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On a bright and snowy morning a young president summons a nation and a generation to the work of history with his enduring inaugural address. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A twenty three year old John Lewis, speaking at the March On Washington, calls a nation to moral account. He didn’t want to be patient, he said. He wanted freedom now.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the tradition of Eleanor Roosevelt, Hillary Rodham Clinton travels to Beijing to argue that women’s rights are human rights, setting new global priorities.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A daughter of the segregated south, Barbara Jordan, keynotes the Democratic National Convention of 1976. It was America’s bicentennial, and Jordan was a voice born in one nation speaking to the hopes of a better nation to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A demagogic politician, exaggerated claims, an insatiable thirst for attention and controversy, and a national climate of fear and anxiety. How Edward R. Murrow took on Senator Joseph McCarthy.   Special thanks to The Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Marquette University Libraries Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ronald Reagan brings his long American odyssey to a close in his presidential farewell address, an evocation of America as a shining city on a hill. A nation that builds not walls but bridges. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Meghan McCain delivers a provocative eulogy for her father, the war hero and senator, John McCain, at Washington National Cathedral. It was a speech at once elegiac and resonant in the age of Trump. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Barack Obama goes to Charleston, South Carolina in the wake of a white supremacist’s massacre of innocents at Emanuel AME Church. In word and in song the 44th President contemplates tragedy and grace. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Robert Kennedy learns of the MLK Jr.’s assassination while in route to a campaign event in inner city Indianapolis. He breaks the news to an unsuspecting crowd, delivering a spontaneous and empathetic eulogy for the apostle of nonviolence.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In one of the most tumultuous moments in American history, Martin Luther King Jr. travels to Memphis to address the issue of racial and economic injustice. With eloquent language and brilliant rhetoric, he creates a mosaic of the ongoing Civil Rights struggle, culminating with a fearless and defiant premonition.   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Season One of It Was Said, a documentary podcast series that looks back on 10 of the most powerful, impactful and timeless speeches in American history. Written and narrated by Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author-historian, Jon Meacham, created, directed and produced by C13Originals Studios, in association with HISTORY Channel. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices