Malcolm X： The Ballot or the Bullet
The question tonight, as I understand it, is The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here? or What Next? In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.
Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself.
Im still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam.
Thats my personal belief.
Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr.
Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess youve heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means ough Im still a Muslim, Im not here tonight to discuss my religion.
Im not here to try and change your religion.
Im not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because its time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether youre a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist.
Whether youre educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, youre going to catch hell just like I am.
Were all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man.
He just happens to be a white man.
All of us have suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white in speaking like this, it doesnt mean that were anti-white, but it does mean were anti-exploitation, were anti-degradation, were anti-oppression.
And if the white man doesnt want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us.
Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences.
If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man.
If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each we dont do something real soon, I think youll have to agree that were going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet.
Its one or the other in 1964.
It isnt that time is running out -- time has run out!1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed.
The most explosive year.
Why? Its also a political year.
Its the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes.
The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they dont intend to keep.
As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of black man on the scene in America today -- Im sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesnt intend to turn the other cheek any let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you.
If they draft you, they send you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese.
If you can be brave over there, you can be brave right here.
These odds arent as great as those odds.
And if you fight here, you will at least know what youre fighting not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, Im not a student of much of anything.
Im not a Democrat.
Im not a Republican, and I dont even consider myself an American.
If you and I were Americans, thered be no problem.
Those Honkies that just got off the boat, theyre already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans.
Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American.
And as long as you and I have been over here, we arent Americans , I am one who doesnt believe in deluding myself.
Im not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner.
Sitting at the table doesnt make you a diner, unless you eat some of whats on that plate.
Being here in America doesnt make you an American.
Being born here in America doesnt make you an American.
Why, if birth made you American, you wouldnt need any legislation; you wouldnt need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldnt be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now.
They dont have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an , Im not an American.
Im one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism.
One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.
So, Im not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver -- no, not I.
Im speaking as a victim of this American system.
And I see America through the eyes of the victim.
I dont see any American dream; I see an American e 22 million victims are waking up.
Their eyes are coming open.
Theyre beginning to see what they used to only look at.
Theyre becoming politically mature.
They are realizing that there are new political trends from coast to coast.
As they see these new political trends, its possible for them to see that every time theres an election the races are so close that they have to have a recount.
They had to recount in Massachusetts to see who was going to be governor, it was so close.
It was the same way in Rhode Island, in Minnesota, and in many other parts of the country.
And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they ran for president.
It was so close they had to count all over again.
Well, what does this mean? It means that when white people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine whos going to sit in the White House and whos going to be in the dog .
was the black mans vote that put the present administration in Washington, D.C.
Your vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration in Washington, D.C., that has seen fit to pass every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last, then filibustering on top of that.
And your and my leaders have the audacity to run around clapping their hands and talk about how much progress were making.
And what a good president we have.
If he wasnt good in Texas, he sure cant be good in Washington, D.C.
Because Texas is a lynch state.
It is in the same breath as Mississippi, no different; only they lynch you in Texas with a Texas accent and lynch you in Mississippi with a Mississippi accent.
And these Negro leaders have the audacity to go and have some coffee in the White House with a Texan, a Southern cracker -- thats all he is -- and then come out and tell you and me that hes going to be better for us because, since hes from the South, he knows how to deal with the Southerners.
What kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be president, hes from the South too.
He should be better able to deal with them than this present administration they have in the House of Representatives 257 Democrats to only 177 Republicans.
They control two-thirds of the House vote.
Why cant they pass something that will help you and me? In the Senate, there are 67 senators who are of the Democratic Party.
Only 33 of them are Republicans.
Why, the Democrats have got the government sewed up, and youre the one who sewed it up for them.
And what have they given you for it? Four years in office, and just now getting around to some civil-rights legislation.
Just now, after everything else is gone, out of the way, theyre going to sit down now and play with you all summer long -- the same old giant con game that they call filibuster.
All those are in cahoots together.
Dont you ever think theyre not in cahoots together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights filibuster is a man from Georgia named Richard Russell.
When Johnson became president, the first man he asked for when he got back to Washington, D.C., was Dicky -- thats how tight they are.
