In 1956, the membership of the Barkley Forum decided to host a tournament for high school debaters. Inviting high schools to debate on the Emory campus provided an opportunity for the students of the university to offer excellent debate competition and judging for high school students. The goal of honoring high school students and their teachers for their commitment to forensics achievement remains the defining purpose of the Barkley Forum for High Schools. Speech and debate have evolved tremendously over the last half-century, and the Barkley Forum acknowledges and welcomes change. However, some fundamental concepts that support forensic excellence remain constant, and the Barkley Forum seeks to honor these traditions. Commitment to pedagogy, dedication to achievement, and respect for the efforts of others define characteristics of a quality forensics education.

Each year, over a thousand students, teachers, school administrators, and college coaches descend on the Emory University campus from 35 states and several foreign countries to engage in a variety of forensic events from Dramatic Intepretation to Student Congress to Policy Debate. The schedule takes time out to honor high school teachers for their commitment and dedication at the Key Coach Luncheon and the Procession of the Keys. The Barkley Forum remains one of the most prestigious events in high school forensic competition, annually receiving hundreds more applicants than space allows entry. The last day of the tournament features a series of exhibitions of the various forensic arts performed in packed auditoriums on the Emory campus. This day culminates in the Procession of the Keys, the Hall of Championship Debate, and the Final Awards assembly.

The first team to win the Barkley Forum was Woodlawn High School from Birmingham, Alabama. And though the tournament has changed over the years, respect for the traditions of the past begin with honoring past winners of policy debate in the Hall of Champions. The Hall of Champions is listed in the invitation and the names of the winners are posted in the spacious auditorium that is the site of the final round of debate and the awards ceremony. After Woodlawn, Georgia schools won the tournament for the next five consecutive years until 1962. Since that time, twenty-eight schools from fourteen different states have won the tournament.

To view the Hall of Champions, click here.

1963 also marked the first year that the Barkley Forum awarded Memberships, or Chairs, to high schools. Memberships are another way of honoring quality performance in the past. Member schools, or chairs, are guaranteed admission into the annual tournament as long as they remain members. Over one hundred-eighty five schools have been awarded chairs since 1964. The majority of chairs retain active memberships, attending the Barkley Forum for High Schools every year.

For a list of Barkley Forum member schools, click here.

In 1964, the Barkley Forum, now under the direction of Glenn Pelham, former coach of BFHS winner Cairo High School (1959), began to invite successful high school coaches into an honor society known as the Key Society. The most prestigious presentation made by the Barkley Forum is the presentation of the Gold Key. Each year the members of the Key Society invite a select number of Directors and Associate Directors of Forensics from schools across the nation in a very moving ceremony held during the Barkley Forum for High Schools.

To visit a listing of the Key Coaches of the Barkley Forum, click here.

In commemoration of the 25^th Anniversary of the Barkley Forum for High Schools in 1980, the Forum began to award the prestigious Silver Key to first place winners in all events at the BFHS. The Silver Key is a small sterling silver emblem duplicating the design of the prestigious Gold Key award to the coaches of the Gold Key Society. The silver key has no engraving representing its timeless respect for forensics winners past, present, and future.

To see last year’s Silver Key Awards, click here.

The Barkley Forum awards keys as trophies as part of a unique tradition passed down by former Director Glenn Pelham. The Barkley Forum Trophy is a larger key cast from an antique brass key hidden in Georgia before Sherman’s March to the Sea in 1864. The original key was found and donated to Emory University’s Barkley Forum by Susan and Thomas Glenn Pelham. Nashville attorney Larry David Woods, a distinguished alumnus of Emory and former President of the Forum and of the national forensics fraternity, Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha, gave a grant to have Keys cast each year from the original key.

For further information regarding the Barkley Forum for High Schools, click here.