March 17, 2008

Faculty, Staff and Students Gather for ‘Debaters’ Screening
In honor of former Brooklyn College faculty member Hobart S. Jarrett, several hundred faculty members, staff and students gathered in Whitman Hall February 26 for a free showing of the Golden Globe-nominated movie “The Great Debaters” starring Oscar winners Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker.
    Introducing the movie was Professor Ellen Belton of the BC English Department, who first met Jarrett when she was a student at Bryn Mawr College, and later became his friend and colleague.
     “Professor Jarrett was also a prominent scholar in the fields of Renaissance and African American literatures, a man of great warmth, generosity and humor,” Belton told the audience. “He was a friend and mentor to countless numbers of students and junior colleagues,” she concluded.
    The screening was part of the events scheduled by the College to mark this year’s Black History Month. It was also intended to honor Jarrett, who as a young college student participated in the events upon which the movie is based.
    After graduating from college in 1936, Jarrett taught English and became a Shakespearean scholar. He also took part in some of the early battles of the civil rights movement during the early 1960s. He came to Brooklyn College in 1961, eventually becoming the first African American to earn a full professorship in the English Department. He joined the Special Baccalaureate program and remained with the College for a quarter of a century until his retirement in 1986.
    A fictionalized version of the actual events, the film traces the exploits of the all-black debate team from tiny Wiley College, in Marshall, Texas. Under the leadership of their coach, Melvin B. Tolson (Washington), the team members battle the Jim Crow laws of that segregated pre-war period and proceed to demolish their debate rivals at other black colleges, finally earning the right to face off against Harvard University.

Hobart Sidney Jarrett taught English at Brooklyn College from 1961 to 1986.