The world-renowned Debate Team at Texas Southern University won the inaugural HBCU National Speech and Debate Championship Tournament on January 28 at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas. The three-day competition featured teams from 22 historically Black colleges and universities from across the country.

TSU’s debaters had earned enough points at the end of the competition to receive the National Overall Sweepstakes Championship trophy. The team also picked up trophies for Debate Team and Individual Events sweepstakes, first place in both Impromptu Speaking and Slam Poetry, second place in Impromptu Speaking and third place in Programmed Oral Interpretation. TSU collected 20 awards in multiple categories.

The TSU Debate Team is preparing for an international competition in Montreal, Quebec in March. Dr. Gloria Batiste-Roberts is the head coach of TSU’s Debate Team, along with assistant coaches Wendell King II and Sondera Malry, and graduate assistants Shekia Rogers and Okwildilli Onyekawelu. Antréchelle Dorsey is president of the Debate Team. Dr. Thomas F. Freeman, 96, is in his 68^th year at Texas Southern and continues to work with the team. TSU debaters have garnered several international titles during the team’s existence.

TSU’s rich history in debating dates back to 1949 under the leadership of Dr. Freeman, professor emeritus and Debate Team head coach. Dr. Freeman and former Wiley College debate team coach, the late Melvin Tolson, were inducted into the HBCU Debate League Debate Hall of Fame at the event.

The tournament concluded with Dr. Haywood L. Strickland, president of Wiley College, conferring an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters to legendary actor Denzel Washington. Washington brought attention to African-American debaters in the film The Great Debaters.

The following HBCUs participated in the competition: Bethune-Cookman, Fisk, Hampton, Howard, Huston-Tillotson, Jackson State, Jarvis Christian, Lawson State, North Carolina AT&T, North Carolina Central, Paul Quinn, Philander Smith, Prairie View A&M, Rust, Southwestern Christian, Talladega, Tennessee State, Texas College, Arkansas-Pine Bluff, Wiley and Xavier of Louisiana.

The TSU Debate Team is open for membership to any undergraduate student anytime during the semester without regard to previous training or experience. Meetings are held every Wednesday at 7 p.m. and workshops are held every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Paige Education Building – Suite 112. Students are invited to visit and consult with the team’s coaches on Saturdays from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Texas Southern University has announced that former Texas Southern University Regent Gary Bledsoe will assume the role of interim dean at the Thurgood Marshall School of Law. Bledsoe will lead the law school through its American Bar Association compliance requirements. Bledsoe will assume his new position November 1.

“We are very fortunate to have Gary Bledsoe assume the role of interim dean,” said TSU President Austin A. Lane. “I am looking forward to working with Dean Bledsoe and his new team to advance the storied mission of the Thurgood Marshall School of Law.”

Attorney Bledsoe specializes in public interest law, employment and civil rights law. He is president of the Texas NAACP and has held that position since being elected in 1991. He has a longstanding relationship with the NAACP as a member of its National Board since 2003 and is chair of the National Criminal Justice Committee of the NAACP. He earned his bachelor’s and juris doctorate degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

Bledsoe has received lawyer of the year awards from the Texas Attorney General, the Travis County Bar Association, the national and Austin chapters of the NAACP, and the Austin Area Urban League. He is a member of the Houston Hall of Fame at Riverside General Hospital. He has earned an AV rating from the prestigious legal publicationMartindale-Hubbell, the second-highest rating available for lawyers. His work with the NAACP included handling racial discrimination complaints against the Austin Department of Public Safety that resulted in people of color being admitted into the Texas Rangers and system-wide changes in the Austin Police Department surrounding the handling of police abuse cases. Bledsoe negotiated a program with HEB that provides $25,000 in scholarships for students at Texas Southern, Prairie View A&M and Huston-Tillotson universities.

Professor Marcia Johnson will serve as Special Assistant to the Dean and will assist acting Dean Bledsoe in the transition. Professor Johnson has been serving TMSL as co-founder and director of the new Urban Research and Resource Center, an interdisciplinary collaboration with TSU’s School of Public Affairs, and was a former interim dean of the law school. Professor Cassandra Hill will assist both Bledsoe and Professor Johnson in the administration of the law school.