THE TOP 100 SPEECHES is list full 100 most significant American political speeches of the 20th century, Listen to the speeches or read the text transcriptions. Check out American Rhetoric’s database of and index to 5000+ full text, audio and video versions of public speeches, sermons, legal proceedings, lectures, debates, interviews, other recorded media events, and more!



Rank Speaker Title/Text
1 Martin Luther King, Jr. I Have A Dream
2 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Inaugural Address
3 Franklin Delano Roosevelt First Inaugural Address
4 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation
5 Barbara Charline Jordan 1976 DNC Keynote Address
6 Richard Milhous Nixon "Checkers"
7 Malcolm X "The Ballot or the Bullet"
8 Ronald Wilson Reagan Shuttle ”Challenger” Disaster Address
9 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Houston Ministerial Association Speech
10 Lyndon Baines Johnson "We Shall Overcome"
11 Mario Matthew Cuomo 1984 DNC Keynote Address
12 Jesse Louis Jackson 1984 DNC Address
13 Barbara Charline Jordan Statement on the Articles of Impeachment
14 (General) Douglas MacArthur Farewell Address to Congress
15 Martin Luther King, Jr. "I’ve Been to the Mountaintop"
16 Theodore Roosevelt "The Man with the Muck-rake"
17 Robert Francis Kennedy Remarks on the Assassination of MLK
18 Dwight David Eisenhower Farewell Address
19 Thomas Woodrow Wilson War Message
20 (General) Douglas MacArthur "Duty, Honor, Country"
21 Richard Milhous Nixon "The Great Silent Majority"
22 John Fitzgerald Kennedy "Ich bin ein Berliner"
23 Clarence Seward Darrow "Mercy for Leopold and Loeb"
24 Russell H. Conwell "Acres of Diamonds"
25 Ronald Wilson Reagan "A Time for Choosing"
26 Huey Pierce Long "Every Man a King"
27 Anna Howard Shaw "The Fundamental Principle of a Republic"
28 Franklin Delano Roosevelt "The Arsenal of Democracy"
29 Ronald Wilson Reagan "The Evil Empire"
30 Ronald Wilson Reagan First Inaugural Address
31 Franklin Delano Roosevelt First Fireside Chat
32 Harry S. Truman "The Truman Doctrine"
33 William Cuthbert Faulkner Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech
34 Eugene Victor Debs 1918 Statement to the Court
35 Hillary Diane Rodham Clinton "Women’s Rights are Human Rights"
36 Dwight David Eisenhower "Atoms for Peace"
37 John Fitzgerald Kennedy American University Commencement Address
38 Dorothy Ann Willis Richards 1988 DNC Keynote Address
39 Richard Milhous Nixon Resignation Speech
40 Thomas Woodrow Wilson "The Fourteen Points"
41 Margaret Chase Smith "Declaration of Conscience"
42 Franklin Delano Roosevelt "The Four Freedoms"
43 Martin Luther King, Jr. "A Time to Break Silence"
44 Mary Church Terrell "What it Means to be Colored in the…U.S."
45 William Jennings Bryan "Against Imperialism"
46 Margaret Higgins Sanger "The Morality of Birth Control"
47 Barbara Pierce Bush 1990 Wellesley College Commencement Address
48 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Civil Rights Address
49 John Fitzgerald Kennedy Cuban Missile Crisis Address
50 Spiro Theodore Agnew "Television News Coverage"
51 Jesse Louis Jackson 1988 DNC Address
52 Mary Fisher "A Whisper of AIDS"
53 Lyndon Baines Johnson "The Great Society"
54 George Catlett Marshall "The Marshall Plan"
55 Edward Moore Kennedy "Truth and Tolerance in America"
56 Adlai Ewing Stevenson Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address
57 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt "The Struggle for Human Rights"
58 Geraldine Anne Ferraro Vice-Presidential Nomination Acceptance Speech
59 Robert Marion La Follette "Free Speech in Wartime"
60 Ronald Wilson Reagan 40th Anniversary of D-Day Address
61 Mario Matthew Cuomo "Religious Belief and Public Morality"
62 Edward Moore Kennedy "Chappaquiddick"
63 John Llewellyn Lewis "The Rights of Labor"
64 Barry Morris Goldwater Presidential Nomination Acceptance Address
65 Stokely Carmichael "Black Power"
66 Hubert Horatio Humphrey 1948 DNC Address
67 Emma Goldman Address to the Jury
68 Carrie Chapman Catt "The Crisis"
69 Newton Norman Minow "Television and the Public Interest"
70 Edward Moore Kennedy Eulogy for Robert Francis Kennedy
71 Anita Faye Hill Statement to the Senate Judiciary Committee
72 Thomas Woodrow Wilson League of Nations Final Address
73 Henry Louis ("Lou") Gehrig Farewell to Baseball Address
74 Richard Milhous Nixon Cambodian Incursion Address
75 Carrie Chapman Catt Address to the U.S. Congress
76 Edward Moore Kennedy 1980 DNC Address
77 Lyndon Baines Johnson On Vietnam and Not Seeking Re-Election
78 Franklin Delano Roosevelt Commonwealth Club Address
79 Thomas Woodrow Wilson First Inaugural Address
80 Mario Savio "Sproul Hall Sit-in Speech/An End to History"
81 Elizabeth Glaser 1992 DNC Address
82 Eugene Victor Debs "The Issue"
83 Margaret Higgins Sanger "Children’s Era"
84 Ursula Kroeber Le Guin "A Left-Handed Commencement Address"
85 Crystal Eastman "Now We Can Begin"
86 Huey Pierce Long "Share Our Wealth"
87 Gerald Rudolph Ford Address on Taking the Oath of Office
88 Cesar Estrada Chavez Speech on Ending His 25 Day Fast
89 Elizabeth Gurley Flynn Statement at the Smith Act Trial
90 Jimmy Earl Carter "A Crisis of Confidence"
91 Malcolm X "Message to the Grassroots"
92 William Jefferson Clinton Oklahoma Bombing Memorial Address
93 Shirley Anita St. Hill Chisholm "For the Equal Rights Amendment"
94 Ronald Wilson Reagan Brandenburg Gate Address
95 Eliezer ("Elie") Wiesel "The Perils of Indifference"
96 Gerald Rudolph Ford National Address Pardoning Richard M. Nixon
97 Thomas Woodrow Wilson "For the League of Nations"
98 Lyndon Baines Johnson "Let Us Continue"
99 Joseph N. Welch "Have You No Sense of Decency"
100 Anna Eleanor Roosevelt Adopting the Declaration of Human Rights
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