LOCAL KIDS USE THE POWER OF SPEECH TO CONVEY BLACK LEADERS' DREAMS

Oratory group eduates listeners about interracial understanding.

For most kids, memorizing speeches is boring. But for King's Kids, memorizing speeches means doing something for the community.

King's Kids is a local oratory team which tries to help local youth become more knowledgeable about black history. Working out of the Martin Luther King Multi-Service Center, the organization teaches kids of any race the works of famous African-Americans, such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X and Jesse Jackson.

Three members recently talked with Children's Express about why it's important to them.

Purpose of King's Kids

ARTHUR JACKSON, 10: This is King's Kids, which is an oratory thing. (It) is a program of the Martin Luther King Multi-Service Center. . . .

We get to show each other that we know our black history and we know where we come from, and we'll tell everybody about it.

I think that King's Kids is trying to help mostly kids get off the streets and help them do something more constructive.

JOE RANDLE, 10: Some people, they don't know much about their history and we tell them. . . . You make them listen to you.

(We're) trying to inform black people about black people and saying (all) people - even though they might be white, black, any color - are special. . . . Everybody must respect everybody's race and all that, and you have to respect them for who they are and what they do.

RYAN NEAL, 10: (The point of King's Kids is) having fun and knowing your black history as a kid, and teaching others - kids - about their history and where they came from. And trying to get them involved in history.

JOE: Dr. King wanted us to like communicate between black people and white people, and that's what we try to do. When we say speeches, like after we say our speeches, we try to talk to some of the kids and say, "Did you understand my speech and all that?"

ARTHUR: It's open to all races as long as they're willing to learn about black history and learn about black poets.

JOE: If a white person want to join in, he can join in. It's just that he needs to work hard and he may be standing in a whole room of black people.

How Others View King's Kids

JOE: I think (Martin Luther King and Malcolm X) would like our program, because the stuff we are saying is what they wanted. It's what their dreams were.

ARTHUR: They were trying to do it, too, only they were bigger. . . . They wanted people to get along.

JOE: Everybody from my school, when we go on a field trip, people from other classes all come with me. . . . When they see me on TV and stuff or when they look in the newspaper and see me, they go, `WOW!'

ARTHUR: I'm proud of it.

JOE: Look at us. We do something in the community.

What Parents Think

ARTHUR: My parents told me about it. They got me into it. They like bribed me. They said, "If you get into it, you'll be able to stay with all of your friends."

And they were right. I thought, "I'm not gonna waste my time."

JOE: My mother didn't say like, "You're gonna go in there or you ain't gonna have no friends." She recommended it for me. She said, "I think you should go in there because it teaches you about the race and everything."

RYAN: Well actually, I had to be in it. My mother's the director.

How King's Kids Helps Them

RYAN: It helps me because I want to be president of the United States. . . . I feel that there should be a black president. . . .

It just tells me you can't go through life like not trying to be a leader or anything.

ARTHUR: I want to be a lawyer and just like get up in everybody's face and shout it loud: "Say it loud, I'm black and I'm proud."

JOE: It makes me like happy, to see me in the African attire, speaking our culture. . . . It helps us learn more about our heritage. . . .

(I want to be) a chemist.

What They Have Learned

JOE: It give me like a new look on black authors and everything. . . . It's like fun reciting poems. Best of all it's like informing other people about black authors. . . .

I never knew all these black poets that I know now.

ARTHUR: I met Rosa Parks, Spike Lee, Jesse Jackson - a whole bunch of people.

RYAN: I'm proud of what I'm doing. I have a gift for it. It makes me come alive.

EDITED BY: Amber Hall, 14