*Denzel Washington’s $1 million investment in Wiley University’s debate team is still paying off. Nearly two decades after the actor stepped in, the historically Black school’s program is winning again and sending students through college on scholarship, PEOPLE reports.
Washington, 71, has said the goal was always bigger than trophies. “Supporting the next generation of brilliant minds in the art of debate at Wiley College will open so many doors of opportunity for these students during college, career, and beyond,” he said in an earlier statement reported by KETK. “We are honored to continue supporting the best and the brightest in the land and look forward to ‘The Great Debaters’ continuing to do what they do best: win.”
The students have delivered. DebateUS.org reports that Wiley claimed the Pi Kappa Delta crown twice, in 2014 and 2016. Last year, the team finished among the top three schools at the HBCU Nationals and earned a runner-up spot in individual competition.
The money reaches beyond competition. Jaylon Bolden came to Wiley expecting a different path, and he left with five years of debate experience and $80,000 in Washington-backed scholarship aid.
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“All throughout high school I just knew I was going to play football in college, but we make plans and God laughs. Coming to Wiley to be a part of the Tolson/Washington Forensics Society was divine intervention,” Bolden told KETK. “I was a part of a legacy that was so much bigger than I could ever imagine.”
That legacy began in 1935, when coach Melvin B. Tolson’s debaters beat USC, then the national champions, according to the university’s website. The team kept winning for a decade despite the racial barriers of the Jim Crow South. After Tolson’s 1947 exit, though, debate disappeared from campus for generations.
Washington retold the team’s story in his 2007 film “The Great Debaters,” then pledged to bring the program home. Now known as the Melvin B. Tolson/Denzel Washington Forensics Society, it still receives yearly gifts from his family’s foundation, which also helps pay dues for students who represent the team.
College president Dr. Herman J. Felton has said the partnership gives Wiley an edge. “Being a dominant force as home of The Great Debaters makes us a very attractive option for those skilled in debate, and this financial support further amplifies the benefits of becoming a Wiley debate scholar,” he told KETK.
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