In his latest movie “The Great Debaters”, Denzel Washington portrays a Lincoln University Graduate, Melvin B. Tolson, a professor at the historically black Wiley College, who forms a debate team to challenge the Harvard reigning team.

Denzel Washington not only stars, but also directs the movie, which will be released December 25. The 24,000 people city of Marshall, some 140 miles of Dallas, where the movie was shot, received an unexpected gift from the Oscar winning actor.

The Wiley College officials announced on Tuesday that the actor is donating $1 million to the school, in order to bring back the debate team once part of an elite group of schools.

The Academy Award winner has been very impressed by the story of the movie he directed, and decided to take action. The donation can be seen somehow as an attempt to reconstruct what once was a true story.

Melvin Tolson, who was born in Missouri in 1898 and graduated with honors from Lincoln University in 1924, establishes a debate team in a historically black college and wins against the defending champions, the University of Southern California (transformed into Harvard for the movie).

Tolson was also known as a poet and a columnist, and received honorary degrees from Lincoln University several times throughout his life, in 1954 and 1966.

“The Great Debaters”, also starring Forest Whitaker (winner of an Oscar, Golden Globe and BAFTA for his role in The Last King of Scotland in 2006), Nate Parker, Gina Ravera and Jurnee Smolett, is nominated at this year’s Golden Globes for Best Motion Picture – Drama.