Speech to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association
speakingforleaders John F. Kennedy · September 12, 1960 Occasion. Eight weeks before Election Day, a Catholic nominee faces Protestant ministers in Houston over whether Rome would run the White House. Al…
The 100 Greatest 20th
We Shall Overcome
Lyndon B. Johnson · March 15, 1965 Occasion. Joint session of Congress, eight days after state troopers beat marchers on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma. The television audience has…
Address on the Challenger Explosion
Ronald Reagan · January 28, 1986 Occasion. Challenger broke apart 73 seconds after liftoff that morning. Christa McAuliffe was the Teacher in Space; classrooms nationwide were watching live because she…
The Ballot or the Bullet
Malcolm X · April 3, 1964 Occasion. Cory Methodist Church, Cleveland, April 3, 1964. Six weeks after he left the Nation of Islam. The Civil Rights Act is being filibustered…
Checkers
Richard M. Nixon · September 23, 1952 Occasion. A nationally televised last chance to stay Eisenhower's running mate after the New York Post's secret-fund story. Republican leaders have been pressing…
Who Then Will Speak for the Common Good?
Barbara Jordan · July 12, 1976 Occasion. Democratic National Convention, Madison Square Garden, July 12, 1976. First Black woman to keynote a major-party convention. Post-Watergate, Bicentennial year; Jimmy Carter is…
War Message
Franklin D. Roosevelt · December 8, 1941 Occasion. Joint session of Congress, the morning after Pearl Harbor. The country has been listening to radio overnight. Isolationist opposition has collapsed. He…
First Inaugural Address
Franklin D. Roosevelt · March 4, 1933 Occasion. Bottom of the Depression, March 4, 1933. Banks are failing; several states have already closed them. Unemployment is about one in four.…
Inaugural Address
John F. Kennedy · January 20, 1961 Occasion. First Catholic elected president, 43 years old, winner by about 118,000 votes. The crowd knows the close count and the nuclear standoff;…
I Have a Dream
Martin Luther King Jr. · August 28, 1963 Occasion. March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, Lincoln Memorial steps. King is the last speaker before about 250,000 people. Months earlier,…