All of the oratory at the political conventions prompted a look at the list of Top 100 speeches of the 20th century. The leaders with 6 speeches each in the list are Franklin D. Roosevelt, John F. Kennedy, and Ronald W. Reagan. My favorite aphorist—Harry S Truman—gained a single mention. I wonder how many mentions W will receive in the list of the Top 100 speeches of the 21st century? If this is (fair & balanced) aphonia, so be it.
Top 100 American speeches of the 20th century
Compiled by researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Texas A & M University, this list reflects the opinions of 137 leading scholars of American public address.
Rank Title Speaker Date Place
1 "I Have a Dream" - Martin Luther King, Jr. - 08/28/63 - Washington, DC
2 Inaugural Address - John F. Kennedy - 01/20/61 - Washington, DC
3 First Inaugural Address - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 03/04/33 - Washington, DC
4 War Message ("A Date which Will Live in Infamy") - Franklin D. Roosevelt -12/08/41 - Washington, DC
5 Keynote Speech to the Democratic National Convention - Barbara Jordan 07/12/76 New York, NY
6 "My Side of the Story" ("Checkers") - Richard M. Nixon - 09/23/52 - Los Angeles, CA
7 "The Ballot or the Bullet" - Malcolm X - 04/03/64 - Cleveland, OH
8 Address to the Nation on the Challenger Disaster - Ronald Reagan - 01/28/86 - Washington, DC
9 Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association - John F. Kennedy - 09/12/60 - Houston, TX
10 Address to Congress on the Voting Rights Act ("We Shall Overcome") - Lyndon B. Johnson - 03/15/65 - Washington, DC
11 Keynote Speech to the Democratic National Convention ("A Tale of Two Cities") - Mario Cuomo - 07/17/84 - San Francisco, CA
12 Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("The Rainbow Coalition") - Jesse Jackson - 07/17/84 - San Francisco, CA
13 Statement on the Articles of Impeachment - Barbara Jordan - 07/25/74 - Washington, DC
14 Farewell Address to Congress ("Old Soldiers Never Die") - Douglas MacArthur - 04/19/51 - Washington, DC
15 "I've Been to the Mountaintop" - Martin Luther King, Jr. - 04/03/68 - Memphis, TN
16 "The Man with the Muckrake" - Theodore Roosevelt - 04/16/06 - Washington, DC
17 Statement on the Assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. - Robert F. Kennedy - 04/04/68 - Indianapolis, IN
18 Farewell Address - Dwight D. Eisenhower - 01/17/61 - Washington, DC
19 War Message ("The World Must Be Made Safe for Democracy") - Woodrow Wilson - 04/02/17 - Washington, DC
20 Farewell Address at the U.S. Military Academy ("Duty, Honor, Country") - Douglas MacArthur - 05/12/62 - West Point, NY
21 Address to the Nation on the War in Vietnam ("The Great Silent Majority") - Richard M. Nixon - 11/02/69 - Washington, DC
22 "Ich bin ein Berliner" - John F. Kennedy - 06/26/63 - West Berlin, Germany
23 Plea for Mercy at the Trial of Leopold and Loeb - Clarence Darrow - 08/22-23 and 25/24 - Chicago, IL
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 - 10/27/64 - Los Angeles, CA
26 "Every Man a King" - Huey Pierce Long - 02/23/34 - Washington, DC
27 "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic" - Anna Howard Shaw - 06/21/15 - Ogdensburg, NY
28 "The Arsenal of Democracy" - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 12/29/40 - Washington, DC
29 Speech to the National Association of Evangelicals ("The Evil Empire") - Ronald Reagan - 03/08/83 - Orlando, FL
30 First Inaugural Address - Ronald Reagan - 01/20/81 - Washington, DC
31 First Fireside Chat ("The Banking Crisis") - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 03/12/33 - Washington, DC
32 Address to Congress on Greece and Turkey ("The Truman Doctrine") - Harry S Truman - 03/12/47 - Washington, DC
33 Speech Accepting the Nobel Prize in Literature - William Faulkner - 12/10/50 - Stockholm, Sweden
34 Statement to the Court - Eugene V. Debs - 09/14/18 - Cleveland, OH
35 Address to the U.N. Fourth World Conference on Women ("Women's Rights Are Humans Rights") - Hillary Rodham Clinton - 09/05/95 - Beijing, China
36 "Atoms for Peace" - Dwight D. Eisenhower - 12/08/53 - New York, NY
37 American University Speech - John F. Kennedy - 06/10/63 - Washington, DC
38 Keynote Speech to the Democratic National Convention - Ann Richards - 07/18/88 - Atlanta, GA
39 Address to the Nation Resigning the Presidency - Richard M. Nixon - 08/08/74 - Washington, DC
40 "The Fourteen Points" - Woodrow Wilson - 01/08/18 - Washington, DC
41 "Declaration of Conscience" - Margaret Chase Smith - 06/01/50 - Washington, DC
42 "The Four Freedoms" - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 01/06/41 - Washington, DC
43 Speech at Riverside Church ("A Time to Break Silence") - Martin Luther King, Jr. - 04/04/67 - New York, NY
44 "What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the United States" - Mary Church Terrell - 10/10/06 - Washington, DC
45 Speech Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination ("Against Imperialism") - William Jennings Bryan - 08/08/00 - Indianapolis, IN
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 - 06/01/90 - Wellesley, MA
