| Top 100 American Speeches of the 20th Century | ||||
| Opinion of 137 Scholars [University of Wisconsin and Texas A&M] | ||||
| 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, NY |
| 6 | My Side of the Story ("Checkers") | Richard M. Nixon | 23-Sep-52 | Los Angeles, CA |
| 7 | The Ballot or the Bullet | Malcolm X | 3-Apr-64 | Cleveland, OH |
| 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, TX |
| 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, CA |
| 12 | Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("The Rainbow Coalition") | Jesse Jackson | 17-Jul-84 | San Francisco, CA |
| 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, TN |
| 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, IN |
| 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, NY |
| 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 | 31-Jul-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 | 27-Oct-64 | Los Angeles, CA |
| 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, NY |
| 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, FL |
| 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, OH |
| 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, NY |
| 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, NY |
| 44 | What It Means to Be Colored in the Capital of the USA | Mary Church Terrell | 10-Oct-06 | Washington, DC |
| 45 | Speech Accepting the Democratic Presidential Nomination ("Against Imperialism") | William Jennings Bryan | 8-Aug-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 | 1-Jun-90 | Wellesley, MA |
| 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-69 | Des Moines, IA |
| 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 1992 | Houston, TX |
| 53 | The Great Society | Lyndon B. Johnson | 22-May-64 | Ann Arbor, MI |
| 54 | The Marshall Plan | George C. Marshall | 5-Jun-47 | Cambridge, MA |
| 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, IL |
| 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, CA |
| 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, IN |
| 62 | Televised Statement to the People of Massachusetts ("Chappaquiddick") | Edward M. Kennedy | 25-Jul-69 | Boston, MA |
| 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, CA |
| 65 | Black Power | Stokely Carmichael | Oct-66 | Berkeley, CA |
| 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, NY |
| 68 | The Crisis | Carrie Chapman Catt | 7-Sep-16 | Atlantic City, NJ |
| 69 | Television and the Public Interest ("A Vast Wasteland") | Newton W. Minow | 9 May 1961 | Washington, DC |
| 70 | Eulogy to Robert Kennedy | Edward M. Kennedy | 8-Jun-68 | New York, NY |
| 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, CO |
| 73 | Farewell to Baseball | Lou Gehrig | 4-Jul-39 | New York, NY |
| 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 | Nov-17 | Washington, DC |
| 76 | Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("The Dream Shall Never Die") | Edward M. Kennedy | 12-Aug-80 | New York, NY |
| 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, CA |
| 79 | First Inaugural Address | Woodrow Wilson | 4-Mar-13 | Washington, DC |
| 80 | An End to History | Mario Savio | 2-Dec-64 | Berkeley, CA |
| 81 | Speech at the Democratic National Convention ("AIDS: A Personal Story") | Elizabeth Glaser | 14-Jul-92 | New York, NY |
| 82 | The Issue | Eugene V. Debs | 23-May-08 | Girard, KS |
| 83 | The Children's Era | Margaret Sanger | Mar-25 | New York, NY |
| 84 | A Left-Handed Commencement Address (Mills College) | Ursula Le Guin | 22-May-83 | Oakland, CA |
| 85 | Now We Can Begin | Crystal Eastman | Sept-Oct 1920 | New York, NY |
| 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, CA |
| 89 | Statement at the Smith Act Trial | Elizabeth Gurley Flynn | 2-Feb-53 | New York, NY |
| 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, MI |
| 92 | Speech at the Prayer Service for Victims of the Oklahoma City Bombing | Bill Clinton | 23-Apr-95 | Oklahoma City, OK |
| 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, IA |
| 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 |