Past Speakers

2024 — Director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Dr. Mandy K. Cohen (remarks)
2023 — Visionary and founder of Recovery Café and the Recovery Café Network Kathy Killian Noe (remarks)
2022 — CNN host and Dream Corps founder Van Jones (remarks)
2021 — Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (remarks); Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg (remarks); NFL wide receiver Kendall Hinton (remarks) (Note: All remarks delivered virtually during the pandemic)
2020 (in person) — Retired President of Wake Forest Nathan Hatch (remarks)
2020 (virtual) — Entertainers Tina Fey, Carson Daly, Jon Stewart, Tracy Morgan, Jimmy Kimmel; NBA player Chris Paul (video)
2019 — Washington Post Publisher Fred Ryan (remarks)
2018 — Vice Chairman, Managing Director and Senior Client Advisor at Morgan Stanley Carla Harris (remarks)
2017—Pulitzer Prize-winning author and presidential historian Jon Meacham (remarks)
2016 — Founder and president of Interfaith Youth Core Eboo Patel (remarks)
2015 — Comedian and late-night TV host Stephen Colbert (remarks)
2014 — Former Executive Editor of The New York Times Jill Abramson (remarks)
2013 — Managing Editor of “Washington Week” and Senior Correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour” Gwen Ifill (remarks)
2012 — Chairman of DISH Network Charlie Ergen (remarks)
2011 — PepsiCo CEO Indra K. Nooyi (remarks)
2010 — American Express CEO Kenneth Chenault (remarks)
2009 — Vice President Joe Biden (remarks)
2008 — Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne Jr. (remarks)
2007 — New York Times columnist David Brooks (remarks)
2006 — Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner (remarks)
2005 — Professional Golfer Arnold Palmer (’51) (remarks)
2004 — Secretary of State Colin Powell (remarks)
2003 — New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg (remarks)
2002 — U.S. Senator John McCain (remarks)
2001 — Former First Lady Barbara Bush (remarks)
2000 — Cisco CEO John Chambers (remarks)
1999 — Cardinal Francis Arinze
1998 — White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles (remarks)
1997 — IBM CEO Lou Gerstner (remarks)
1996 — U.S. Senator Sam Nunn (remarks)
1995 — CNN News Anchor Judy Woodruff
1994 — Former Congressman Jack Kemp
1993 — Notre Dame President Emeritus Theodore Hesburgh
1992 — Novelist Tom Clancy
1991 — Virginia Governor Doug Wilder
1990 — Millard Fuller, Founder, Habitat for Humanity International
1989 — Benjamin Bradlee, Executive Editor, The Washington Post
1988 — PepsiCo CEO Wayne Calloway (’59)
1987 — North Carolina Governor James G. Martin
1986 — Doonesbury cartoonist Garry Trudeau
1985 — Reynolds Professor and Poet Maya Angelou
1984 — Bill Moyers, CBS News, Senior News Analyst
1983 — John William Gilbert, Member, British Parliament
1982 — Harris Llewellyn Wofford, Retired President, Bryn Mawr College
1981 — William Hampton Wagoner (’49), Chancellor, UNC-Wilmington
1980 — Merrimon Cuninggim, Retired president, Salem College
1979 — Peter Jay, British Ambassador to the United States
1978 — Shearon Harris (’36, JD ’38), Chairman, Carolina Power & Light Company
1977 — U.S. Representative Frank Thompson
1976 — Harry M. Philpott, President, Auburn University
1975 — U.S. Representative Barbara Jordan (D-Texas)
1974 — Alvin M. Weinberg, Director, Office of Energy Research and Development, and Former Director, Oak Ridge National Laboratory
1973 — Wallace Carroll, Publisher, Winston-Salem Journal and Sentinel
1972 — U.S. Representative Gerald R. Ford (R-Mich.)
1971 — Robert E.R. Huntley, President, Washington and Lee
1970 — Bill Moyers, Former Publisher, Newsday
1969 — President James Ralph Scales
1968 — J. Ollie Edmunds, Chancellor, Stetson University
1967 — Retiring President Harold W. Tribble
1966 — Vittorio Giannini, President, N.C. School of the Arts
1965 — Former N.C. Governor Terry Sanford
1964 — Edgar F. Shannon, President, University of Virginia
1963 — Luther H. Hodges, N.C. Secretary of Commerce
1962 — Liston Pope, Dean of the Divinity School, Yale University
1961 — Josef Nordenhaug, General Secretary, Baptist World Alliance
1960 — Lam Chi-Fung, President, Hong Kong Baptist College
1959 — Frances P. Gaines, President, Washington and Lee College and former president, Wake Forest College (1927-1930)
1958 — Kenneth I. Brown, Executive Director, Danforth Foundation
1957 — Gordon Gray, Director, Office of Defense Mobilization
1956 — Dr. Hubert Poteat, Professor of Latin and Romance Civilization
1955 — Gilbert T. Stephenson, Pendleton attorney
1954 — Rev. J. Clyde Turner, pastor, First Baptist Church, Greensboro
1953 — John S. Battle, Governor of Virginia
1952 — Robert P. Holding, President, First Citizens Bank and Trust Company, Smithfield
1951 — Colgate W. Darden, President, University of Virginia
1950 — Dr. Sankey Lee Blanton, Dean, School of Religion, Wake Forest College
1949 — Robert Lee Humber, founder, United World Federalists, Greenville
1948 — Dr. Kenneth Scott Latourette, professor of missions and Oriental history, Yale University
1947 — Dr. Theodore F. Adams, pastor, First Baptist Church, Richmond, Va.
