Top 100 U.S. Speeches of the 20th Century

  • - 1. "I have a Dream" by Martin Luther King Jr. (1963)
    Public Domain
    I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
  • + 2. Inaugural Address by John F. Kennedy (1961)
  • + 3. First Inaugural Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933)
  • + 4. Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
  • + 5. 1976 DNC Keynote Address by Barbara Charline Jordan (1976)
  • + 6. "Checkers" by Richard M. Nixon (1952)
  • + 7. "The Ballot or the Bullet" by Malcolm X (1964)
  • + 8. The Space Shuttle "challenger" Tragedy Address by Ronald Reagan (1986)
  • + 9. Houston Ministerial Association Speech by John F. Kennedy (1960)
  • + 10. "We Shall Overcome" by Lyndon B. Johnson (1965)
  • + 11. 1984 DNC Keynote Address by Mario Matthew Cuomo (1984)
  • + 12. 1984 Democratic National Convention Address by Jesse Jackson (1984)
  • + 13. Statement on the Articles of Impeachment by Barbara Charline Jordan (1974)
  • + 14. Farewell Address to Congress by Douglas MacArthur (1951)
  • + 15. "I've Been to the Mountaintop" by Martin Luther King Jr. (1968)
  • + 16. "The Man with the Muck-Rake" by Theodore Roosevelt (1906)
  • + 17. Remarks on the Assassination of MLK by Robert Francis Kennedy (1968)
  • + 18. Farewell Address by Dwight D. Eisenhower (1961)
  • + 19. War Message by Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1917)
  • + 20. "Duty, Honor, Country" by Douglas MacArthur (1962)
  • + 21. "The Great Silent Majority" by Richard M. Nixon (1969)
  • + 22. "Ich bin ein Berliner" by John F. Kennedy (1963)
  • + 23. "Mercy for Leopold and Loeb" by Clarence Darrow (1924)
  • + 24. "Acres of Diamonds" by Russell H. Conwell (Published 1890)
  • + 25. "A Time fo Choosing" by Ronald Reagan (1964)
  • + 26. "Every Man a King" by Huey Pierce Long (1934)
  • + 27. "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic" by Anna Howard Shaw (1915)
  • + 28. "The Arsenal of Democracy" by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1940)
  • + 29. "The Evil Empire" by Ronald Reagan (1983)
  • + 30. First Inaugural Address by Ronald Reagan (1981)
  • + 31. First Fireside Chat by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1933)
  • + 32. "The Truman Doctrine" by Harry S. Truman (1947)
  • + 33. Nobel Prize Acceptence Speech by William Cuthbert Faulkner (1950)
  • + 34. 1918 Statement to the Court by Eugene Victor Debs (1918)
  • + 35. "Womens's rights are Human Rights" by Hilary Rodham Clinton (1995)
  • + 36. "Atoms for Peace" by Dwight D. Eisenhower (1953)
  • + 37. American University Commencement Address by John F. Kennedy (1963)
  • + 38. 1988 DNC Keynote Address by Dorothy Ann Willis Richards (1988)
  • + 39. Resignation Speech by Richard M. Nixon (1974)
  • + 40. "The Fourteen Points" by Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1918)
  • + 41. "Declaration of Conscience" by Margaret Chase Smith (1950)
  • + 42. "The Four Freedoms" by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1941)
  • + 43. "A Time to Break Silence" by Martin Luther King jr. (1967)
  • + 44. "What it means to be Colored in the U.S." by Mary Church Terrell (1906)
  • + 45. "Against Imperialism" by William Jennings Bryan (1900)
  • + 46. "The Morality of Birth Control" by Margaret Higgins Sanger (1921)
  • + 47. 1990 Wellesley College Commencement Address by Barbara Bush (1990)
  • + 48. Civil Rights Address by John F. Kennedy (1963)
  • + 49. Cuban Missile Crisis Address by John F. Kennedy (1962)
  • + 50. "Television News Coverage" by Spiro Theodore Agnew (1969)
