Мелвин Толсон: Американ ақыны, педагог және саясаткер

American poet, educator and politician

Melvin Beaunorus Tolson (February 6, 1898 – August 29, 1966) was an American poet, educator, columnist, and politician. As a poet, he was influenced both by Modernism and the language and experiences of African Americans, and he was deeply influenced by his study of the Harlem Renaissance. As a debate coach at the historically black Wiley College in Marshall, Texas, Tolson led a team that pioneered interracial college debates against white colleges in the segregated South. This work was depicted in 2007 biopic The Great Debaters, produced by Oprah Winfrey and starring and directed by Denzel Washington as Tolson.

Born in Moberly, Missouri, Tolson was one of four children of Reverend Alonzo Tolson, a Methodist minister, and Lera (Hurt) Tolson, a seamstress of African and self identified Creek ancestry. Alonzo Tolson was also of mixed race, the son of an enslaved woman and her white master. He was followed by Arthur Lincoln, who as an adult became a professor at Southern University; Wiley Wilson; and Ruth Marie Tolson. All children were born by 1928.

After graduation, Tolson and his wife moved to Marshall, Texas, where he taught speech and English at Wiley College (1924–1947). The small, historically black Methodist Episcopal college had a high reputation among blacks in the South and Tolson became one of its stars. In 1930–31 Tolson took a leave of absence from teaching to study for a Master's degree at Columbia University. His thesis project, "The Harlem Group of Negro Writers," was based on his extensive interviews with members of the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry was strongly influenced by his time in New York. He completed his work and was awarded the master's degree in 1940. In addition to teaching English, Tolson used his high energies in several directions at Wiley. He built an award winning debate team, the Wiley Forensic Society, which became a pioneer in interracial collegiate debates. Beginning in 1930, the team debated against law students from the University of Michigan in Chicago; then, in 1931, it participated in the first known interracial collegiate debate in the South, against Oklahoma City University. During their tour in 1935, they competed against the University of Southern California, which they defeated. There he also co founded the black intercollegiate Southern Association of Dramatic and Speech Arts, and directed the theater club. In addition, he coached the junior varsity football team. In 1947, Tolson was accused of having been active in organizing farm laborers and tenant farmers during the late 1930s (though the nature of his activities is unclear) and of having radical leftist associations. Tolson was a man of impressive intellect who created poetry that was "funny, witty, humoristic, slapstick, rude, cruel, bitter, and hilarious," as reviewer Karl Shapiro described the Harlem Gallery. The poet Langston Hughes described him as "no highbrow. Students revere him and love him. Kids from the cotton fields like him. Cow punchers understand him He's a great talker." In 1965, Tolson was appointed to a two year term at Tuskegee Institute, where he was Avalon Poet. He died after cancer surgery in Dallas, Texas, on August 29, 1966. He was buried in Guthrie, Oklahoma.

From 1930 on, Tolson began writing poetry. He also wrote two plays by 1937, although he did not continue to work in this genre. In 1941, he published his poem "Dark Symphony" in the Atlantic Monthly. Some critics believe it is his greatest work, in which he compared and contrasted African American and European American history. In 1944 Tolson published his first poetry collection, Rendezvous with America, which includes Dark Symphony. He was especially interested in historic events which had fallen into obscurity. 1964, elected to the New York Herald Tribune book review board, and the District of Columbia presented him with a citation and Award for Cultural Achievement in the Fine Arts. 1970, Langston University founded the Melvin B. Tolson Black Heritage Center in his honor, to collect material of Africans, African Americans, and the African diaspora.