The History Among Us
Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (1898-1966)
Talking to people about the past of Wiley College, inevitably someone will mention Melvin Tolson. The son of an itinerant, Methodist preacher, Tolson came to Marshall, Texas for his first teaching job. He taught English and speech at Wiley College for 23 years, beginning in 1924. He later taught at Langston University in Oklahoma. He is buried in Guthrie, Oklahoma.
The debate teams he coached at Wiley achieved high-level recognition, defeating the national champions of the University of Southern Calilfornia in 1935. As I understand it, James Farmer was one of his debaters. In his inimitable deep, full voice, James Farmer talked about Tolson. "He (Tolson) said to the mumbling student, 'Son, somebody's tried to ruin your life.'" As I understood it, Tolson wanted the students to have to give voice to their self-esteem and to learn to speak out with self-confidence.
Hobart Jerrott, one of Tolson's star debaters described his debate experience at Wiley: "Down the years have come the tales of Wiley debaters. Legends have grown up on the campus. Traditions. They're in the atmosphere. When you join the debate squad you feel you're in for great adventures. Your colleagues tell you of giants of other days, and the strategy they used to beat
distinguished opponents.
I have been told that a movie is now in the planning stage on Tolson's life, that the plans are for Denzel Washington to play the role of Tolson, and that the movie is being backed by Oprah and Miramax.
After leaving Wiley, Tolson wrote weekly columns for the Washington Tribune entitled "Caviar and Cabbage." He wrote a column about some African Americans stopping to borrow some water from a well in Mississippi for their car which had overheated. After making the request, they managed to escape with bullets raining about them. Up the road, they told about the experience to elderly Black men in a cotton field. The old men knew the shooter, but followed a tendency to defend hometown people: "He ain't bad, except when's he's drunk...and he's always drunk."
Tolson also was a scholar of philosophy. In one of his columns, he said, "Plato says a wise mind is an interrogating mind. It wants to know why. It doesn't accept a thing because the Big Boys say it's right. It doesn't get on the bandwagon. A wise man thinks for himself. He questions everything. That's the only way to find the truth."
A book of some of Tolson's "Caviar and Cabbage" columns is available in the Marshall Public Library, as well as a book of his poetry entitled, "A Gallery of Harlem Portraits." In his poetry, Tolson shows insight in capturing some interesting characters and life styles. Some say Tolson went far afield from Marshall, Texas in writing the Harlem portraits, but I can see a universality in many of the people who may have come from East Texas or New York City. Tolson saw people as they were and told as he saw it—without mincing words. Tolson's prize-winning poem "Dark Symphony" appeared in "Atlantic Monthly" in 1941.
Tolson had four children. Dr. Melvin Tolson, Jr., recently retired from teaching French at the University of Oklahoma. His other two sons also have Ph.D's, and daughter has a masters degree in library science. Melvin Tolson believed in education.
