Ornate Oratory : Diamond Bar Teen-Ager Judged the Best of 30,000 in Speech Contest

As a child, Jack L. White II marveled at the persuasive power his minister-father wielded from the pulpit each Sunday before a rapt congregation.

On Friday, it was the Diamond Bar teenager’s turn to dazzle the crowd, and his oratorical prowess vanquished 30,000 other contestants and won him first place and an $18,000 scholarship in the 54th annual American Legion National High School Oratorical Contest in Boise, Ida.

White, 17, who will enter the U.S. Military Academy at West Point this fall, seized top honors with a 10-minute speech entitled “How Sweet It Is! To Be an American.” Contestants gave prepared talks on the U.S. Constitution and five-minute extemporaneous speeches on specific constitutional topics.

White, who is student body president at Rowland High School and head of its Black Student Union, focused his remarks on voting rights and obligations framed within the U.S. Constitution.

“Constitutionally, in 1787, I would have the right to vote if and only if I were a white, property-owning male over the age of 21,” he told the judges in Boise. “If I were black, I could not vote. If I were poor, I could not vote. If I were female, I could not vote. If I were under the age of 21, I could not vote. But all of this was to be changed. . . .

“Today, the Constitution tells me that I could be a poor Asian-American woman and I could vote. The Constitution tells me that I could be a well-to-do Hispanic-American 20-year-old, and I could vote. Moreover, I could be the 18-year-old African-American student standing before you today, and have the right to contribute to the well-being of my nation. I have the responsibility, the right to vote.”

In a telephone interview afterward, White said: “There are a lot of people who are almost like anarchists; they want to get outside the system and scream and yell.”

But the articulate senior embraces a different philosophy. “If black people are truly angry, then educate and equip yourself so you can get on the inside and change things,” he said.

Despite his speech on the sweetness of being an American, White concedes that some public officials hit sour notes in the way they uphold the U.S. Constitution.

“A lot of people in leadership have forgotten that they’re there to represent the people and serve the people, not themselves,” he said. “When we have public officials who make blanket statements that encourage discrimination against various races of people, that’s . . . a problem.”

The aspiring West Point cadet says he plans to earn a law degree, practice military law and run for office. He credits his parents, Jack and Rubin, and his 11-year-old sister, Corolar, with inspiring him, and counts Frederick Douglass, W.E.B. Du Bois and Gen. Colin L. Powell, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as role models.

“Colin Powell has gotten on the inside and done so much, earned so much respect,” White said.

To steel himself for the oratory competition, White studied the U.S. Constitution and its predecessor, the Articles of Confederation, for about two hours each day.

White says his research has given him new appreciation of the philosophies of Montesquieu, John Locke, Voltaire and Thomas Paine, whose ideals of freedom and democracy he cited in his speech.

“A lot of people call the things I’m saying youthfully idealistic,” White said. “If I am, I hope I never change.”