*Jurnee Smollett, a star in the Denzel Washington-directed film "The Great Debaters," says she will team with Wiley College in Marshall, TX to start a $2 million scholarship fund.
The scholarship is in honor of Henrietta Bell Wells, the woman who inspired her character Samanthe Booke ("with an e") in "The Great Debaters," as well as the actress' mother Janet Smollett, a civil rights activist and humanitarian.
Smollett broke news of the scholarship before a crowd of students, faculty and alumni at the 35th Founders Observance Banquet, held Saturday at the Civic Center in Marshall.
"I'm told I'm a statistic," Smollett said to the crowd. "I'm told that my young black sisters are disease-ridden...but we are greater than what society tells us we are."
The 21-year-old said the scholarship fund aims to "put young girls through college" and help curb the sensationalized images of black women often seen on television.
Smollett, who portrayed the only woman in a group of underdog Wiley College debaters in the film, was also presented with an honorary degree at the school's Founders Observance Convocation.