Annual Virtual Oratorical Contest

Participants recite their speeches from a stage in a small auditorium at the Frederick Douglass National Historic Site.

NPS / N. Johnson

Introduction

Annually, Frederick Douglass National Historic Site hosts a live oratorical contest at the site where students perform a part of a Frederick Douglass speech that they learn from memory from the stage in the park’s auditorium. This year due to COVID-19 gathering restrictions, we cannot host this event live, but we have two exciting options for the 2021 contest so you can still participate.

Category 1: Speech Videos

This option is open to grades 1-12. Students will learn and recite 3-5 minutes of a Douglass speech and tape their performance and send in their submission. We encourage students to get creative with this option by creating a nice backdrop for the video or dressing up like Douglass to perform the speech. In a format where the speech is taped, you have a chance to film yourself and practice until you have your best video ready to submit to the contest.

Click here for more information about the Speech Video Contest

Category 2: Music Videos or Similar

This option is open to grades 6 -12 and the final video may be the work of an individual or a team of students working together. In this option, students will take an excerpt of a Douglass speech and create a short 3-4-minute video that interprets the message or essence of a Douglass speech into a creative video. If you like music, you could write and perform music or spoken word poetry that interpret the essence of what Douglass is saying in one of his speeches and create a music video or something similar. You could also do a voiceover of the speech as the audio portion of the video and then use animation or imagery to help tell or interpret the story part of your video or to make the speech come to life.

Click here for more information about the Music Video Contest

The Frederick Douglass Memorial and Historical Association and the Frederick Douglass Housing Corporation generously donate prizes for the contest each year (prizes TBD). Winners also receive plaques and the winning videos will be featured as part of the virtual celebration of the Frederick Douglass Birthday in February and Black History Month.