The Oklahoma Eagle Newswire
Every year, BerThaddaeus Bailey, a recent graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Policy Analyst for the state and President of Speaks 4 You, Inc., travels the country to recite some of Dr. King’s most noted speeches. In 2018, he will travel to Walmart’s Corporate Office in Bentonville, AR; Coca Cola’s headquarters in Atlanta, GA; and mega-church, Empowerment Temple of Baltimore, Maryland, where Pastor Jamal Bryant, a civil rights leader and Black Lives Matter activist, serves as pastor.
BerThaddaeus has been reciting speeches by Dr. King since as early as the eighth grade, when he entered a speech competition in his hometown of Tulsa to earn a scholarship for reciting the “I Have a Dream” speech. He placed third that year and returned to take the title as 1st place winner his sophomore year of high school. Since then, he has been requested to recite the speech every year at various venues across the country for the past eight years.
Some of the places he has traveled include: Minneapolis, MN; Washington, DC; Greenwood, LA; Mt. Pleasant, TX; Dallas, TX; Springdale, AR; among other venues too numerous to name.
In February of 2017, he traveled to Texarkana, TX and spoke at seven (7) different venues in one day.
When asked why he continues to deliver these recitations, he said, “Dr. King’s words are more relevant than ever. Today, some of the same injustices still persist some 50 years after these words were originally spoken. King was not afraid to address the injustices and we shouldn’t be either.”
For a glimpse of his work, visit his website at www.bertspeak.webs.com or email his coordinators at bertspeaks@gmail.com.
