Broxson’s novella focuses on a championship held in the tumultuous wake of Brown v. Board of Education.

As Broxson’s story opens, a competition looms. College students are preparing to debate in the Texas Collegiate Championship in Dallas, the winners of which will be handed their awards by Texas Gov. Allan Shivers. Maridell Fisher and Wretha Whittle are juniors at the Baptist Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas, in 1956; Barbara Jordan and Otis King are seniors at the historically Black Texas Southern University in Houston. When they attend the championship, they’ll be debating the resolution that the Texas House of Representatives and the Texas Senate should adopt a plan for the immediate integration of Texas public schools. Students from schools all over Texas convene for the championship, and soon some of them begin to suspect that a plan’s afoot behind the scenes to get TSU fraudulently eliminated from the tournament. Not suspecting that the governor himself is behind this scheme, the students all band together and threaten to withdraw from the championship if TSU is disqualified. Tensions rise as the finale of the debates draws near, and Broxson effectively conveys it all. Unfortunately, the book offers some distracting oddities: No paragraphs are indented; the entire text is in boldface type; and the plural of Negro is misspelled throughout as “Negros.” But the drama of these courageous young people facing racism is well drawn, and the author not only makes Shivers a juicy villain, but also includes other grizzled Texas figures happy to attack the governor. As Texas Chief Justice John Hickman quips about Shivers, he’s “rarely happy unless he’s drunk or out on his ranch blasting deer.” Broxson capitalizes on the inherent tension of a debate competition and matches it smoothly to the charged backdrop of the Brown decision.

This intriguing tale views a civil rights milestone through the lens of a college debate.