Current Debate Practices in Thirty Negro Colleges

Abstract

The debate between Harvard and Yale in 1892 is said to mark the beginning of a colorful tradition of intercollegiate debate2 in the American college. The idea ingratiated itself with a result that in a short time, student debate, conducted more and more under rigid rules, became a well-established campus activity in colleges by the hundred. The Negro colleges were no exception to the tendency. Recognizing the educational significance of student debate, they introduced it, encouraged it, and numbered it among their more important non-athletic extra-curricular3 activities. But what of student debate on the Negro college campus today? Does it yet hold a prominent place, or has it, unable to stem the tide of competition with the many other campus activities, been reduced to a place of relative insignificance?