1946 — Rev. George A. Buttrick, pastor, Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church, New York City
1945 — Dr. Sankey Lee Blanton, pastor, First Baptist Church, Wilmington
1944 — Gerald W. Johnson, Baltimore journalist and essayist
1943 — Emery B. Denny, associate justice, North Carolina Supreme Court
1942 — Julian Miller
1941 — J.W. Bailey, N.C. senator
1940 — F.P. Graham, president, University of North Carolina
1939 — S.C. Garrison, president, Peabody College
1938 — J.M. Broughton, N.C. senator
1937 — O.W. Henderson
1936 — George F. Zook, head of American Council on Education
1935 — Josephus Daniels, U.S. ambassador to Mexico
1934 — E.W. Sikes, president of Clemson College
1933 — Douglas S. Freeman, journalist and historian
1932 — W.E. Dodd, professor, University of Chicago
1931 — W.G. Brogdon
1930 — Clarence A. Barbour, president of Brown University
1929 — E.W. Sikes, president of Clemson College
1928 — J.C. Metcalf
1927 — J.H. Finley
1926 — Walter Lippmann, writer and political commentator
1925 — Joseph Fort Newton, Baptist minister and masonic author
1924 — Charles E. Jefferson, pastor, Broadway Tabernacle, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1923 — John Erskine, writer and professor, Columbia College
1922 — George William Coleman, president, Babson Institute
1921 — Josephus Daniels, editor, Raleigh News & Observer
1920 — A.C. Dixon, pastor, Metropolitan Tabernacle, London
1919 — J.H. Randall
1918 — E.Y. Webb, N.C. representative
1917 — Henry C. King, president, Oberlin College
1916 — O.P. Gifford, pastor, Delaware Avenue Baptist Church, Buffalo, N.Y.
1915 — Cornelius Woelfkin, pastor, Park Avenue Baptist Church, New York
1914 — Simeon E. Baldwin, governor of Connecticut
1913 — Hugh Black, author, chair of Practical Theology, Union Theological Seminary
1912 — Newell Dwight Hillis, pastor, Plymouth Church of the Pilgrims, Brooklyn, N.Y.
1911 — Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor, First Baptist Church, Montclair, N.J.
1910 — G.W. Truett, pastor, First Baptist Church, Dallas
1909 — J.C. Kilgo, president, Trinity College
1908 — R.W. Taylor, N.C. Senator
1907 — Ira Remsen, president, Johns Hopkins University
1906 — Bliss Perry, editor, Atlantic Monthly
1905 — B.D. Gray, secretary, Home Mission Board
1904 — C.S. Gardner, professor of sociology and homiletics, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
1903 — R.P. Johnson, Baptist minister from New York
1902 — Shailer Matthews, professor, University of Chicago
1901 — Tom Dixon Jr., lecturer
1900 — A.W. Small, professor, University of Chicago
1899 — W.P. Trent, president, University of the South
1898 — E.B. Andrews, president, Brown University
1897 — M.W. Ransom, N.C. senator
1896 — B.H. Carroll, pastor
1895 — T.W. Mason, N.C. Railroad Commission
1894 — F.C. McConnell, pastor
1893 — J.C. Hiden, pastor, Richmond, Va.
1892 — Six alumni: J.C. Scarborough, C.M. Cooke, J.D. Hufham, T.H. Pritchard, E.E. Hilliard, G.W. Sanderlin
1891 — H.W. Battle, pastor
1890 — Tom Dixon Jr., pastor, Dudley Street Church, Boston
1889 — William L. Wilson, U.S. representative, West Virginia
1888 — Z.B. Vance, U.S. Senator, N.C.
1887 — M.W. Ransom, N.C. senator
1886 — W.E. Hatcher, pastor
1885 — R.F. Armfield, N.C. representative
1884 — Jesse B. Thomas, Baptist minister and teacher
1883 — Henry McDonald
1882 — Charles F. Deems, pastor, Mercer Street Presbyterian Church, New York
1881 — J.B. Hawthorne, pastor, Atlanta
1880 — Dr. David R. Wallace, psychiatrist
1879 — M.W. Ransom, N.C. senator
1878 — Henry McDonald, pastor, Richmond and Atlanta
1877 — D.G. Fowle, N.C. attorney general
1876 — W.M. Robbins, N.C. representative (not able to be present, address read)
1875 — A.M. Waddell, N.C. representative
1874 — Seaton Gales, editor, Raleigh Register
1873 — A.S. Merrimon, N.C. senator
1872 — Z.B. Vance, former governor of N.C.
1871 — J.L.M. Curry, professor, Richmond College
1870 — John Kerr, judge
1869 — J.C. Hiden, pastor, Wilmington Baptist Church
1868 — L.P. Olds, lawyer and politician