Melvin B. Tolson

Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (February 6, 1898 – August 29, 1966) was an American poet, educator, columnist, and politician. As a poet, he was influenced both by Modernism and the language and experiences of African Americans, and he was deeply influenced by his study of the Harlem Renaissance.

As a debate coach at the historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, Tolson led a team that pioneered interracial college debates against white colleges in the segregated South. This work was depicted in the 2007 biopic The Great Debaters, produced by Oprah Winfrey, starring and directed by Denzel Washington as Tolson.

Born in Moberly, Missouri, Tolson was one of four children of Reverend Alonzo Tolson, a Methodist minister, and Lera (Hurt) Tolson, a seamstress. Alonzo Tolson was of mixed race, the son of an enslaved woman and her white master. He served at various churches in the Missouri and Iowa area until settling longer in Kansas City. Reverend Tolson studied throughout his life to add to the limited education he had first received, even taking Latin, Greek and Hebrew by correspondence courses. Both parents emphasized education for their children.

Melvin Tolson graduated from Lincoln High School in Kansas City in 1919. He enrolled at Fisk University, but the following year transferred to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania for financial reasons. He graduated with honors in 1923. He became a Man of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

In 1922, Tolson married Ruth Southall (1896-1982) of Charlottesville, Virginia, whom he had met as a student at Lincoln University. Their first child was Melvin Beaunorus Tolson Jr. (1923-2011), who became a doctor and a professor at the University of Oklahoma. He was followed by Arthur Lincoln Tolson (1924-2015), who became a professor at Southern University; Wiley Wilson Tolson (1927-1993), who became a doctor; and Ruth Marie Tolson (1928-1976).

After graduation from Lincoln, Tolson and his wife moved to Marshall, Texas, where he taught speech and English at Wiley College (1924–1947). The small, historically black Methodist Episcopal college had a high reputation among blacks in the South and Tolson became one of its stars.

In 1930–31, Tolson took a leave of absence from teaching to study for a Master's degree at Columbia University. His thesis project, "The Harlem Group of Negro Writers," was based on his extensive interviews with members of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry was strongly influenced by his time in New York. He completed his work and was awarded the master's degree in 1940.

In addition to teaching English at Wiley, Tolson built an award-winning debate team, the Wiley Forensic Society, which became a pioneer in interracial collegiate debates. Beginning in 1930, the team debated against law students from the University of Michigan in Chicago. In 1931, the team participated in the first known interracial collegiate debate in the South, against Oklahoma City University. During a tour in 1935, they competed against the top-ranked team of University of Southern California, which they defeated.