Thats his boy, thats his pal, thats his buddy.
But theyre playing that old con game.
One of them makes believe hes for you, and hes got it fixed where the other one is so tight against you, he never has to keep his its time in 1964 to wake up.
And when you see them coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open.
And let them know you -- something else thats wide open too.
Its got to be the ballot or the bullet.
The ballot or the bullet.
If youre afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country; you should get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the alley.
They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return.
All they did when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs.
Those big Negroes didnt need big jobs, they already had jobs.
Thats camouflage, thats trickery, thats treachery, window-dressing.
Im not trying to knock out the Democrats for the Republicans.
Well get to them in a minute.
But it is true; you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you at it the way it is.
What alibis do they use, since they control Congress and the Senate? What alibi do they use when you and I ask, Well, when are you going to keep your promise? They blame the Dixiecrats.
What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat.
A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.
The titular head of the Democrats is also the head of the Dixiecrats, because the Dixiecrats are a part of the Democratic Party.
The Democrats have never kicked the Dixiecrats out of the party.
The Dixiecrats bolted themselves once, but the Democrats didnt put them out.
Imagine, these lowdown Southern segregationists put the Northern Democrats down.
But the Northern Democrats have never put the Dixiecrats down.
No, look at that thing the way it is.
They have got a con game going on, a political con game, and you and I are in the middle.
Its time for you and me to wake up and start looking at it like it is, and trying to understand it like it is; and then we can deal with it like it Dixiecrats in Washington, D.C., control the key committees that run the government.
The only reason the Dixiecrats control these committees is because they have seniority.
The only reason they have seniority is because they come from states where Negroes cant vote.
This is not even a government thats based on democracy.
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is not a government that is made up of representatives of the people.
Half of the people in the South cant even vote.
Eastland is not even supposed to be in Washington.
Half of the senators and congressmen who occupy these key positions in Washington, D.C., are there illegally, are there unconstitutionally.I was in Washington, D.C., a week ago Thursday, when they were debating whether or not they should let the bill come onto the floor.
And in the back of the room where the Senate meets, theres a huge map of the United States, and on that map it shows the location of Negroes throughout the country.
And it shows that the Southern section of the country, the states that are most heavily concentrated with Negroes, are the ones that have senators and congressmen standing up filibustering and doing all other kinds of trickery to keep the Negro from being able to vote.
This is pitiful.
But its not pitiful for us any longer; its actually pitiful for the white man, because soon now, as the Negro awakens a little more and sees the vise that hes in, sees the bag that hes in, sees the real game that hes in, then the Negros going to develop a new e senators and congressmen actually violate the constitutional amendments that guarantee the people of that particular state or county the right to vote.
And the Constitution itself has within it the machinery to expel any representative from a state where the voting rights of the people are violated.
You dont even need new legislation.
Any person in Congress right now, who is there from a state or a district where the voting rights of the people are violated, that particular person should be expelled from Congress.
And when you expel him, youve removed one of the obstacles in the path of any real meaningful legislation in this country.
In fact, when you expel them, you dont need new legislation, because they will be replaced by black representatives from counties and districts where the black man is in the majority, not in the the black man in these Southern states had his full voting rights, the key Dixiecrats in Washington, D.
C., which means the key Democrats in Washington, D.C., would lose their seats.
The Democratic Party itself would lose its power.
It would cease to be powerful as a party.
When you see the amount of power that would be lost by the Democratic Party if it were to lose the Dixiecrat wing, or branch, or element, you can see where its against the interests of the Democrats to give voting rights to Negroes in states where the Democrats have been in complete power and authority ever since the Civil War.
You just cant belong to that Party without analyzing it.I say again, Im not anti-Democrat, Im not anti-Republican, Im not anti-anything.
Im just questioning their sincerity, and some of the strategy that theyve been using on our people by promising them promises that they dont intend to keep.
When you keep the Democrats in power, youre keeping the Dixiecrats in power.
I doubt that my good Brother Lomax will deny that.
A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a Dixiecrat.
Thats why, in 1964, its time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what were supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we dont cast a ballot, its going to end up in a situation where were going to have to cast a bullet.
Its either a ballot or a the North, they do it a different way.
