In 1935, Southern Methodist University, an all-white university with ties to the Dallas elite, declined to debate Wiley College, a historically black college made famous in The Great Debaters.
Seventy-four years later, in 2009, SMU held up its end of the bargain and debated Wiley College.
Since 2009, the schools’ debate teams have argued regularly over contemporary issues–from the closure of Guantanamo Bay to the power of the pen over the sword.
When I learned I would be one of the SMU debaters arguing against Wiley College on the 50th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream Speech,” I was thrilled. READ MORE