Though the pandemic pushed this year's NAACP conference — originally scheduled to convene this week in Boston — online, at least one part of the annual meeting still has local ties: Three Boston-area students are competing in the group’s long-running academic and cultural competition.
The Afro-Academic Cultural Technological and Scientific Olympics (ACT-SO) brings together high school students for local chapter competitions in more than 30 disciplines, ranging from ballet, to chemistry to earth and space sciences. The local winners advanced to this week’s national contest, which convenes more than 100 students from across the country and typically coincides with the convention. The NAACP launched the competition in the late 1970s with the goal of giving students space to demonstrate subject expertise and affirm positive ideas about Black people. Notable alumni of the program include such famous entertainers as Jada Pinkett Smith, Alicia Keys and Anthony Anderson, among others.
Camarah B. Oates, one of this year’s competitors, said the virtual participation presented some odd challenges.
“I was a bit nervous because I was having computer issues,” said the Boston Latin Academy junior. “Thankfully, the NAACP gave us all new computers and printers.”
Oates, 16, earned a spot in the national competition by submitting an entry in the short story category. She told WGBH News she prefers to communicate her reflections about the world around her through writing.
“As a teenager, no one really listens to us,” she said. “But if you write a powerful piece, if you write something important, people are going to start to take notice.”
Oates’ short story, a tale of a youth from a rough neighborhood, is now set to be judged against fellow competitors from around the country.
She’ll read her piece to an online audience Friday evening.
“It’s not the same as doing it face-to-face,” Oates said, admitting she would’ve liked to compete in-person. “I got used to [digital interaction] with online school work, but it’s still a little bit weird.”
The other two competitors representing the NAACP Boston Branch are: Janay Lesley, a 16-year-old junior from Newton Country Day School competing in two poetry categories, and Nikkia Jean-Charles, 17, a Cathedral High School senior competing in the filmmaking category.
Fatima Ali-Salaam, chair of the NAACP Boston Branch ACT-SO, feels a sense of pride watching Boston students compete in ACT-SO’s first virtual contest, she said.
“It is amazing to see these students continue to push through the boundaries of not performing in person,” Ali-Salaam said. “All three produced original works that reflect the excellence that is expected in the ACT-SO program and at this level of competition. We wanted the students to enjoy the process and at the end of the day, walk away knowing that their community appreciates them and their talents.”
The “Olympics of the mind,” as ACT-SO is nicknamed by its founder, the late journalist Vernon Jarrett, is “rooted in the firm conviction that all students can succeed and compete at the same or superior levels as their counterparts in classrooms, boardrooms and laboratories,” according to the NAACP website.
NAACP Boston Branch President Tanisha Sullivan said she considers the contest a powerful force for countering negative stereotypes about Black youth.
“Seeing them participate in this competition, in many respects, is a direct response to the negative images we see portrayed about our communities and about our people,” she said.
Sullivan once represented the NAACP Boston Branch as a competitor in the national contest years ago. Even though she didn’t win her contemporary vocal category competition, Sullivan said it gave her exposure to other Black youth, as well as inspiration — tokens that far exceeded the medals she was striving to earn.
“It let me know that as a generation, that we had something to contribute, that we were equipped to be leaders. And ACT-SO still does that today.”
Oates agrees and said she’s proud to represent Boston in this year’s competition.
“It's a bit daunting and unnerving,” she said. “Because these [competitors] are just as skilled as I am and maybe even more so. But I'm also very excited, because this just proves that children are the future because we're doing things like this at my age or younger or older. So it's very inspiring to see.”
Winners of the 2020 ACT-SO competition will be announced this weekend with a livestreamed awards ceremony.
