Top 100 American Speeches of the Twentieth Century

Top 100 American Speeches of the Twentieth Century

 

Source: The University of Wisconsin-Madison Compiled by researchers at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Texas A & M University in 1999, this list reflects the opinions of 137 leading scholars of American public address. The experts were asked to recommend speeches on the basis of social and political impact, and rhetorical artistry. /

 

	Title	Speaker	Date	Place
1	“I Have a Dream”	Martin Luther King, Jr.	28-Aug-63	Washington, DC
2	Inaugural Address	John F. Kennedy	20-Jan-61	Washington, DC
3	First Inaugural Address	Franklin D. Roosevelt	4-Mar-33	Washington, DC
4	War Message (“A Date which Will Live in Infamy”)	Franklin D. Roosevelt	8-Dec-41	Washington, DC
5	Keynote Speech to the Democratic National Convention	Barbara Jordan	12-Jul-76	New York, N.Y .
6	“My Side of the Story” (“Checkers”)	Richard M. Nixon	23-Sep-52	Los Angeles, Calif.
7	“The Ballot or the Bullet”	Malcolm X	3-Apr-64	Cleveland, Ohio
8	Address to the Nation on the Challenger Disaster	Ronald Reagan	28-Jan-86	Washington, DC
9	Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association	John F. Kennedy	12-Sep-60	Houston, Tex.
10	Address to Congress on the Voting Rights Act (“We Shall Overcome”)	Lyndon B. Johnson	15-Mar-65	Washington, DC
11	Keynote Speech to the Democratic National Convention (“A Tale of Two Cities”)	Mario Cuomo	17-Jul-84	San Francisco, Calif.
12	Speech at the Democratic National Convention (“The Rainbow Coalition”)	Jesse Jackson	17-Jul-84	San Francisco, Calif.
13	Statement on the Articles of Impeachment	Barbara Jordan	25-Jul-74	Washington, DC
14	Farewell Address to Congress (“Old Soldiers Never Die”)	Douglas MacArthur	19-Apr-51	Washington, DC
15	“I've Been to the Mountaintop”	Martin Luther King, Jr.	3-Apr-68	Memphis, Tenn.
16	“The Man with the Muckrake”	Theodore Roosevelt	14-Apr-06	Washington, DC
17	Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.	Robert F. Kennedy	4-Apr-68	Indianapolis, Ind.
18	Farewell Address	Dwight D. Eisenhower	17-Jan-61	Washington, DC
19	War Message (“The World Must Be Made Safe for Democracy”)	Woodrow Wilson	2-Apr-17	Washington, DC
20	Farewell Address at the U.S. Military Academy (“Duty, Honor, Country”)	Douglas MacArthur	12-May-62	West Point, N.Y.
21	Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam (“The Great Silent Majority”)	Richard M. Nixon	3-Nov-69	Washington, DC
22	“Ich bin ein Berliner”	John F. Kennedy	26-Jun-63	West Berlin, Germany
23	Plea for Mercy at the Trial of Leopold and Loeb	Clarence Darrow	Aug. 22, 23, and 25, 1924	Chicago, Ill.
24	“Acres of Diamonds”	Russell Conwell	1900–1925	Delivered at many spots across the U.S.
25	Televised Speech on Behalf of Barry Goldwater (“A Time for Choosing”)	Ronald Reagan	27-Oct-64	Los Angeles, Calif.
26	“Every Man a King”	Huey Pierce Long	23-Feb-34	Washington, DC
27	“The Fundamental Principle of a Republic”	Anna Howard Shaw	21-Jun-15	Ogdensburg, N.Y.
28	“The Arsenal of Democracy”	Franklin D. Roosevelt	29-Dec-40	Washington, DC
29	Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals (“The Evil Empire”)	Ronald Reagan	8-Mar-83	Orlando, Fla.
30	First Inaugural Address	Ronald Reagan	20-Jan-81	Washington, DC
