HOUSTON – For Martin Luther King Junior Day we took a closer look at the MLK Jr. Oratory competition -- an annual writing and speaking competition featuring fourth and fifth grade students from HISD schools.
Now in its 28th year, the Foley and Lardner Law Firm hosted the annual competition last week, and we talked to chair and emcee of the event, Claude Treece, who’s a partner with Foley and Lardner, having chaired and emceed the event since the beginning.
Fourth grade finalist, Montoia Murray from Blackshear Elementary also joined us for a chat.
The competition has always been a great way for the students to showcase their writing and speaking skills, and this year’s topic was “How would Dr. King reflect on the 60 years since his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech?”
There were 165 students entered into the competition this year, and they were judged on delivery, stage presence and decorum, content interpretation, and memorization.
Montoia Murray ended up winning the competition, receiving $1000, a new backpack and an iPad.
Congrats Montoia, and to all the students who participated!