CDL Spotlight: Perry Green

CDL Star-Light: Alumnus Perry Green

When Perry Green was a Sophomore at Jones College Prep High School in the 2000/2001 school year he represented the CDL at the National Urban Debaters Conference at Emory University in Atlanta . “I want to introduce y’all to a very special young man,” announced one of the Conference Hosts to the auditorium of about 150 urban debaters from around the country. “Perry, stand up. You see, this young man is thinking about his future. This young man is networking already. This young man has a business card already, folks, that he gave to me during the break. Perry Green from Chicago . Remember that name, y’all. He’s taking urban debate and he’s running with it.”

And run with it he has. Perry Green graduated from Jones College Prep in 2003, a very successful CDL debater. Then he went down to the University of Louisville, where he and his teammates helped shake up the university debate establishment with a provocative line of argumentation that highlighted minority students’ concerns and voices. This development in the academic debate community was depicted in the recent award-winning documentary Resolved. And previously, Perry was a featured urban debater in the Farrar Straus published Cross-X, by Joe Miller (in Amazon’s Top Ten Nonfiction Books of 2006), a book about urban debate.

More recently Perry has been applying all that he’s learned about communicating forcefully and persuasively, and about making an impression on others, in his political work. Perry was a field organizer in the Obama campaign, playing a meaningful role in operations that helped put Ohio in the new President’s column. He is also working as an Assistant Coach for Morgan Park High School ‘s debate team, one of the CDL’s historically most successful teams.

Perry Green: “Participating in the Chicago Debate League was the most transformative commitment I made during my high school years. Nothing came close in my regular classes, even though I attended one of the state’s best schools, Jones. People talk about finding your voice in debate. I found more than my voice, I found the tools to make my voice heard, listened to, and in the end influential. Competitive academic debate in the structure honed by the CDL is about as strong an investment you can make in the future of urban youth. It’s a commitment I am making today with my time and passion.”
Hard to improve on that statement. CDC supporters should recall the name Perry Green, as the professions of politics or the law call for his powerful voice next.