War and Suffering

You have discovered one of the most comprehensive on-line collections of speech texts of contemporary American History. Here you can read the speeches and backgrounds of many of the most influential and poignant speakers of the recorded age. To help put each speaker in historical context, we have also provided a brief timeline of historical events.

To learn about the speaker and what he or she was talking about, click on the background link. To skip the background and read the text of the speech only, click on the speech link. To listen to an audio sample, click on the audio link, and to watch a short video excerpt, click on the video link. Additional background stories and audio and video links will be added as each episode of Great American Speeches airs on PBS over the next five weeks.

Speeches are arranged sequentially by era. To find a particular speech, scroll down through the page, or you can jump to a specific decade by using the 10-year timebar below.

1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990

- pre 1900 -

Former slave Booker T. Washington founds Tuskeegee Institute to educate black Americans, 1881.

Supreme Court overturns Civil Rights Act of 1875 which had guaranteed black Americans equal access to public facilities, 1883.

Statue of Liberty is dedicated, Oct. 28, 1886.

Workers strike at Carnegie steel mills in Homestead, PA; 18 people killed on July 6, 1892.

Financial panic leads to bank foreclosures and four-year national economic depression, 1893.

Booker T. Washington speaks at The Cotton State Exposition, Atlanta, GA, Sep. 18, 1895. Speech

Supreme Court, in Plessy vs. Ferguson, upholds "separate-but-equal" racial segregation policies, 1896.

William Jennings Bryan delivers his "Cross of Gold" at the Democratic National Convention, Chicago, Il, Jul. 9, 1896. Background - Speech - Audio - Audio

Bourke Cockran, Democratic Congressman, delivers pro-Gold rebuttal, New York, NY, Aug. 18, 1896. Speech

Spanish-American War begins, April 22. With victory, U.S. wins control of Puerto Rico, the Philippines

, Guam, and Cuba, Dec. 10, 1898.

Three year Philippine insurrection against American rule begins, 1889.

- 1900s -

Albert J. Beveridge, Indiana Senator, speaks on "The Philippine Question," before Congress, Jan. 9, 1900. Speech

William Jennings Bryan accepts Democratic nomination for President and condemns U.S. policy in the Philippines, Indianapolis, IN, Aug. 8, 1900. Speech

Mark Twain speaks on the "Defense of General Funston," Princeton, NJ, Feb. 22, 1902. Speech

Congress rejects a bill to make lynching a federal crime, Dec. 1900.

George H. White the only black American member of Congress since Reconstruction, delivers his farewell address, Jan. 29, 1901. Speech

Pan-American Exposition opens in Buffalo, N.Y. demonstrating the latest inventions in farming, medicine, communications, transportation, and housewares. Record numbers of visitors from around the world are expected to attend, Sep. 3, 1901.

William McKinley opens the Pan-American Exposition, Sep. 5, 1901. Speech

President