WASHINGTON — It was a tale of academic worlds colliding when two debate teams shared the stage before a large audience inside the Cramton Auditorium at Howard University this weekend. Perhaps the third time was the charm.
On the stage at the audience’s left was the Howard University Debate Team, representing one of America’s most prominent historically Black colleges. At the right was the Yale University Debate Association, representing the illustrious Ivy League.
The Yale Debate Association was crowned in 2011 by the American Parliamentary Debate Association as Club of the Year — a distinction it also won in 2010 and 2009.
The Howard University Debate team, by comparison, only made its debut in 2009.
It’s with those things in mind that the NAACP’s third annual Great Debate, which took place between the Howard and Yale debate teams over the weekend, should be viewed.
The first topic was whether society should create more privately-operated public charter schools. The second was whether Washington, D.C. should be granted statehood.
When it came time for Howard team member Gavette Richardson to sum up her team’s arguments on the merits of charter schools, she said the case for charter schools was no different than Brown v. Board of Education or the Little Rock Nine.
