Colin Powell’s Commencement Speech at Howard University in 1994 touched the hearts of many attendee’s that day and continues to touch the hearts of others till today. In his speech, he focuses on two main topics, freedom of speech, racism and the fight against racism. Colin Powell starts his speech off with an immediate, attention, grabbing opening. He says, “The real challenge in being a commencement speaker is figuring out how long to speak. The graduating students want a short speech, five to six minutes and let’s get it over. They are not going to remember who their commencement speaker was anyways. P O W E L L.” This is a strong start and an easy attention grabbing gimmick. It also helped create a high-spirited environment to help the
