DVD: The Great Debaters: Denzel Washington; Forest Whitaker

Debate coach Melvin B. Tolson at Wiley College, a small and modest black college, works to place his team on equal footing with whites in the American South during the 1930s, when Jim Crow laws were common and lynch mobs were a fear for blacks. Tolson uses the power of words to shape his 'underdog' students into an elite debating team while challenging the social mores of the time, culminating in a groundbreaking invitation to debate Harvard University's championship team. Based on a true story. Also stars Nate Parker, Jurnee Smollett, Denzel Whitaker and John Heard.