A 4th-grader from Houston’s ISD Law Elementary School recently delivered his speech during the nationwide celebration of Martin Luther King Jr. (MLK) Day. Using his performance, the 10-year-old Black student expressed his gratefulness to God and talked about racial issues.
MLK Oratory Competition Winner
On Monday, Jan. 17, the KHOU news site reported about the performance of local Ronnie Williams. The 4th-grader was chosen to compete for the MLK Oratory Competition, led by the Houston Independent School District.
As reported, Ms. Carol, Ronnie’s science and drama teacher, called the mother of the 10-year-old, Precious Williams, to talk about plans of her son joining the contest. His mother said that the teacher told her that Ronnie could perform his own speech.
Precious reported that she was no longer surprised that her son was chosen since he is a “straight-A son” and enjoys performing to people.
For three months, Ronnie reportedly wrote and practiced delivering his five-minute speech. In line with MLK Day, the school administration decided to provide a topic about MLK himself.
As noted, the oratory piece must circle on how King would view America today. Before he was chosen for the contest, Precious said that the life of King Jr already inspired her son.
“It felt great to learn about him and what he did,” Ronnie said. “How he fought for everybody’s equal rights.”
Although motivated to do his best, Ronnie admitted that creating the said oratory speech was hard. Since he is still a 10-year-old kid, he said that he sought his mother’s help to construct sentences. Some words also confused him, forcing him to look them up online.
‘Progress Not Perfection’
On the day of his performance, Ronnie shared that he was nervous when he started. Suddenly, he then felt his nervousness going away, which made him confident in his piece.
In his five-minute speech, Ronnie impressively delivered his thoughts on how King Jr. will assess everything that is happening today.
One of the best lines in his performance was when he said that King Jr. will be proud of how people of today have reached so far when it comes to politics, racial discrimination, and voting. He said that “progress not perfection” is what Dr. King Jr. was looking for in the community.
“We are not where we should be but thank God we are not where we used to be,” he added.
MLK’s Stand on Racial Discrimination
Being a Black person himself, King Jr. was known in history as against the idea of systemic racism. As per Sociology Professor Joe Feagin of Texas A&M University, MLK believed that “true racial equality cannot be reached without “radical” structural changes in society.”
Feagin also explained the speeches of King Jr. before he was assassinated in 1968. The professor noted that MLK held White people accountable for the issues of racial equality among Black people.
King Jr. said in one of his speeches that White people should learn the “honest history of this country’s systemic racism.”
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