They have a system thats known as gerrymandering, whatever that means.
It means when Negroes become too heavily concentrated in a certain area, and begin to gain too much political power, the white man comes along and changes the district lines.
You may say, Why do you keep saying white man? Because its the white man who does it.
I havent ever seen any Negro changing any lines.
They dont let him get near the line.
Its the white man who does this.
And usually, its the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend.
He may be friendly, but hes not your , what Im trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, were faced with a government conspiracy.
Everyone whos filibustering is a senator -- thats the government.
Everyone whos finagling in Washington, D.C., is a congressman -- thats the government.
You dont have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the government.
The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education.
You dont need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country.
And you should drop it in their lap.
This government has failed the Negro.
This so-called democracy has failed the Negro.
And all these white liberals have definitely failed the , where do we go from here? First, we need some friends.
We need some new allies.
The entire civil-rights struggle needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation.
We need to look at this civil-rights thing from another angle -- from the inside as well as from the outside.
To those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, the only way you can get involved in the civil-rights struggle is give it a new interpretation.
That old interpretation excluded us.
It kept us out.
So, were giving a new interpretation to the civil-rights struggle, an interpretation that will enable us to come into it, take part in it.
And these handkerchief-heads who have been dillydallying and pussy footing and compromising -- we dont intend to let them pussyfoot and dillydally and compromise any can you thank a man for giving you whats already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of whats already yours? You havent even made progress, if whats being given to you, you should have had already.
Thats not progress.
And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out were right back where we were in 1954.
Were not even as far up as we were in 1954.
Were behind where we were in 1954.
Theres more segregation now than there was in 1954.
Theres more racial animosity, more racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than there was in 1954.
Where is the progress?And now youre facing a situation where the young Negros coming up.
They dont want to hear that turn the-other-cheek stuff, no.
In Jacksonville, those were teenagers, they were throwing Molotov cocktails.
Negroes have never done that before.
But it shows you theres a new deal coming in.
Theres new thinking coming in.
Theres new strategy coming in.
Itll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and something else next month.
Itll be ballots, or itll be bullets.
Itll be liberty, or it will be death.
The only difference about this kind of death -- itll be reciprocal.
You know what is meant by reciprocal? Thats one of Brother Lomaxs words.
I stole it from him.
I dont usually deal with those big words because I dont usually deal with big people.
I deal with small people.
I find you can get a whole lot of small people and whip hell out of a whole lot of big people.
They havent got anything to lose, and theyve got every thing to gain.
And theyll let you know in a minute: It takes two to tango; when I go, you black nationalists, those whose philosophy is black nationalism, in bringing about this new interpretation of the entire meaning of civil rights, look upon it as meaning, as Brother Lomax has pointed out, equality of opportunity.
Well, were justified in seeking civil rights, if it means equality of opportunity, because all were doing there is trying to collect for our investment.
Our mothers and fathers invested sweat and blood.
Three hundred and ten years we worked in this country without a dime in return -- I mean without a dime in return.
You let the white man walk around here talking about how rich this country is, but you never stop to think how it got rich so quick.
It got rich because you made it take the people who are in this audience right now.
Theyre poor.
Were all poor as individuals.
Our weekly salary individually amounts to hardly anything.
But if you take the salary of everyone in here collectively, itll fill up a whole lot of baskets.
Its a lot of wealth.
If you can collect the wages of just these people right here for a year, youll be rich -- richer than rich.
When you look at it like that, think how rich Uncle Sam had to become, not with this handful, but millions of black people.
Your and my mother and father, who didnt work an eight-hour shift, but worked from cant see in the morning until cant see at night, and worked for nothing, making the white man rich, making Uncle Sam rich.
This is our investment.
This is our contribution, our only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood.
Every time he had a call to arms, we were the first ones in uniform.
We died on every battlefield the white man had.
We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody whos standing up in America today.
We have made a greater contribution and have collected less.
Civil rights, for those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, means: Give it to us now.
Dont wait for next year.
Give it to us yesterday, and thats not fast enough.I might stop right here to point out one thing.
Whenever youre going after something that belongs to you, anyone whos depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal.
Understand that.
Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay claim to it.
And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive you of that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a criminal.
