FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 1, 2007

For Information Contact:

Dr. Eric Tucker
Deputy Director and Director of External Affairs
National Association for Urban Debate Leagues
(tel) 312-427-0152
(e) EricTucker@urbandebate.org


Denzel Washington’s The Great Debaters & The National Association for Urban Debate Leagues Make a Strong Case for Believing in the “The Power of Words”

FROM TWO-TIME ACADEMY AWARD WINNER Denzel Washington, and an ensemble cast led by Washington that includes Academy Award winner Forest Whitaker, comes The Great Debaters. Inspired by a true story, The Great Debaters chronicles the journey of Professor Melvin Tolson (Denzel Washington), a brilliant but volatile debate team coach who uses the power of words to shape a group of underdog students from a small African American college in the deep south into a historically elite debate team. A controversial figure, Professor Tolson challenged the social mores of the time and was under constant fire for his unconventional and ferocious teaching methods as well as his radical political views.

In their pursuit for excellence, Tolson's debate team receives a groundbreaking invitation to debate Harvard University's championship team. The film is directed by Denzel Washington and stars Washington, Forest Whitaker, Jurnee Smollett, Nate Parker, Denzel Whitaker, and Kimberly Elise. The Great Debaters was written by Robert Eisele and Tom Epperson and produced by Todd Black, Kate Forte, Oprah Winfrey and Joe Roth. Presented by The Weinstein Company, The Great Debaters will be released by MGM on December 25th.

In portraying the Wiley team’s success, the film shows how debate has tremendous potential to effect positive change in the lives of young people. This message is embodied in the work of the National Association for Urban Debate Leagues (NAUDL), a non-profit organization based in Chicago that facilitates participation in organized debate activities for urban students across the country. Since the late 1990s, more than 37,000 urban public school students have competed in Urban Debate Leagues (UDLs) in 18 of the nation’s largest cities.

UDL coaches echo Professor Melvin B. Tolson (Denzel Washington), who first inspires his students by saying that “debate is combat, but your weapons are words.” Thousands of high school students compete at UDL tournaments each year, and - like Tolson’s students - they use the power of words to advocate for change in the world and to transform their own lives. In so doing, these students have realized remarkable results both outside and in the classroom. Research shows that participation in organized debate improves literacy scores by 25% and grade point averages by 8-10%. And while many urban debaters come from schools where most students do not go to college and many do not receive a high school diploma, almost 100% of urban debaters graduate from high school, and more than three quarters of them go to college.

To highlight the power of debate, the NAUDL is sponsoring and has launched a website, www.thegreatdebaters.org, linking the urban debate movement with The Great Debaters. TheGreatDebaters.org features three online advocacy campaigns that allow everyone inspired by the film to make their voice heard, be it by signing a “Call to Action” that argues for every student’s right to a good education, by sharing information about debate with a friend, or by using the site’s online community to network with other debaters. Visitors can also register to win free advance screening passes on the site.

Everyday, words are transforming the lives of young people. Learn more at www.TheGreatDebaters.org, or at the NAUDL’s official website: www.UrbanDebate.org.


“Students in the program learn what it’s like to be on a team, a lesson much better learned in the classroom than in a gang.”
      – Laura Bush
      First Lady of the United States



Urban Debate Quick Facts

REACH:

37,000: Number of students who have competed in Urban Debate Leagues
19: Major cities with Urban Debate Leagues
81: Major urban school districts, of the 100 largest in the country, that still need debate
64: Percent of members of Congress in 1996 who were former debaters

ACADEMIC BENEFITS:

50%: Black, Native American and Latino public school students who graduate from high school
99%: Graduation rate in the Kansas City Urban Debate League
100%: Graduation rate in the Baltimore Urban Debate League
75%: Urban debaters who go to college, four times higher than their non-debating peers
25%: Improvement in reading scores of debaters compared to non-debaters.


The NAUDL Expansion Plan

Over the next three years, the NAUDL plans to significantly increase participation in urban debate by:

BUILDING UDLS in cities whose districts serve nearly 330,000 urban high school students.
  • Dallas
  • Denver
  • Las Vegas
  • Los Angeles
  • Philadelphia
  • Phoenix
  • The Bay Area
STRENGTHENING several existing UDLs in districts serving an additional 250,000 high school students, including:
  • Boston
  • Detroit
  • St. Louis

EXPANDING the scope and quality of debate coaching and instruction in all of our cities.

CONNECTING existing UDLs through networking programs and services, including administrator conferences and the Chase Urban Debate National Championship:
  • Atlanta
  • Austin
  • Baltimore
  • Chicago
  • Kansas City
  • Miami
  • Milwaukee
  • Minneapolis
  • New York
  • Newark
  • Providence
  • Seattle
  • Orange County
  • Washington DC


“To protect and secure our way of life, we must provide all our youth with a world-class education. Urban Debate Leagues take us a solid step closer to that goal.”       -Robert B. Reich
      Professor of Public Policy, the University of California at Berkeley
      former Secretary of Labor



The GreatDebaters.org Encourages Everyone to Take Action

Sponsored by the NAUDL, TheGreatDebaters.org takes advantage of the media attention on debate by providing a platform where anyone moved by the film, interested in debate, or compelled by a related social issue can join with others and work together to create change.

On TheGreatDebaters.org, visitors can:
  • LEARN MORE about volunteering with a Urban Debate League near them, donating to the NAUDL, and supporting debate as a curricular tool.
  • SIGN THE NAUDL’S CALL TO ACTION and help provide an excellent education for all of America’s students.
  • Lawyers or legal scholars, BACK THE STATEMENT OF SUPPORT, sponsored by the NAUDL, which advocates for debate as a vital pipeline to legal careers for minority students.


“We will soon see, thanks in large part to urban debate, an increasing number of talented, hardworking, and highly successful minority students matriculating at law schools and entering the legal profession.”
      – Laurence H. Tribe,
      Carl M. Loeb University Professor Harvard Law School



Meet a Cast Member: The Great Debaters of Today

Voltaire Rico Sterling was reared on the South Side of Chicago, IL and attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School where he participated in the Chicago Urban Debate League from 1995-1996. As a debater, Voltaire was coached by Les Lynn of the NAUDL. After high school, Voltaire attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, GA. Voltaire earned a Juris Doctor degree from the Harvard Law School, where he was the first black Class President and Commencement Speaker. He is admitted to the Illinois Bar. Realizing, however, that acting is his true calling, Voltaire left the law to pursue head-on his bliss as an actor. Denzel Washington recently hand-picked Voltaire and cast him, at the time without an agent or manager, as the debater “Otheree Hubbard” in the much anticipated feature film The Great Debaters.