Elliott, who is director of the debate program at Kansas City Kansas Community College, said the Towson team showed courage in trying to "engage the community in changing how we talk about things, how we deal with these issues of race and sex and socioeconomic class." In doing so, Elliott said, Love and Cooper confronted their judges, the tournament's organizers and other debaters by "telling them that what they're doing is not as productive as some alternatives."
From Love's point of view, it did not initially appear to be a winning strategy at the tournament, whose previous winners have included Northwestern and Harvard universities.
"There were people talking about how we were going to lose," said Love, a graduate of Forest Park High School who, like Cooper, learned his debate skills under the tutelage of the Baltimore Urban Debate League. "If people had told us a couple of days ago that we were going to win, I would have said, `You're lying.'"
The experience, he said, was "intense," especially waiting for judges to make up their minds in each of the rounds, a process that he said sometimes took as long as 45 minutes.
Pam Spiliadis, director of the Baltimore Urban Debate League, which was founded in 1999 as part of an Open Society Institute effort to bring debate into urban classrooms, said it was the "first time in history that two young black men have won this tournament."
She said it was also a "momentous day" for Baltimore and for "young people from urban communities all across this nation who are too often the voices that are never heard."
Andres Alonso, chief executive of the Baltimore public school system, was equally pleased by the news from Kansas. "This extraordinary achievement is testimony to these amazing young men, to the Baltimore Urban Debate League, and to the community of the Baltimore City public schools," he said. "We are proud, excited and inspired to have Baltimore's young people leading the nation."
nick.madigan@baltsun.com