  • + 51. 1988 DNC Address by Jesse Jackson (1988)
  • + 52. "A Whisper of AIDS" by Mary Fisher (1992)
  • + 53. "The Great Society" by Lyndon B. Johnson (1964)
  • + 54. "The Marshall Plan" by George Catlett Marshall (1947)
  • + 55. "Truth and Tolerance in America" by Edward Moore Kennedy (1983)
  • + 56. Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address by Adlai Stevenson (1952)
  • + 57. "The Struggle for Human Rights" by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1948)
  • + 58. Vice-Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech by Geraldine Ferraro (1984)
  • + 59. "Free Speech in Wartime" by Robert La Follette (1917)
  • + 60. 40th Anniversary of D-Day Address by Ronald Reagan (1984)
  • + 61. "Religious Belief and Public Morality" by Mario Matthew Cuomo (1984)
  • + 62. Chappaquiddick by Edward Moore Kennedy (1969)
  • + 63. "The Rights of Labor" by John Llewellyn Lewis (1937)
  • + 64. Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address by Barry Moris Goldwater (1964)
  • + 65. "Black Power" by Stokely Carmichael (1966)
  • + 66. 1948 DNC Address by Hubert Horatio Humphrey (1948)
  • + 67. Address to the Jury by Emma Goldman (1917)
  • + 68. "The Crisis" by Carrie Chapman Catt (1916)
  • + 69. "Television and the Public Interest" by Newton Norman Minow (1961)
  • + 70. "Eulogy for Robert Francis Kennedy" by Edward Moore Kennedy (1968)
  • + 71. Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee by Anita Faye Hill (1991)
  • + 72. League of Nations Final Address by Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1919)
  • + 73. Farewell to Baseball Address by Henry Louis ("Lou") Gehrig (1939)
  • + 74. Cambodian Incursion Address by Richard M. Nixon (1970)
  • + 75. Address to the US Congress by Carrie Chapman Catt (1917)
  • + 76. 1980 DNC Address by Edward Moore Kennedy (1980)
  • + 77. On Vietnam and Not-Seeking Re-Election by Lyndon B. Johnson (1968)
  • + 78. Commonwealth Club Address by Franklin D. Roosevelt (1932)
  • + 79. First Inaugural Address by Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1913)
  • + 80. Sproul Hall Sit-in Speech/An End to History by Mario Savio (1964)
  • + 81. 1992 DNC Address by Elizabeth Glaser (1992)
  • + 82. "The Issue" by Eugene Victor Debs (1908)
  • + 83. "Children's Era" by Margaret Higgins Sanger (1925)
  • + 84. "A Left-Handed Commencement Address" by Ursula K. Le Guin (1983)
  • + 85. "Now We Can Begin" by Crystal Eastman (1920)
  • + 86. "Share Our Wealth" by Huey Pierce Long (1935)
  • + 87. "Address on Taking the Oath of Office" by Gerald Rudolph Ford (1974)
  • + 88. Speech on Ending His 25 Day Fast by Cesar Estrada Chaves (1968)
  • + 89. Statement on the Smith Act Trial by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn (1952)
  • + 90. "A Crisis of Confidence" by Jimmy Earl Carter (1979)
  • + 91. "A Message to the Grassroots" by Malcolm X (1963)
  • + 92. Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address by William ("Bill") Clinton (1995)
  • + 93. "For the Equal Rights Amendment" by Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm (1970)
  • + 94. Brandenburg Gate Address by Ronald Reagan (1987)
  • + 95. "The Perils of Indifference" by Eliezer ("Elie") Wiesel (1999)
  • + 96. National Address Pardoning Richard M. Nixon by Gerald Rudolph Ford (1974)
  • + 97. "For the League of Nations" by Thomas Woodrow Wilson (1919)
  • + 98. "Let Us Continue" by Lyndon B. Johnson (1963)
  • + 99. "Have You No Sense of Decency" by Joseph N. Welch (1954)
  • + 100. Adopting the Declaration of Human Rights by Anna Eleanor Roosevelt (1948)