And this was pointed out by the Supreme Court decision.
It outlawed h means segregation is against the law.
Which means a segregationist is breaking the law.
A segregationist is a criminal.
You cant label him as anything other than that.
And when you demonstrate against segregation, the law is on your side.
The Supreme Court is on your , who is it that opposes you in carrying out the law? The police department itself.
With police dogs and clubs.
Whenever you demonstrate against segregation, whether it is segregated education, segregated housing, or anything else, the law is on your side, and anyone who stands in the way is not the law any longer.
They are breaking the law; they are not representatives of the law.
Any time you demonstrate against segregation and a man has the audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog, kill him, Im telling you, kill that dog.
I say it, if they put me in jail tomorrow, kill that dog.
Then youll put a stop to it.
Now, if these white people in here dont want to see that kind of action, get down and tell the mayor to tell the police department to pull the dogs in.
Thats all you have to do.
If you dont do it, someone else you dont take this kind of stand, your little children will grow up and look at you and think shame.
If you dont take an uncompromising stand, I dont mean go out and get violent; but at the same time you should never be nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence.
Im nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me.
But when you drop that violence on me, then youve made me go insane, and Im not responsible for what I do.
And thats the way every Negro should get.
Any time you know youre within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in.
But dont die alone.
Let your dying be reciprocal.
This is what is meant by equality.
Whats good for the goose is good for the we begin to get in this area, we need new friends, we need new allies.
We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level -- to the level of human rights.
Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam.
No one from the outside world can speak out in your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle.
Civil rights comes within the domestic affairs of this country.
All of our African brothers and our Asian brothers and our Latin-American brothers cannot open their mouths and interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States.
And as long as its civil rights, this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle the United Nations has whats known as the charter of human rights; it has a committee that deals in human rights.
You may wonder why all of the atrocities that have been committed in Africa and in Hungary and in Asia, and in Latin America are brought before the UN, and the Negro problem is never brought before the UN.
This is part of the conspiracy.
This old, tricky blue eyed liberal who is supposed to be your and my friend, supposed to be in our corner, supposed to be subsidizing our struggle, and supposed to be acting in the capacity of an adviser, never tells you anything about human rights.
They keep you wrapped up in civil rights.
And you spend so much time barking up the civil-rights tree, you dont even know theres a human-rights tree on the same you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the UN.
You can take it before the General Assembly.
You can take Uncle Sam before a world court.
But the only level you can do it on is the level of human rights.
Civil rights keeps you under his restrictions, under his jurisdiction.
Civil rights keeps you in his pocket.
Civil rights means youre asking Uncle Sam to treat you right.
Human rights are something you were born with.
Human rights are your God-given rights.
Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth.
And any time any one violates your human rights, you can take them to the world court.
Uncle Sams hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the blood of the black man in this country.
Hes the earths number-one hypocrite.
He has the audacity -- yes, he has -- imagine him posing as the leader of the free world.
The free world! And you over here singing We Shall Overcome.
Expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights.
Take it into the United Nations, where our African brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our Asian brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our Latin-American brothers can throw their weight on our side, and where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there waiting to throw their weight on our the world know how bloody his hands are.
Let the world know the hypocrisy thats practiced over here.
Let it be the ballot or the bullet.
Let him know that it must be the ballot or the bullet.
When you take your case to Washington, D.C., youre taking it to the criminal whos responsible; its like running from the wolf to the fox.
Theyre all in cahoots together.
They all work political chicanery and make you look like a chump before the eyes of the world.
Here you are walking around in America, getting ready to be drafted and sent abroad, like a tin soldier, and when you get over there, people ask you what are you fighting for, and you have to stick your tongue in your cheek.
No, take Uncle Sam to court, take him before the ballot I only mean freedom.
Dont you know -- I disagree with Lomax on this issue -- that the ballot is more important than the dollar? Can I prove it? Yes.
Look in the UN.
There are poor nations in the UN; yet those poor nations can get together with their voting power and keep the rich nations from making a move.
They have one nation -- one vote, everyone has an equal vote.
And when those brothers from Asia, and Africa and the darker parts of this earth get together, their voting power is sufficient to hold Sam in check.