48 Address to the Nation on Civil Rights ("A Moral Issue") - John F. Kennedy - 06/11/63 - Washington, DC
49 Address to the Nation on the Cuban Missile Crisis - John F. Kennedy - 10/22/62 - Washington, DC
50 "Television News Coverage" - Spiro Agnew - 11/13/69 - Des Moines, IA
51 Speech to the Democratic National Convention ("Common Ground and Common Sense") - Jesse Jackson - 07/20/68 - Atlanta, GA
52 Speech to the Republican National Convention ("A Whisper of AIDS" ) - Mary Fisher - 08/19/92 - Houston, TX
53 "The Great Society" - Lyndon B. Johnson - 05/22/64 - Ann Arbor, MI
54 "The Marshall Plan" - George C. Marshall - 06/05/47 - Cambridge, MA
55 "Truth and Tolerance in America" - Edward M. Kennedy - 10/03/83 - Lynchburg, VA
56 Speech Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination ("Let's Talk Sense to American People") - Adlai Stevenson - 07/26/52 - Chicago, IL
57 "The Struggle for Human Rights" - Eleanor Roosevelt - 09/28/48 - Paris, France
58 Speech Accepting the Democratic Vice-Presidential Nomination - Geraldine Ferraro - 07/19/84 - San Francisco, CA
59 "Free Speech in Wartime" - Robert M. La Follette - 10/06/17 - Washington, DC
60 Address at the U.S. Ranger Monument on the 40th Anniversary of D-Day - Ronald Reagan - 06/04/84 - Pointe du Hoc, Normandy, France
61 "Religious Belief and Public Morality" - Mario Cuomo - 09/13/84 - Notre Dame, IN
62 Televised Statement to the People of Massachusetts ("Chappaquiddick") - Edward M. Kennedy - 07/25/69 - Boston, MA
63 "Labor and the Nation" ("The Rights of Labor") - John L. Lewis - 09/03/37 - Washington, DC
64 Speech Accepting the Republican Presidential Nomination ("Extremism in the Defense of Liberty Is No Vice") - Barry Goldwater - 07/16/64 - San Francisco, CA
65 "Black Power" - Stokely Carmichael - 10/66 - Berkeley, CA
66 Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("The Sunshine of Human Rights") - Hubert H. Humphrey - 07/14/48 - Philadelphia, PA
67 Address to the Jury - Emma Goldman - 07/09/17 - New York, NY
68 "The Crisis" - Carrie Chapman Catt - 09/07/16 - Atlantic City, NJ
69 "Television and the Public Interest" ("A Vast Wasteland") - Newton W. Minow - 05/09/61 - Washington, DC
70 Eulogy to Robert Kennedy - Edward M. Kennedy - 06/08/68 - New York, NY
71 Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee - Anita Hill - 10/11/91 - Washington, DC
72 Final Address in Support of the League of Nations - Woodrow Wilson - 09/25/19 - Pueblo, CO
73 Farewell to Baseball - Lou Gehrig - 07/04/39 - New York, NY
74 Address to the Nation on the Cambodian Incursion - Richard M. Nixon - 04/30/70 - Washington, DC
75 "Address to the United States Congress" - Carrie Chapman Catt - 11/17 - Washington, DC
76 Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("The Dream Shall Never Die") - Edward M. Kennedy - 08/12/80 - New York, NY
77 Address to the Nation on Vietnam and the Decision Not to Seek Re-Election - Lyndon B. Johnson - 03/31/68 - Washington, DC
78 Speech to the Commonwealth Club - Franklin D. Roosevelt - 09/23/32 - San Francisco, CA
79 First Inaugural Address - Woodrow Wilson - 09/04/13 - Washington, DC
80 "An End to History" - Mario Savio - 12/02/64 - Berkeley, CA
81 Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("AIDS: A Personal Story") - Elizabeth Glaser - 07/14/92 - New York, NY
82 "The Issue" - Eugene V. Debs - 05/23/08 - Girard, KS
83 The Children's Era - Margaret Sanger - 03/25 - New York, NY
84 "A Left-Handed Commencement Address" - Ursula Le Guin - 05/22/83 - Oakland, CA
85 "Now We Can Begin" - Crystal Eastman - 09-10/20 - New York, NY
86 Radio Broadcast of March 7, 1935 ("Share Our Wealth") - Huey Pierce Long - 03/07/35 - Washington, DC
87 Address on Taking the Oath of Office ("Our Long National Nightmare Is Over") - Gerald Ford - 08/09/74 - Washington, DC
88 Speech on Ending His Fast - Cesar Chavez - 03/10/68 - Delano, CA
89 Statement at the Smith Act Trial - Elizabeth Gurley Flynn - 02/02/53 - New York, NY
90 Address to the Nation on Energy and National Goals ("A Crisis of Confidence") - Jimmy Carter - 07/15/79 - Washington, DC
91 "Message to the Grassroots" - Malcolm X - 11/10/63 - Detroit, MI
92 Speech at the Prayer Service for Victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing - Bill Clinton - 04/23/95 - Oklahoma City, OK
93 "For the Equal Rights Amendment" - Shirley Chisholm - 08/10/70 - Washington, DC
94 Address at the Brandenburg Gate - Ronald Reagan - 06/12/87 - West Berlin, Germany
95 "The Perils of Indifference" - Elie Wiesel - 04/12/99 - Washington, DC
96 Address to the Nation on Pardoning Richard M. Nixon - Gerald Ford - 09/08/74 - Washington, DC
97 "For the League of Nations" - Woodrow Wilson - 09/16/19 - Des Moines, IA
98 Address to Congress after Assuming the Presidency ("Let Us Continue") - Lyndon B. Johnson - 11/27/63 - Washington, DC
99 Defense of Fred Fisher at the Army-McCarthy Hearings ("Have You No Sense of Decency?") - Joseph Welch - 06/09/54 - Washington, DC
100 "Adoption of the Declaration of Human Rights" - Eleanor Roosevelt - 12/09/48 - Paris, France
Copyright © 2004 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System.
Wednesday, July 28, 2004
Speechifying
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