On the half-hour drive from her Sunnyside home to her Fourth Ward school each morning, Tchanori Kone often sees homeless people gathered near downtown highway overpasses.

"I wondered why can't they have homes like other people, like us," said Tchanori, a fifth-grader at Gregory-Lincoln Education Center. "There can be children that are homeless and aren't going to school and aren't getting anything to eat."

Tchanori's desire to help the people she sees, to give them access to better health care and education and jobs, became the bedrock of her speech Friday at the 22nd annual Martin Luther King Jr. Oratory Competition, where she took first place among 12 competitors. The event features fourth- and fifth-grade students from across Houston ISD, who deliver memorized speeches of three to five minutes, eachinspired by the words of the civil rights icon.

Gregory-Lincoln Elementary student Tchanori Kone jumps for joy after being announced as the winner of the 22nd Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 in Houston.

Gregory-Lincoln Elementary student Tchanori Kone jumps for joy after being announced as the winner of the 22nd Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 in Houston.

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

Photo: Michael Ciaglo, Houston Chronicle

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Gregory-Lincoln Elementary student Tchanori Kone jumps for joy after being announced as the winner of the 22nd Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition Friday, Jan. 12, 2018 in Houston.

Gregory-Lincoln Elementary student Tchanori Kone jumps for joy after being announced as the winner of the 22nd Annual Gardere MLK Jr. Oratory Competition Friday, Jan.