National oratorical finals will be live streamed

The American Legion National Oratorical Contest, a high school speech contest on the U.S. Constitution, gets underway Saturday, April 22, in Indianapolis. The 49 high school orators won their respective American Legion department oratorical contest and will compete at the national level for a top three spot in the championship finals.

The championship finals will be streamed live on the Legion’s Facebook page and YouTube channel Sunday, April 23, at 10 a.m. EDT.  Watch here for Facebook; and here for YouTube. The top three finalists will win $25,000, $22,500 and $20,000 respectively.  

To earn a spot in the championship finals, the 49 high school orators compete in the quarterfinals Saturday; the top nine contestants will advance to the semifinals. The contestants will present a rehearsed eight- to 10-minute oration on an aspect of the Constitution in front of judges, as well as a three- to five-minute speech on an assigned topic discourse — a phase of the Constitution selected from its Articles and Sections. The top three semifinal contestants advance to the championship finals.