The Marketplace RainToday.com, March 2008 By Vickie K. Bill Kerley, Houston Texas 1997-98 President, Houston Chapter, NSA Personal Growth Strategies Ready to get more income and clients from your speaking? Get Vickies inside scoop at SSS Products -- or go to SSS consulting regarding individual help. );} else {document.write( );}return true;}LoadMenus(); NAME E-MAIL ZIP CODE

s birth with a story about elementary school students in Houston competing in a speech contest honoring King--this year, nine of the 10 entrants were girls, according to the story, which you can listen to here . National Public Radio today marked the anniversary of Martin Luther King, Jr.'s One of the 10-year-old girl orators, born three decades after King's death roused the crowd with this line: "I am opportunity, you are opportunity, we are all opportunity....I

It yields more inspiration for eloquent women , including this description: She was a valedictorian at her graduation from Houston's Phyllis Wheatley High School and attended the all black Wiley College on a modest scholarship from the YMCA. Thousands of visitors to this blog have come in search of Henrietta Bell Wells (see all our posts on her here ), the lone female on the Wiley College 1930 debate team that inspired the movie The Great Debaters , directed by and starring Denzel Washington . Jeff Porro , a speechwriting colleague who developed the story for the movie, sent us