Johns Creek Student Named Finalist in Contest Honoring Selma March

The National Liberty Museum (NLM) in Philadelphia has announced the top 12 finalists in its Selma Speech & Essay Contest, a national competition inviting high school students around the country to join together in exercising their power of words.

Maxwell Turk, a 10th-grade student at Northview High School, is among those 12 finalists in the contest. His submission can be found here.

The contest was open from December 2014 through February 2015, and marked the 50th Anniversary of the Selma March.

At the conclusion of the submission period, the museum received 785 entries from students of all different backgrounds, ethnicities and religions from across the U.S., including 43 states and Washington, D.C., as well as the Virgin Islands, Guam and military bases abroad.

The top 12 finalists were chosen by an impressive judging panel including: Common; Dr. Marvin W. Berkowitz; Xavier de Souza Briggs; Van Jones; Shiza Shahid; and Douglas O. Tozour.

Although the original intent of the contest was to choose ten finalists, the submissions were so overwhelmingly powerful that 12 finalists were ultimately chosen. The 12 finalists won for their ability to use the power of their own words to inspire others to practice the rights of individual freedom and self-determination.

Hailing from nine states and ranging from grades 10-12, each of the winning students brought a unique oratory style to their video and tackled topics including everything from race relations to historical freedom perspectives to timely political happenings.

“We were blown away by the number of inspiring young people from around the country all who could speak so eloquently and passionately about their civil liberties and about what Selma means for both our past and how it relates to their current realities and their future,” said Gwen Borowsky, CEO of the National Liberty Museum. “Since our founding, the National Liberty Museum has been focused on inspiring and empowering students to become leaders and to find their own place in the story of liberty, so to us, everyone who entered this contest is both a winner and a tremendous sign for the future of our country.”

To enter the contest, students were asked to watch the film SELMA and then submit a 500-700 word speech and video responding to the following prompt: “The movie SELMA tells the story of how Martin Luther King, Jr. and others peacefully protested to advance voting rights. What do you think needs to be done today to protect individual freedom and self-determination? What are you doing or will do to peacefully advance those rights?”

The contest is made possible through a grant from the John Templeton Foundation and in-kind support of Paramount Pictures.

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