Melvin B. Tolson

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Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (February 6, 1898 – August 29, 1966) was an American poet, scholar, columnist, and politician.

As a poet, he was inspired by Modernism and African Americans' words and experiences, as well as his study of the Harlem Renaissance. Tolson, a professor at the historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, was influenced heavily by the Harlem Renaissance.

In the 2007 biopic The Great Debaters, produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring Denzel Washington as Tolson, this work was depicted.

Early life and education

Tolson, one of four children of Reverend Alonzo Tolson, a Methodist minister, and Lera (Hurt) Tolson, a seamstress of African-Creek ancestry, was born in Moberly, Missouri. Alonzo Tolson, the son of an enslaved woman and her white master, was both of mixed race. He worked at various churches in the Missouri and Iowa area before settling in Kansas City for longer. Reverend Tolson continued to study throughout his life to contribute to the little education he had received from his childhood, as well as correspondence courses in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. Both parents emphasized the importance of education for their children.

Melvin Tolson graduated from Lincoln High School in Kansas City in 1919. He attended Fisk University but he later transferred to Lincoln University, Pennsylvania, for financial reasons. In 1923, Tolson received a degree in engineering. He became a Man of The Omega Psi Phi fraternity.

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Career

Tolson and his wife married in Marshall, Texas, where he taught speech and English at Wiley College (1924-1947). The little, historically black Methodist Episcopal college had a good reputation among blacks in the South, and Tolson, one of its main actors, was Tolson.

Tolson went from teaching to study for a Master's degree at Columbia University in 1930-31. He wrote "The Harlem Group of Negro Writers," based on his extensive interviews with Harlem Renaissance participants. His poetry was heavily influenced by his time in New York. He continued his studies and was granted a master's degree in 1940.

Tolson used his high energy at Wiley in addition to teaching English. He established the Wiley Forensic Society, an award-winning debate team that became a pioneer in interracial collegiate debates. The team debated law students from the University of Michigan in Chicago in 1930, and later in 1931, it was involved in the first recognized interracial debate in the South against Oklahoma City University. The group defeated the University of Southern California during their 1935 tour, which they lost. He also co-founded the Southern Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts, as well as the theater company. In addition, he coached the junior varsity football team.

Tolson coached students, such as James Farmer and Heman Sweatt, who later became civil rights campaigners. His students were not only encouraged to be well-rounded, but also stand up for their rights. This was a contentious position in the United States South's segregated early and mid-20th century.

Tolson began teaching at Langston University, a historically black college in Langston, Oklahoma, where he spent the next 17 years. He was both a dramatist and director of the Dust Bowl Theatre at the University. Nathan Hare, the black studies pioneer who became the founding editor of Langston's journal The Black Scholar, was one of his students.

Liberia named Tolson as its Poet Laureate in 1947. He wrote the Libretto for the Republic of Liberia in 1953 in honor of the country's centennial.

Tolson began serving as mayor of Langston, Oklahoma, from 1954 to 1960.

Tolson was accused of being involved in organizing farm laborers and tenant farmers during the late 1970s (though the exact nature of his occupations is uncertain) and having radical leftist organisations in 1947.

As reviewer Karl Shapiro put it, Tolson was a man of remarkable intelligence who wrote poetry that was "funny, witty, humoristic, slapstick, rude, cruel, bitter, and comedic." Langston Hughes referred to him as "no highbrow." Students adore him and adore him. He was a kid from the cotton fields. Cow punchers know him... He's a natural communicator.'

Tolson was recruited to a two-year term at Tuskegee Institute, where he was Avalon Poet in 1965. He died in Dallas, Texas, on August 29, 1966, following cancer surgery. He was buried in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

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