WJZ's Black History Oratory Competition 2025
Black History Oratory Competition 2025!
ATTENTION MARYLAND HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS:
WJZ is SEEKING APPLICANTS for the Black History Oratory Competition 2025!
For over 30 Years, WJZ has asked Maryland High School Students to speak up and speak out in WJZ's Black History Oratory Competition.
This year, choose one of these quotations and describe "What It Means to You" in 500 words or less:
"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
Format
The Students with the highest-scored essays will be invited to perform their essay in person, in front of judges and an audience of family and friends.
The Speeches will be streamed LIVE, in their entirety, CBS News Baltimore, at WJZ.com.
The Winners will be announced for the first time on TV, during WJZ's Black History Oratory Competition Special!
Prizes:
- The First Place Winner will receive $1,000 from WJZ.
- The Second Place Winner will receive $500 from WJZ.
- The Third Place Winner will receive $250 from WJZ.
How to Enter
Email Your Typed, Double-Spaced Essay and SIGNED Application Form to Oratory@wjz.com by 11:59pm on JANUARY 20, 2025.
The competition is open to Maryland High School Students in grades 9 through 12.
Students must send a scan or photo of the completed, SIGNED application form to be considered.
Students under the age of 18 must have a parent or guardian's signature.
The official competition rules are posted here.
You can find the application form here.