Watch the 2025 Speeches from WJZ's Black History Oratory Competition
Black History Oratory Competition 2025!
Maryland high school students showcased their writing and speech skills on Sunday during WJZ's annual Black History Month Oratory Competition.
Each student wrote an original essay of 500 words based on quotes from historical figures and what their words mean to them.
WJZ's Nicky Zizaza emceed the event as some of Maryland's brightest took the stage to highlight important Black leaders.
This year, participants chose quotes by Dr. Lillie May Carroll Jackson, Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and Jackie Robinson.
The students described what these quotes meant to them:
"Service to your people is the rent you pay for living on this earth." - Dr. Lillie May Carroll Jackson
"We are all bound up together in one great bundle of humanity, and society cannot trample on the weakest and feeblest of its members without receiving the curse on its own soul. -Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." - Jackie Robinson
The winners were announced on WJZ and streaming on CBS News Baltimore at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 22.
Format
The students with the highest-scored essays were invited to perform their essay in person, in front of judges and an audience of family and friends.
The speeches were streamed LIVE, in their entirety, CBS News Baltimore, at WJZ.com.
The winners were announced for the first time on TV, during WJZ's Black History Oratory Competition Special!
Prizes:
- The first-place winner, Veronica King, will receive $1,000 from WJZ.
- The second-place Winner, Dorothy Quanteh, will receive $500 from WJZ.
- The third-place winner, Sid Bajaj will receive $250 from WJZ.
Our new sponsor, Rice Law, has added an additional $2,500 in prize money to the Oratory Competition!
- The first-place winner will receive $1,250 from Rice Law.
- The second-place winner will receive $750 from Rice Law.
- The third-place winner will receive $500 from Rice Law.
