Battle of Gettysburg

The scene at the Battle of Gettysburg is the most well known scene in the film Remember the Titans.  In the middle of the time being spent at football camp, Coach Boone wakes the players up at 3 A.M. and makes them go on a run, following him into the woods.  Once Coach Boone stops, he gives a speech to his team that has been used many times in high school football halftime speeches throughout the country and is considered one of the best "rally them up speeches of all time."  Because I think that the entire speech is important to the film as well as historical context, the entire speech is written below:

"Anybody know what this place is?  This is Gettysburg.  This is where they fought the Battle of Gettysburg.  Fifty thousand men died right here on this field, fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves today.  This green field right here was painted red, bubbling with the blood of young boys.  Smoke and hot lead pouring right through their bodies.  Listen to their souls men.  'I Killed my brother with malice in my heart.'  'Hatred destroyed my family.'  You listen and you take a lesson from the dead.  If we don't come together right now, then we, too, will be destroyed.  Just like they were.  I don't care if you like each other or not, but you will respect each other, and maybe, I don't know, maybe we'll learn to play this game like men."

Up to this point in the movie, the black and white players had not been interacting to the liking of Coach Boone, even if he tried to force them to interact by using a buddy system.  However, this speech would change everything for this team.  It is clear that the speech that Coach Boone makes here is the turning point in the movie.  Coach Boone tells the team that the men that died fighting at the Battle of Gettysburg were "fightin' the same fight that we're still fightin' amongst ourselves today."  The battle took place in 1863, so Coach Boone was making the point that although over one hundred years had passed since that battle, the fight against racism and segregation is just as prevalent now as it was back then.  Coach Boone even goes to the extent to say make the point that the Civil War broke up families and brothers killed brothers.  Boone urges them to "take a lesson from the dead."  The intensity and prevalence with which Coach Boone gives this speech is absolutely astounding.  Probably the most important line in the entire film "If we don't come together right now, then we, too, will be destroyed.  Just like they were."  The parallels that Coach Boone is making between the Civil War and the team's fight to truly integrate into one is moving to the players, who stand there listening.  Speechless.

The historical context of this scene is just slightly out of the time period for this class because the Battle of Gettysburg took place during the Civil War, which was content that was not covered in this class.  However, I think that it is extremely prevalent to understand the connections that Coach Boone is trying to make between the Civil War and the fight against segregation in the South during the 1970s.  This Gettysburg Speech to me seems very similar to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "I Have A Dream" speech which was given in 1963 during the historic March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (Hist page 454).  The speeches are similar because both King and Coach Boone are asking for change in the area of equality for African Americans and for every race to be treated as equals.  It is also interesting to note that both were speaking to an audience of both whites and blacks (lecture 11/8/11).  Coach Boone was obviously speaking to both his white and black players.  Martin Luther King, Jr. was also speaking to African Americans as well as white Americans.  Both feel that changes need to be made in order to survive in the world that they live in (Hist page 455).