bell in the subject of Argumentation and Debate, which define as an expression in words of an act of judgment. It is an accepted norm that a debate must have a proposition to settle an issue. Fallacies are also mentioned in the words of Melvin B. Tolson as part of his convincing statement for his students to make good on their line of reasoning without errors, differing it from factual error - which is simply being wrong about facts. In general, the movie is a good material for motivating students who engage in public discourse or debate, as requirement for class, actual profession, or application in life.