The Great Debaters is the second directorial effort after Antwone Fisher from two-time Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington, and further pedigree comes from Oprah Winfrey’s Harpo Films, As expected, the film is a class effort but, like Lionsgate’s recent and excellent Akeelah and the Bee, it presents a big-screen challenge.

Also recalling the doc surprise hit Spellbound and Greg Whiteley’s recent acclaimed Hamptons Film Festival selection Resolved, Debaters boasts a top-notch cast and great fact-inspired story about long-shot black college debaters in the early 1930s who go the limit. Hopefully, the film’s unabashed goal to inspire, motivate and empower won’t scare away audiences. Yes, the agenda is obvious, but so is a bounty of talent and genuine entertainment.

After a somewhat disorienting opening montage, Washington gets on with his story set amidst a middle-class black community in Texas. Melvin B. Tolson (Washington) is the somewhat eccentric and definitely charismatic professor at the community’s small Wiley College who oversees the debating team. After announcing auditions for the latest participants, some promising students show up. These include Henry Lowe (Nate Parker), a vigorously independent, cocky guy whose knowledge of history and literature suggests genius. There’s also 14-year-old prodigy James Farmer, Jr. (Denzel Whitaker), son of Farmer, Sr. (Forest Whitaker), the community’s respected doctor and scholar. Other hopefuls are Samantha Booke (Jurnee Smollett) and Hamilton Burgess (Jermaine Williams), who, like Lowe and Farmer, Jr., also make the cut.

But Tolson, as young Farmer discovers after following him to a nearby barn meeting, has another life, hidden even from wife Ruth (Gina Ravera). Maybe not quite a Communist, Tolson is a fervent labor reformer and organizer trying to give farmers and workers more power and better conditions. Bucking these progressive tides is sheriff Dozier (John Heard), whose smile is as sincere as that of a snake oil salesman and whose politically motivated goal is to rout the pro-labor forces.

As Tolson trains his debating team (Burgess, at odds with Tolson’s radicalism, eventually bows out) and organizes their competitions, he continues as an activist but is eventually hobbled by law enforcement. His debaters shine and, except for a showdown with Fisk University, triumph and gain the attention of Harvard University, thanks to Tolson’s ongoing promotion of his group. When the Wiley team is invited to Cambridge, Tolson must stay behind, as part of his agreement with the government.

The film provides a romantic thread by way of the on-and-off relationship of debaters Henry and Samantha and a painful scene that addresses the racial hatred and prejudice of the period. In this latter depiction of brutal harassment, hog farmers bully and humiliate the proud Farmer family. But it’s the film’s uplifting moments that dominate.

All roles are well-played, even Heard’s reptilian sheriff. But the film’s revelation is young Denzel Whitaker, a presence who lights up the screen as the dutiful son and eager debater, who, in real life, went on to found C.O.R.E.

The Great Debaters also has a great and authentic 1930s look, thanks largely to the northeastern Louisiana locations, plus a few days in east Texas and key final scenes in the Boston area, notably at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre.