Rereading the Gettysburg Address and the Cooper Union speech of Lincoln, I wondered for a few moments whether there are others with similar gifts for words who might be on film or tape. It got me thinking about the vast gulf between religion on the one hand, and faith and justice on the other hand.
Then I got a notice of a link from this post about Barbara Jordan, at Firedoglake.
It’s a nice collection of links, a Barbara Jordan tribute all bundled up ready to unwrap. Sometimes truth does go marching on.
Who since Jordan?
(Thanks to Phoenix Woman at Firedoglake for the post, and for the link here.)
The Cooper Union speech of Lincoln was 148 years ago, on February 27.
Millard Fillmore's Bathtub 
[…] Barbara Jordan […]
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Great sources — thank you!
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Here’s another source of great speeches, (maybe noted before, sorry if a dup)
Pam
Gifts of Speech speeches made by influential contemporary women
Gifts of Speech is dedicated to preserving and creating access to speeches by influential contemporary, women from around the world. The idea for the project originated in 1989 when Liz Kent, a college librarian, was asked to help a student find a speech by Gloria Steinem. Mrs. Kent assumed it would be easy to locate a speech by Ms. Steinem, and was surprised when she could not find one in any of the resources available within her small college library. But this episode made her aware of the opportunity to find a way to make it easier for secondary school and undergraduate women to access the words of women in leadership.
In the Fall of 1996 Dr. John Jaffe, the Director of Sweet Briar College Libraries and Integrated Learning Resources, generously provided seed money to start Gifts of Speech as a web-based archive of speeches by influential, contemporary women. An address list of 85 prominent women in leadership positions around the world was compiled and letters were sent to the United States, Ireland, Kenya, Canada, England and Sri Lanka. In response to those 85 letters, 74 speeches were generously returned. These charter donations made Gifts of Speech a reality.
http://gos.sbc.edu/
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Since Jordan? Not many. Crusty holdovers from the ’60s like Ted Kennedy and Reagan were the best we had, excepting perhaps Obama, Cuomo and a young Bill Clinton.
I use recordings all the time in my classes. The Greatest Speeches of the 20th Century is a good start for a collection of recordings.
Pre-Jordan, Lindbergh’s address condemning the Roosevelt Administration is worth a listen, as is McCarthy’s incitement of the Second Red Scare while in Chicago. Neither is really all that much about justice, though.
Teddy Roosevelt was a good enough orator, and Wilson wasn’t bad. Search Google for American Rhetoric and you’ll have a site with recordings of most of the great speeches of the last 50 years.
That’s all I have off the top of my head.
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