Graduation Speech: Wiley College Debates

606 Words2 Pages

Distinguished guests, parents, members of the faculty a pleasant evening to you all. As you may know, I am Dr. Melbourne the President of the Wiley College. This evening I am indeed honored to be hosting this Awards Dinner for the Wiley College debaters. As we all know, our debaters namely Henry Lowe who served as the captain, he helped his teammates to believe in themselves in times of doubt. James Farmer, Jr. 14-year-old prodigy who is well acclimated in the field of research. And last but not least Samantha Booke the first female to join the Wiley College debate team. Along with professor Tolson who has been their source of strength and voice reason. They have been very successful in winning against Harvard University for the first place national title. These individuals have demonstrated true leadership qualities. Which is characterized by the capacity to influence others through inspiration; motivated by a passion, generated by a vision or need to facilitate change in the development of mankind, and is therefore ignited by a purpose. …show more content…

Thus, in a subsequent dialogue with Mr. Tolson he shared with me; that they had won ten debates in a row which proved them to be both emotionally and intellectually independent. Also, throughout their journey they had experienced racism at its worst; witnessing a Negro being burnt alive in the middle of the road on the way to one of their debate competition. I firmly believe that experiencing this helped to equip them with the emotional and life experience to draw from during their speech. Having experiencing this scared them for life. Nevertheless, it serves them as a grim reminder of the heights to which racism has climaxed to in this town of Marshall, Texas. This is something they have to live with and that is what makes them

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