31	First Fireside Chat (“The Banking Crisis”)	Franklin D. Roosevelt	12-Mar-33	Washington, DC
32	Address to Congress on Greece and Turkey (“The Truman Doctrine”)	Harry S Truman	12-Mar-47	Washington, DC
33	Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature	William Faulkner	10-Dec-50	Stockholm, Sweden
34	Statement to the Court	Eugene V. Debs	14-Sep-18	Cleveland, Ohio
35	Address to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women (“Women's Rights Are Humans Rights”)	Hillary Rodham Clinton	5-Sep-95	Beijing, China
36	“Atoms for Peace”	Dwight D. Eisenhower	8-Dec-53	New York, N.Y.
37	American University Speech	John F. Kennedy	10-Jun-63	Washington, DC
38	Keynote Speech to the Democratic National Convention	Ann Richards	18-Jul-88	Atlanta, Ga.
39	Address to the Nation Resigning the Presidency	Richard M. Nixon	8-Aug-74	Washington, DC
40	“The Fourteen Points”	Woodrow Wilson	8-Jan-18	Washington, DC
41	“Declaration of Conscience”	Margaret Chase Smith	1-Jun-50	Washington, DC
42	“The Four Freedoms”	Franklin D. Roosevelt	6-Jan-41	Washington, DC
43	Speech at Riverside Church (“A Time to Break Silence”)	Martin Luther King, Jr.	4-Apr-67	New York, N.Y .
44	“What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the United States”	Mary Church Terrell	10-Oct-06	Washington, DC
45	Speech Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination (“Against Imperialism”)	William Jennings Bryan	8-Aug-00	Indianapolis, Ind.
46	“A Moral Necessity for Birth Control”	Margaret Sanger	1921–1922	Delivered several times for the American Birth Control League
47	Commencement Speech at Wellesley College (“Choices and Change”)	Barbara Bush	1-Jun-90	Wellesley, Mass.
48	Address to the Nation on Civil Rights (“A Moral Issue”)	John F. Kennedy	11-Jun-63	Washington, DC
49	Address to the Nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis	John F. Kennedy	22-Oct-62	Washington, DC
50	“Television News Coverage”	Spiro Agnew	13 Nov. 1969	Des Moines, Iowa
51	Speech to the Democratic National Convention (“Common Ground and Common Sense”)	Jesse Jackson	20-Jul-88	Atlanta, Ga.
52	Speech to the Republican National Convention (“A Whisper of AIDS”)	Mary Fisher	19-Aug-92	Houston, Tex.
53	“The Great Society”	Lyndon B. Johnson	22-May-64	Ann Arbor, Mich.
54	“The Marshall Plan”	George C. Marshall	5-Jun-47	Cambridge, Mass.
55	“Truth and Tolerance in America”	Edward M. Kennedy	3-Oct-83	Lynchburg, Va.
56	Speech Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination (“Let's Talk Sense to American People”)	Adlai Stevenson	26-Jul-52	Chicago, Ill.
57	“The Struggle for Human Rights”	Eleanor Roosevelt	28-Sep-48	Paris, France
58	Speech Accepting the Democratic Vice-Presidential Nomination	Geraldine Ferraro	19-Jul-84	San Francisco, Calif.
59	“Free Speech in Wartime”	Robert M. La Follette	6-Oct-17	Washington, DC
60	Address at the U.S. Ranger Monument on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day	Ronald Reagan	6-Jun-84	Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France
61	“Religious Belief and Public Morality”	Mario Cuomo	13-Sep-84	Notre Dame, Ind.
62	Televised Statement to the People of Massachusetts (“Chappaquiddick”)	Edward M. Kennedy	25-Jul-69	Boston, Mass.
63	“Labor and the Nation” (“The Rights of Labor”)	John L. Lewis	3-Sep-37	Washington, DC
