Emory relocated to its current campus in 1914 and the literary societies continued their tradition of public debates. Under the direction of Theology and Speech Professor Nolan A. Goodyear, an intercollegiate debating team emerged from the weekly meetings of the societies. The decade from 1925 to 1935 was a golden era for debate at Emory. The team competed successfully against its college rivals at Duke, Princeton, and Harvard. Teams from British Universities, Oxford, Ireland, London, and Cambridge, visited the campus almost every year to participate in audience debates that filled the spacious Glenn Memorial sanctuary just inside the gates to Emory.

During World War II, travel restrictions limited the intercollegiate dimension of debate. Professor Goodyear retired and the literary societies dissolved. After the war, the debate team was revived under assistant professor of speech George A. Neely. It was after World War II, that the United States Military Academy also began to host the first national collegiate debate championship tournaments, known as the National Debate Tournament or N.D.T. In 1950, following his commencement address, Alben W. Barkley, granted permission to the Emory debaters to rename the debate team, the Barkley Forum.

In 1951, the Barkley Forum hosted its first high school debate tournament, a tournament first won by Woodlawn High School of Georgia. In 1959, Cairo high school, coached by Glenn Pelham, won the Barkley Forum for High Schools. In 1961, the Barkley Forum membership asked the same Glenn Pelham, who would also serve two terms in the Georgia State Senate, to coach the Emory University debate team. He accepted and the Barkley Forum went on to become one of the most successful debating organizations in the country.

In 1965, Emory University finished second at the national championship tournament sponsored by Delta Sigma Rho-Tau Kappa Alpha. Debaters John Bargeron, Don Fowler, Bill Avera, and Cully Clark received the second place trophy at the tournament which, at the time, had a four-person, no switch sides format. In 1967, Emory won its first national title in academic debate when Susan Cahoon, Mark Frankel, Joe Longino, and Bill McDaniel brought home the DSR-TKA national championship. In 1993, Micah Kessler and Chris Kellner repeated the feat in the contemporary two-person switch-side debating format. Mark Kelsey won top speaker at the tournament in 1992, the only Emory student to be named top speaker at the tournament.

Emory University also qualified for the National Debate Tournament for the first time in 1964. In 1965, the tournament was still being held at West Point and Larry Woods and William Boice reached the elimination rounds, before losing a 3-2 decision to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the octafinals. While Emory still holds the record for most losses in the octafinals at the NDT (20), Emory has since won the tournament twice, finished second three times, reached the semifinals three times and the quarterfinals five times. In 1996, Emory won the National Debate Tournament for the first time when David Heidt and Kate Shuster won 19 of 20 ballots during the elimination rounds, defeating the University of Iowa on a 5-0 decision.

In 1972, Glenn Pelham retired and one of his most successful debaters, a third seed at the National Debate Tournament, became Director of the Barkley Forum. Melissa Maxcy Wade took over the program from her mentor and began a new era in debate at Emory. The Wade era has seen the Barkley Forum grow in membership, achieve record-setting success, and expand community service.

Also in 1972, several west coast schools formed an alternative debate organization, know as the Cross Examination Debate Association. This organization slowly expanded eastward, providing some of the few opportunities for novice debate in the southeastern United States in the 1980s. Emory University joined CEDA in 1985, attending the first CEDA National Championship Tournament several years later. Emory has qualified many teams for the elimination rounds of CEDA nationals since. Emory has been in the late elimination rounds of CEDA nationals often, finally winning the national championship in 1998. That year, the senior teams of Anne Marie Todd and Vic Tabak, and Stephen Heidt and Dan Fitzmier, both advanced to the final round closing out the finals for the only time in tournament history.

While the Barkley Forum has experienced remarkable competitive success in the last two decades, the Forum has also remained committed to making debate opportunities available to those denied and deterred from participating in prior eras. Emory University has remained committed to the increased participation of women in debate. Intercollegiate debate was dominated by male debaters and coaches for decades. Susan Cahoon was the first woman to represent Emory in the elimination rounds of the NDT in 1967, marking the beginning of an era in which Emory women would compete in the elimination rounds of the NDT more than ten times, culminating in Kate Shuster’s 1996 national championship. Four women have won national championships while at Emory including Kate (NDT champion with David Heidt, 1996) Kenya Hansford (American Debate Association champion with Anjan Sahni, 1997) and Anne Marie Todd (CEDA champion with Vic Tabak, Dan Fitzmier and Stephen Heidt, 1997). The Barkley Forum has also encouraged the growth of female participation by supporting workshops for women in debate, publishing materials for coaching women in debate, mentoring female coaches at the high school and collegiate level, and providing scholarships to the Emory National Debate Institute.

The Barkley Forum has also maintained a strong commitment to providing debate opportunities for those in under-served communities, both rural and urban. The Emory National Debate Institute initially began in the 1960s to provide debate training for students from rural Georgia. That role expanded in the 1980s to provide opportunities for students from urban areas. The Barkley Forum began extensive outreach in the late 1980s establishing the first metro area Urban Debate League. This effort, initially supported by grants from the National Forensic League and Phillips Petroleum, eventually expanded under grants from the Open Society Institute (OSI). The combination of OSI and the Barkley Forum made the growth of Urban Debate Leagues possible nationwide. From twenty students from various area public schools in the Atlanta area, the Urban Debate Leagues now exist in over fifteen major cities with over 2,000 participants each year.

Realizing the benefits debate could provide to under-served populations, the Barkley Forum expanded its outreach to middle and junior high schools in the mid-1990s. From a handful of students in an experimental summer program, middle school debate tournaments are now held for over 150 students more than ten weekends each year. The middle school program has been such a resounding success, school administrators now institutionally support the programs, and other cities seek to replicate them.