Or Russia in check.
Or some other section of the earth in check.
So, the ballot is most t now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-Americans -- thats what we are -- Africans who are in America.
Youre nothing but Africans.
Nothing but Africans.
In fact, youd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro.
Africans dont catch hell.
Youre the only one catching hell.
They dont have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans.
An African can go anywhere he wants right now.
All youve got to do is tie your head up.
Thats right, go anywhere you want.
Just stop being a Negro.
Change your name to Hoogagagooba.
Thatll show you how silly the white man is.
Youre dealing with a silly man.
A friend of mine whos very dark put a turban on his head and went into a restaurant in Atlanta before they called themselves desegregated.
He went into a white restaurant, he sat down, they served him, and he said, What would happen if a Negro came in here? And there hes sitting, black as night, but because he had his head wrapped up the waitress looked back at him and says, Why, there wouldnt no nigger dare come in , youre dealing with a man whose bias and prejudice are making him lose his mind, his intelligence, every day.
Hes frightened.
He looks around and sees whats taking place on this earth, and he sees that the pendulum of time is swinging in your direction.
The dark people are waking up.
Theyre losing their fear of the white man.
No place where hes fighting right now is he winning.
Everywhere hes fighting, hes fighting someone your and my complexion.
And theyre beating him.
He cant win any more.
Hes won his last battle.
He failed to win the Korean War.
He couldnt win it.
He had to sign a truce.
Thats a time Uncle Sam, with all his machinery for warfare, is held to a draw by some rice eaters, hes lost the battle.
He had to sign a truce.
Americas not supposed to sign a truce.
Shes supposed to be bad.
But shes not bad any more.
Shes bad as long as she can use her hydrogen bomb, but she cant use hers for fear Russia might use hers.
Russia cant use hers, for fear that Sam might use his.
So, both of them are weapon-less.
They cant use the weapon because eachs weapon nullifies the others.
So the only place where action can take place is on the ground.
And the white man cant win another war fighting on the ground.
Those days are over The black man knows it, the brown man knows it, the red man knows it, and the yellow man knows it.
So they engage him in guerrilla warfare.
Thats not his style.
Youve got to have heart to be a guerrilla warrior, and he hasnt got any heart.
Im telling you now.I just want to give you a little briefing on guerrilla warfare because, before you know it, before you know it.
It takes heart to be a guerrilla warrior because youre on your own.
In conventional warfare you have tanks and a whole lot of other people with you to back you up -- planes over your head and all that kind of stuff.
But a guerrilla is on his own.
All you have is a rifle, some sneakers and a bowl of rice, and thats all you need -- and a lot of heart.
The Japanese on some of those islands in the Pacific, when the American soldiers landed, one Japanese sometimes could hold the whole army off.
Hed just wait until the sun went down, and when the sun went down they were all equal.
He would take his little blade and slip from bush to bush, and from American to American.
The white soldiers couldnt cope with that.
Whenever you see a white soldier that fought in the Pacific, he has the shakes, he has a nervous condition, because they scared him to same thing happened to the French up in French Indochina.
People who just a few years previously were rice farmers got together and ran the heavily-mechanized French army out of Indochina.
You dont need it -- modern warfare today wont work.
This is the day of the guerrilla.
They did the same thing in Algeria.
Algerians, who were nothing but Bedouins, took a rine and sneaked off to the hills, and de Gaulle and all of his highfalutin war machinery couldnt defeat those guerrillas.
Nowhere on this earth does the white man win in a guerrilla warfare.
Its not his speed.
Just as guerrilla warfare is prevailing in Asia and in parts of Africa and in parts of Latin America, youve got to be mighty naive, or youve got to play the black man cheap, if you dont think some day hes going to wake up and find that its got to be the ballot or the bullet.l would like to say, in closing, a few things concerning the Muslim Mosque, Inc., which we established recently in New York City.
Its true were Muslims and our religion is Islam, but we dont mix our religion with our politics and our economics and our social and civil activities -- not any more We keep our religion in our mosque.
After our religious services are over, then as Muslims we become involved in political action, economic action and social and civic action.
We become involved with anybody, any where, any time and in any manner thats designed to eliminate the evils, the political, economic and social evils that are afflicting the people of our political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more.
