In what decade is "The Great Debaters" set?

“The Great Debaters” is set in the 1930s, chiefly around the year 1935.

The film follows the debate team at Wiley College, a historically Black college in Marshall, Texas, during the Jim Crow era and the Great Depression. Denzel Washington directs and stars as Melvin B. Tolson, the professor and debate coach who trains the students to challenge established academic powers.

Its setting matters because Black students faced segregation, racial violence, and institutional barriers throughout the American South. Competitive debating becomes more than an academic exercise: it gives the students a public platform to argue for equality and intellectual recognition.

The movie is inspired by the real Wiley College debate team, but it takes substantial dramatic liberties. Several characters and events are composites, and the climactic debate is presented in a more cinematic form than the historical record supports. The decade, however, is clearly the 1930s, with the central events placed in 1935.