MLK oratory winner: ‘Press on’ with courage
Victor is from Crespo Elementary for second straight year as pandemic forces competition to change venue
Six-year-old Vivianna Serna arrived at a weekday Bible study class looking her best: favorite red dress with black polka dots, white ballet slippers, two pigtails and butterfly hair clips.
She remembers her high spirits quickly fell when another girl refused to hold her hand during a prayer circle. When she asked why, the girl “said I was dirty,” Vivianna recalled.
Four years later, the fourth-grader cited that hurtful memory as an example of the ignorance still ever-present among children and adults alike, making it a cornerstone of her winning speech at Friday’s 25th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition.
“Dr. King reminded me: We must build dikes of courage to hold back the flood of fear,” Vivianna preached to the judges. “So, I say to you, do not let the troubles of this world cause you to stumble, but press on.”
Vivianna, a student at Houston ISD’s Crespo Elementary School, emerged victorious from the group of 12 district students at the marquee event, which features fourth- and fifth-graders delivering speeches centered on the civil rights champion’s teachings.
Her triumph marked back-to-back wins for Crespo Elementary, home to about 700 students on the city’s southeast side.
For the 25th anniversary, organizers from the law firm Foley & Lardner, which hosts and sponsors the event, hoped to mark the occasion with a nostalgic, energetic gathering at the usual downtown Houston site, Antioch Mission
ary Baptist Church of Christ. The historic sanctuary typically fills with charismatic students, nervous parents and boisterous fans, creating an electric atmosphere in the 155-yearold church.
This year, however, the novel coronavirus pandemic forced organizers to audible, moving the event into a small auditorium at Houston ISD’s headquarters.
About 20 people were allowed into the room at one time, with the contestants rotated in for their speeches. The seven judges, who usually sit front-and-center, watched via livestream.
“You don’t get all the excitement and buzz and energy in the room from the audience,” said Foley & Lardner Chief Administrative Officer Claude Treece, who emceed the event. “But at the same time, the kids did a really great job of preparing their speeches and studying about Dr. King and saying things that were very inspiring.”
The change in scenery did little to quell the students’ nerves, though all delivered speeches with precision and force.
Shortly before Foster Elementary School fourthgrader Pahy’tton Williams took the stage, her teacher, Leesa Giles, urged her to repeat positive things about herself in front of a bathroom mirror. The confidence boost helped carry Pahy’tton to a secondplace finish.
“It was a little scary because it was my first time doing a speech about Martin Luther King, or anything like that,” Pahy’tton said. “My granny, she told me that even if I placed or not, I could still do my best and she was still going to be proud of me.”
Vivianna said a prespeech prayer and pointers
from last year’s winner, Crespo Elementary School fifth-grader Brandon Curbow, raised her confidence.
With the victory, Vivianna fulfilled a six-year goal of following in the footsteps of her older sister, Isabel, who took third place at the competition in 2015.
“I wanted to do that, too, the way she was doing it,” Vivianna said. “I knew it was going to be me up there.”
While students often invoke current events in their speeches, the social justice movements of 2020 were particularly top-of-mind for the competitors. As several recalled the killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, the Black Lives Matter marches, and the election
of the nation’s first female, Black and AsianAmerican vice president, they contemplated King’s lasting impact on the world more than 50 years after his assassination.
Jakiyah Bickham, a fourth-grader at Pleasantville Elementary School, urged the nation to conduct C.P.R.: engage in “compassion,” eradicate “poverty” and eliminate “racism.”
“Racism, much like poverty, creates division and can’t be ignored,” said Jakiyah, who placed third. “If we hope to see an end to racism, we must unite as one nation, under God, indivisible.”