Speeches by Bill Moyers

  • April 20, 2021

    (Recorded at Carnegie Hall on June 19, 2019) Juneteenth marks the day in 1895 when slaves in Texas learned they were free. Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation two and a half years earlier, but many states ignored it, … Continue reading

  • May 27, 2015
    The following remarks were made at the presentation of the Helen Bernstein Book Awards for Excellence in Journalism. The ceremony took place at the New York Public Library. Bill Moyers chronicles the struggle of today's journalists to report the truth despite dwindling resources and the opposition of the powerful.
  • December 13, 2013
    Bill reflects on the class struggles he observed in the small East Texas town he grew up in and the modern-day class war waged by the wealthy on our democracy.
  • November 16, 2012
    "Modern capitalism has turned the greed once considered sinful into virtue." Read the speech Bill delivered at New York's Union Theological Seminary -- the next best thing to being there.
  • November 16, 2011
    Excerpted from a November 10, 2011 keynote speech Bill Moyers delivered at American Public Television's annual conference.
  • November 1, 2011
    In this 2011 speech, Bill Moyers traces the history of the 40-year crusade by the rich against the institutions, ideas, and laws that helped create America’s iconic middle class
  • October 6, 2010
    Remarks by Bill Moyers at the 40th Anniversary of Common Cause in Washington, D.C.
  • January 12, 2007
    What does today’s media system mean for the notion of the “informed public" cherished by democratic theory? Bill delivered this speech to the Media Reform Conference in Memphis, Tennessee.
  • December 12, 2006
    "America needs something more right now than a 'must-do' list from liberals and progressives. America needs a different story." Bill Moyers delivered these remarks in New York City on December 12, 2006 to the New Democracy Project.
  • October 27, 2006
    Bill Moyers delivered these remarks in San Diego to the Council of Great City Schools, an organization of the nation’s largest urban public school systems.
  • February 23, 2006
    Bill Moyers' March 4, 2004 speech on the issue of money and politics.
  • December 9, 2005
    Bill Moyers delivered this address on December 9, 2005 for the 20th anniversary of the National Security Archive, a non-governmental research institute and library at The George Washington University. The Archive collects and publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act.
  • February 25, 2005
    We are witnessing today a coupling of ideology and theology that threatens our ability to meet the growing ecological crisis. In this speech, Bill talks about religion as an instrument of political combat.
  • June 3, 2004
    "It is important from time to time to remember that some things are worth getting mad about." Bill Moyers delivered this speech for DEMOS at New York University.
  • March 30, 2000
    Prepared remarks for the annual conference of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication.
  • June 23, 1988
    Remarks by Bill Moyers at the University of Minnesota in commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Hubert H. Humphrey's speech to the Democratic National Convention in 1948.