Azizi, re declamations:

These were "set pieces" the grade school child was supposed to "declaim," that is, speak elegantly if possible, before the class. They were usually short, and were intended to improve the student's ability at public speaking ... analogous to book reports and such for a later generation. This was common practice in schools of both racial groups.

They might be a few lines of poetry, or an anecdote, or almost anything from the school text (or, lacking textbooks, the teacher's memory) that the child could memorize -- training memory skills was important, too, in a rural and often backwoods world where, for the most part, reference material was not going to be common. "The Boy Stood On the Burning Deck" was frequently excerpted for this, as were hokey lines from the Iliad to James Whitcomb Riley and back again.

The practice was sometimes extended into exhibitions before parents and members of the community. The best pupils would get a prize, usually something improving like a tract, or even a Bible.

This practice is humorized in the 2-part E.V. Stoneman record "Possum Trot School Exhibition," where Stoneman, his wife Hattie, Uncle Eck Dunford and others recreate the sort of thing that was done. I quote Dunford's satirical bit from memory (done in his booming foghorny Bullwinkle voice). The topic is always announced first:

"GEESE. Geese is a heavy-set bird with its legs on one end and a tail on t'other. Their legs is set so fur back on their runnin' gear that they nearly miss their body. Geese do not give milk, but they give eggs. But as for me, give me liberty, or give me death!"

Bob