See below for additional information about how students can participate in the 2025 WJZ Black History Oratory Competition:
Students write an original essay (500 words or less) based on one of these quotations:
“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 Top 20 Students with the highest-scoring essays will be invited to perform their Speeches in person, in front of an audience of family, friends and judges, to compete for scholarship prize money. The Speech Event will be streamed LIVE on CBS News Baltimore at WJZ.com.
WJZ will announce the Winners on the air, during the WJZ Black History Oratory Competition Awards Special, where the Top Speeches will be broadcast on TV!
All essays and signed application forms must be emailed to Oratory@wjz.com by 11:59pm on Monday, January 20th. Note, essays are due early this year!
Essay Prompt, Application Form, and Official Rules are Available for Download Online: https://www.cbsnews.com/baltimore/news/wjz-black-history-oratory-competition-2025/