Milan Garcia Dorsey Dr Rae Ferguson AAF 150 1 March 2014 James Farmer Jr Jim crow segregation which ruled the south starting with the end of reconstruction and the start of the Civil Rights Movement A new war Black southerners were faced with Jim crow laws mandated racial segregation in all public facilities in the former confederate south These laws were set on the notion Separate but equal as proved in the Plessy V Ferguson case James Farmer Jr holding the title has the Preacher s kid of James Farmer Sr grows up and is educated in Marshall Texas during the start of this Civil Rights Movement James Farmer discusses from a preacher s kid perspective being raised in his household the image and impact of his father and mother has a young child in the writing PK Preachers Kid Farmer also discusses the challenges he faces being 14 years old and starting his freshman year in college and the growth and his intellectual growth in the writings Intellectual Coming of Age The film The Great Debaters gives me a idea of his life has a young college students and his intellectual findings which lead him to dedicate his life to deconstruct Jim Crow Segregation The film represents Farmer as a young 14 year old Preacher s Kid and his intellectual development with the major influence of Professor Tolson a participation on the Wiley debate team While in the writings of PK Preachers Kid and Intellectual Coming of Age highlight is life growing up as a preachers kid his fathers intellectual impact and how his academic achievements lead him to dedicate his life to deconstruct Jim Crow segregation James Farmer grows up in a southern home underneath the black preacher king in a private kingdom his father with a Ph D one of the few blacks who were able to achieve such academic success living in white supremacy As described in Preacher s Kid Farmer s father had great impact on his life even though has a kid he has more memories of his mother James describes how his father had this great impact not only on him but a greater impact in his works of a professor a scholar at Rust College and a minister for the black community But Daddy was more present in a more mystical way like a god who could reward and punish afar who could cause lightning flash and thunder to sound but if you tried to reach him with senses it was often thin air James describes his fathers representation during his child hood James Sr was the foundation and influence of James Jr academic achievement He instilled and made getting education a priority a life style that education meant success James Jr held his father highest on the pedestal his father being the first black Ph D in Texas educated at Boston University and who could also speak Hebrew Greek Aramaic Latin French and German Being a Preacher s kid to a man less only than God shaped James Farmer into the incredible 14 year old freshman that Wiley college received James Farmer Sr set the intellectual foundation which lead Farmer Jr to become successful in his academic career He instilled values morals family and education that allow him to further develop intellectually stand strongly stand for a belief fighting through the power of knowledge Farmer entering Wiley College 14 during the time of the Harlem Renaissance 1934 up north the generation of the New Negro a revolutionary period of art music and poetry a sense of expression and diversity happening up north In the writing Intellectual Coming of Age Melvin B Tolson is entered into Farmers life has his English professor who encourages him to grow academically by having a voice Tolson influences him to defend his point of view using knowledge using his education to make a change for blacks to be heard Farmer describes his years at Wiley through the eyes of a 14 year old Preacher s son His years on the Wiley Debate team his standing on the college campus by not conforming but standing up for what is fair For example the start of the Anti Greed Association Farmer also wins a series of high school contests and succeeds at the National conference of Methodists Youth at Miami Farmer is given the opportunity to go up against intelligent white students in Oxford who seem to have an upper hand In this writing Farmer also talks about the influence of his fellow debate members and how actually witnessing Jim Crow Segregation leaves them feeling hopeless helpless It leaves an experience that lies heavily on their souls that may change their perspective forever In the film The Great Debaters 14 year old farmer is placed on the Wiley debate team under Professor Tolson who pushes farmer to dig deeper to question to defend to use his knowledge has expression has a weapon Like in the Intellectual Coming of Age Tolson is represented has a great influence on James Farmer He is sort of like a breathe of fresh air for Farmer introducing the concept of not conforming but rebelling in belief and knowledge Rather than a big fish in the Wiley pond I was a small black fish in an ocean of larger more secure fish The only thing about which I knew more than they was how it felt to be black in a white world Farmer mentions how he compares his standing of the educated whites he stood against at Oxford college at the National conference of Methodist Youth at Miami This being one the biggest developments to his intellect because he experiences the knowledge and style of delivery of speech from the white students In the film this is represented by the debate of civil disobedience and how he uses the experience of being black in the Jim crow south and also the pressing issue that they were white living in a color conscious society Having a voice and competing with whites in the film as well in the writing gives him hope that he can make a change and that he will be heard In the film there is a scene where the debaters are face to face with a lynch mob and a black man is being lynched to death The team knows the power of the Jim crow laws and what is capable of them but once they witnessed it first hand it scars James and his team forever leaving them hopeless helpless This event in the movie is a exaggeration of what Farmer and his teammates actually face I am not blind and I m not insensitive How could I possibly have grown up and lived in the South all these years without seeing without knowing the hell we put you through everyday of your lives Cy Record s response to being rejected at restaurants because of being black or being with Negro s Has in the film the