A few weeks ago I asked people to suggest great speeches that were aimed at convincing skeptical audiences. Here is a brief list based on those responses (A lot of people mistook the request to mean “who is a person who made a good speech” (I’d love to know the convincing speech you’re thinking of!) or they took it to mean “speeches I like.” While those speeches don’t seek to convince a hostile audience, I included some of their submissions anyway)

The original question here.

I’m still working on it, but the list so far:

Thomas Paine, Common Sense

Demosthenes, DEMOSTHENES: SPEECH AGAINST PHILIP OF MACEDON

John Kennedy Address to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association.

James Baldwin, “A Talk to Teachers”

Robert Kennedy, STATEMENT ON ASSASSINATION OF MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR.

Winston Churchill, “We Shall Fight them on the Beaches.”

Lyndon B. Johnson, “The American Promise”

Wendell Berry, “It All Turns on Affection”

Maya Angelou, “On the Pulse of Morning”

Barack Obama, “Sandy Hook Vigil”

Jesse Jackson, “1988 Democratic National Convention Address”

Abraham Lincoln, “First Inaugural Address”

Randy Pausch, “The Last Lecture”

Mario Cuomo, “1984 Democratic National Convention Keynote Speech”

Richard Nixon, “Checkers Speech”

Nelson Mandela, “Inaugural Address”

Anna Howard Shaw, “The Fundamental Principle of a Republic”

Fannie Lou Hamer, “Testimony Before the Credentials Committee”

Emma Watson, “He for She”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton, “The Solitude of Self”

Barbara Charline Jordan, “Statement on the Articles of Impeachment“