64	Speech Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination (“Extremism in the Defense of Liberty Is No Vice”)	Barry Goldwater	16-Jul-64	San Francisco, Calif.
65	“Black Power”	Stokely Carmichael	1-Oct-66	Berkeley, Calif.
66	Speech at the Democratic National Convention (“The Sunshine of Human Rights”)	Hubert H. Humphrey	14-Jul-48	Philadelphia, Pa.
67	Address to the Jury	Emma Goldman	9-Jul-17	New York, N.Y .
68	“The Crisis”	Carrie Chapman Catt	7-Sep-16	Atlantic City, N.J.
69	“Television and the Public Interest” (“A Vast Wasteland”)	Newton W. Minow	9-May-61	Washington, DC
70	Eulogy to Robert Kennedy	Edward M. Kennedy	8-Jun-68	New York, N.Y.
71	Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee	Anita Hill	11-Oct-91	Washington, DC
72	Final Address in Support of the League of Nations	Woodrow Wilson	25-Sep-19	Pueblo, Colo.
73	Farewell to Baseball	Lou Gehrig	4-Jul-39	New York, N.Y .
74	Address to the Nation on the Cambodian Incursion	Richard M. Nixon	30-Apr-70	Washington, DC
75	“Address to the United States Congress”	Carrie Chapman Catt	1-Nov-17	Washington, DC
76	Speech at the Democratic National Convention (“The Dream Shall Never Die”)	Edward M. Kennedy	12-Aug-80	New York, N.Y.
77	Address to the Nation on Vietnam and the Decision Not to Seek Re-Election	Lyndon B. Johnson	31-Mar-68	Washington, DC
78	Speech to the Commonwealth Club	Franklin D. Roosevelt	23-Sep-32	San Francisco, Calif.
79	First Inaugural Address	Woodrow Wilson	4-Mar-13	Washington, DC
80	“An End to History”	Mario Savio	2-Dec-64	Berkeley, Calif.
81	Speech at the Democratic National Convention (“AIDS: A Personal Story”)	Elizabeth Glaser	14-Jul-92	New York, N.Y.
82	“The Issue”	Eugene V. Debs	23-May-08	Girard, Kans.
83	The Children's Era	Margaret Sanger	1-Mar-25	New York, N.Y.
84	“A Left-Handed Commencement Address”	Ursula Le Guin	22-May-83	Oakland, Calif.
85	“Now We Can Begin”	Crystal Eastman	Sept.–Oct. 1920	New York, N.Y.
86	Radio Broadcast of March 7, 1935 (“Share Our Wealth”)	Huey Pierce Long	7-Mar-35	Washington, DC
87	Address on Taking the Oath of Office (“Our Long National Nightmare Is Over”)	Gerald Ford	9-Aug-74	Washington, DC
88	Speech on Ending His Fast	Cesar Chavez	10-Mar-68	Delano, Calif.
89	Statement at the Smith Act Trial	Elizabeth Gurley Flynn	2-Feb-53	New York, N.Y.
90	Address to the Nation on Energy and National Goals (“A Crisis of Confidence”)	Jimmy Carter	15-Jul-79	Washington, DC
91	“Message to the Grassroots”	Malcolm X	10-Nov-63	Detroit, Mich.
92	Speech at the Prayer Service for Victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing	Bill Clinton	23-Apr-95	Oklahoma City, Okla.
93	“For the Equal Rights Amendment”	Shirley Chisholm	10-Aug-70	Washington, DC
94	Address at the Brandenburg Gate	Ronald Reagan	12-Jun-87	West Berlin, Germany
95	“The Perils of Indifference”	Elie Wiesel	12-Apr-99	Washington, DC
96	Address to the Nation on Pardoning Richard M. Nixon	Gerald Ford	8-Sep-74	Washington, DC
97	“For the League of Nations”	Woodrow Wilson	6-Sep-19	Des Moines, Iowa
98	Address to Congress after Assuming the Presidency (“Let Us Continue”)	Lyndon B. Johnson	27-Nov-63	Washington, DC
99	Defense of Fred Fisher at the Army-McCarthy Hearings (“Have You No Sense of Decency?”)	Joseph Welch	9-Jun-54	Washington, DC
100	“Adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights”	Eleanor Roosevelt	9-Dec-48	Paris, France