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Estimate: $ 1,500 - $ 2,500
"THE GREAT DEBATERS" (EDUCATION.) LINCOLN UNIVERSITY. Lincoln University Opdyke Prize Debate. Philosophian Literary Society. June 5, 1915. Harrison H. Cain, Norman Holmes, Alfred F. White. Silver plate prize cup, 13 inches high, x 8-1/4 at the widest point; dark natural tarnish patina; engraving on both sides of the cup. [Made by Poole Silver Co., Taunton, Massachusetts.] Westchester, Pennsylvania, 1915
all black university's debating society prize. On Saturday evening, June 3, 1915, following a commencement address by the Consul General of Liberia to the United States; two teams of debaters argued the pros and cons of increasing the United States military. Three student debaters from the all-black University's Philosophian Society took the defensive position on the question "The best interests of the United States demand a prompt and substantial increase in our army and navy." The negative argument fell to three debaters from the Garnett Literary Association. The defenders, Harrison H. Cain, Norman A. Holmes and Alfred F. White, won the debate. The names of both winning and losing debaters appear on the cup.. It is worth noting that, given the date, it must have been abundantly clear that the United States might very well have to enter the War in Europe that had started nearly a year before. In the end, nearly 350,000 African-American troops would take part in WWI. The film, "The Great Debaters" was based on the all-black Wiley College debating society taking on their white counterparts from Harvard, in 1930.
