Black History Speech Contest Scheduled

In celebration of Black History Month, fifth- and sixth-graders will put their elocution skills to the test as they deliver speeches about African Americans who influenced history.

Oxnard, Port Hueneme and Rio elementary school districts will send off some of their best and most poised speakers during the 15th Annual African American Speech Exposition to be held 1 p.m. Saturday at Oxnard’s Ritchen Elementary School.

“It gives our schoolchildren some experience in oral language, which a lot of them don’t get because a lot of them are speaking English as a second language,” said Oxnard teacher Caroline White, a member of a local chapter of Alpha Kappa Alpha, the national sorority sponsoring the event.

Contest organizers anticipate the students will talk about such figures as Harriet Tubman, Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr.

“It’s a way to honor them and make the public aware of the accomplishments of African Americans and certainly a way to educate our children, because normally we don’t read about these people in our history books,” White said.

School administrators say the Saturday crowd should get ready to be wowed. Each participating elementary school already had its own speech contest to select the best student to represent it.

One of them is Jessica Gonzalez, a sixth-grader at Bernice Curren Elementary School. School judges say her speech was impressive.

It “wasn’t just a biography on Martin Luther King Jr.,” said Mary Helen, the school’s office manager and a judge for the campus’ speech contest. “It was about how he influenced her and his moral standards. Her poise was really good. She brought it down to a personal level.”

First-, second- and third-place winners will receive a trophy. The event is free and open to the public.