Educator, columnist, American Modernist poet, and politician, Melvin Beunorus Tolson was born on Feb. 6, 1898 in Moberly, Missouri. Tolson attended Lincoln High School in Kansas City, Missouri where he studied Greek, Latin and Hebrew in 1919. He graduated with honors at Lincoln University in Pennsylvania in 1924. In 1930-31, Tolson took a break from teaching to study for his Master’s degree in Columbia University. After Columbia, he moved to Marshall, Texas to teach English and speech at Wiley College. He was most famous for his successful development of Wiley College’s (Marshall, Texas) award-winning debate team, The Wiley Forensics Society. Tolson is the central character of the 2007 film, The Great Debaters, directing and starring Denzel Washington as Tolson. In 1947 Liberia named Tolson its poet laureate. #Blackhistoryisamericanhistory #MelvinBTolson #TheGreatDebaters #denzelwashington #MissouriBoy #KansasCityBlackHistory #WileyCollege #Texas #Poet #Politician #moberly #todayinblackhistory #BlackExcellence #Searsly #BlackHistory