Speeches / page 8

Emma Goldman
Speeches
Emma Goldman’s Defense - April 5, 1916
April 5, 1916
Your Honor, My presence before you this afternoon proves conclusively that there is no free speech in the city or county of New York. I hope that there is free speech in your court. I have delivered the lecture which caused my arrest in at least fifty cities throughout the country, always in the presence of detectives. I have never been arrested. I delivered the same address in New York City seven times, prior to my arrest, always in the presence of detectives, because in my case, your honor, “the […]
Brenna Bird
Speeches
Remarks at the Trump Rally in Des Moines - July 3, 2025
July 3, 2025
While Iowa are we ready to celebrate or what? You know isn’t it great that President Trump chose Iowa to celebrate America’s big, beautiful, birthday? And there is no better place than Iowa to kick off America’s 250th birthday celebration than our state fair. Iowa we have always come through for President Trump haven’t we? And today it's America’s State Fair. You know Iowa as a state did not exist back in 1776 when the Declaration of Independence was signed. It was 170 years later when Iowa was admitted to […]
Audre Lorde
categories: Lecture, Speeches
The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action – Dec. 28, 1977
December 28, 1977
Audre Lorde first delivered this speech on December 28, 1977, during the Lesbian and Literature panel at the Modern Language association conference in Chicago. I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect. I am standing here as a black lesbian poet, and the meaning of all that waits upon the fact that I am still alive, […]
Joni Ernst
Speeches
She Will Not Seek Reelection In 2026
September 2, 2025
My fellow Iowans, serving as your United States Senator is the privilege of a lifetime. From growing up and working on my family’s farm in rural southwest Iowa. To more than two decades of leadership in the US Army Reserves and Iowa Army National Guard, where I deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. To my work as Montgomery County Auditor, State Senator and now as your United States Senator. It has been an honor to dedicate my life to the service of our great state and country. Having been […]
Audre Lorde
categories: Lecture, Speeches, Written Works
The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House - Oct. 29, 1979
October 29, 1979
Delivered at the Second Sex Conference in New York, Lorde critiques the presences of racism and homophobia within feminism and argues that true liberation cannot be achieved using patriarchal frameworks. I agreed to take part in a New York University Institute for the Humanities conference a year ago, with the understanding that I would be commenting upon papers dealing with the role of difference within the lives of American women: difference of race, sexuality, class, and age. The absence of these considerations weakens any feminist discussion of the personal and […]
Dorothy Height
categories: Acceptance Speech, Speeches
2004 Choral Arts Humanitarian Award Remarks - Jan. 11, 2004
January 11, 2004
Transcript from Dr. Height’s speech at the 16th Annual Choral Tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. on Sunday, January 11, 2004 at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Dr. Height was the first recipient of the Choral Arts Humanitarian Award. It’s always very special for me to be presented or introduced by or even in the presence of Alexis Herman, and I want to thank her for this beautiful introduction. And I’m deeply grateful to the Choral Society of Washington for making me the first recipient […]
Ida B Wells-Barnett
categories: Lecture, Speeches
The Requisites of True Leadership – Dec. 29, 1891
December 29, 1891
Mr. President: — I do not know how the subject which has been given me is to harmonize with aims of this Association, unless it be that it recognizes that the race whose youth we are engaged in teaching Is without the one great essential of elevation and progress — True Leadership — and that from the schools and colleges here represented must come the true leaders of the people. Humanity in all ages has been a disorganized mass of power until driven by some great molecular force into cohesion […]
Lois Gibbs
categories: Speeches, U.S. House Committee/Subcommittee Meeting/Hearing
Congressional Testimony on Love Canal - June 22, 2010
June 22, 2010
I want to thank you and the members of the Committee for inviting me here. My name is Lois Gibbs, and I am Executive Director for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice. It is a national organization that has worked with over 10,000 community groups faced with environmental health threats over the past 30 years. I also was a resident and community leader at Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York. And as I began preparing my testimony for this afternoon it occurred to me that 31 years ago […]
Jane Goodall
Speeches
UN Messenger of Peace on International Day of Peace - Sept. 15, 2017
September 15, 2017
Well, good morning, everybody, thank you for the introduction. As I only have a few minutes, I haven’t tried to make a formal speech—I’ve tried to put down some points which I feel are important on this Day of Peace. I think it’s more important than ever in the world we live in today that we have a vision of what it would be like to live in a peaceful world—the kind of world we all want—and then to see what we as individuals can do to try and bring […]
Severn Cullis-Suzuki
categories: Keynote Address, Speeches
Speech to the UN Earth Summit in Rio - Jun. 14, 1992
June 14, 1992
Hello, I’m Severn Suzuki speaking for “ECO” — the Environmental Children’s Organization. We are a group of 12 and 13-year-olds trying to make a difference: Vanessa Suttie, Morgan Geisler, Michelle Quigg, and me. We’ve raised all the money to come here ourselves — to come 5,000 miles to tell you adults you must change your ways. Coming up here today, I have no hidden agenda. I am fighting for my future. Losing my future is not like losing an election, or a few points on the stock market. I am […]