Roberth Ventura stood at the podium at the Bessie Smith Cultural Center and paused, struggling a bit through his speech. He’s a seventh grade student at Chattanooga Preparatory School, the first all-boys public charter school in the city.
As he gathered himself, his classmate Daniel Jackson, got on stage and draped his arm around Ventura.
“If it wasn’t for [Dr.] Martin Luther King, we wouldn’t be right here,” Ventura continued as the crowd cheered. “Martin Luther King left us his legacy to pass on.”
Ventura and Jackson were among more than a dozen boys, or “Prepsters” as they are called at the school, to honor Martin Luther King and the legacy of the civil rights activist through poems, speeches and works of art, at the school’s second annual “Speak Like a King” on Monday morning.
The event was meant to showcase the boys’ talent and pay tribute to King through visual and performing arts, but it also was a tangible result of King and the civil rights movement’s legacy, many said.