The black man in the black community has to be re-educated into the science of politics so he will know what politics is supposed to bring him in return.
Dont be throwing out any ballots.
A ballot is like a bullet.
You dont throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.
The political philosophy of black nationalism is being taught in the Christian church.
Its being taught in the NAACP.
Its being taught in CORE meetings.
Its being taught in SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee meetings.
Its being taught in Muslim meetings.
Its being taught where nothing but atheists and agnostics come together.
Its being taught everywhere.
Black people are fed up with the dillydallying, pussyfooting, compromising approach that weve been using toward getting our freedom.
We want freedom now, but were not going to get it saying We Shall Overcome.
Weve got to fight until we economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and simple.
It only means that we should control the economy of our community.
Why should white people be running all the stores in our community? Why should white people be running the banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the hands of the white man? Why? If a black man cant move his store into a white community, you tell me why a white man should move his store into a black community.
The philosophy of black nationalism involves a re-education program in the black community in regards to economics.
Our people have to be made to see that any time you take your dollar out of your community and spend it in a community where you dont live, the community where you live will get poorer and poorer, and the community where you spend your money will get richer and you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or a slum area.
And where you and I are concerned, not only do we lose it when we spend it out of the community, but the white man has got all our stores in the community tied up; so that though we spend it in the community, at sundown the man who runs the store takes it over across town somewhere.
Hes got us in a the economic philosophy of black nationalism means in every church, in every civic organization, in every fraternal order, its time now for our people to be come conscious of the importance of controlling the economy of our community.
If we own the stores, if we operate the businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own community, then were developing to the position where we are creating employment for our own kind.
Once you gain control of the economy of your own community, then you dont have to picket and boycott and beg some cracker downtown for a job in his social philosophy of black nationalism only means that we have to get together and remove the evils, the vices, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are destroying the moral fiber of our community.
We our selves have to lift the level of our community, the standard of our community to a higher level, make our own society beautiful so that we will be satisfied in our own social circles and wont be running around here trying to knock our way into a social circle where were not wanted.
So I say, in spreading a gospel such as black nationalism, it is not designed to make the black man re-evaluate the white man -- you know him already -- but to make the black man re-evaluate himself.
Dont change the white mans mind -- you cant change his mind, and that whole thing about appealing to the moral conscience of America -- Americas conscience is bankrupt.
She lost all conscience a long time ago.
Uncle Sam has no dont know what morals are.
They dont try and eliminate an evil because its evil, or because its illegal, or because its immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens their existence.
So youre wasting your time appealing to the moral conscience of a bankrupt man like Uncle Sam.
If he had a conscience, hed straighten this thing out with no more pressure being put upon him.
So it is not necessary to change the white mans mind.
We have to change our own mind.
You cant change his mind about us.
Weve got to change our own minds about each other.
We have to see each other with new eyes.
We have to see each other as brothers and sisters.
We have to come together with warmth so we can develop unity and harmony thats necessary to get this problem solved ourselves.
How can we do this? How can we avoid jealousy? How can we avoid the suspicion and the divisions that exist in the community? Ill tell you how.I have watched how Billy Graham comes into a city, spreading what he calls the gospel of Christ, which is only white nationalism.
Thats what he is.
Billy Graham is a white nationalist; Im a black nationalist.
But since its the natural tendency for leaders to be jealous and look upon a powerful figure like Graham with suspicion and envy, how is it possible for him to come into a city and get all the cooperation of the church leaders? Dont think because theyre church leaders that they dont have weaknesses that make them envious and jealous -- no, everybodys got it.
Its not an accident that when they want to choose a cardinal, as Pope I over there in Rome, they get in a closet so you cant hear them cussing and fighting and carrying y Graham comes in preaching the gospel of Christ.
He evangelizes the gospel.
He stirs everybody up, but he never tries to start a church.
If he came in trying to start a church, all the churches would be against him.
So, he just comes in talking about Christ and tells everybody who gets Christ to go to any church where Christ is; and in this way the church cooperates with him.
So were going to take a page from his gospel is black nationalism.
Were not trying to threaten the existence of any organization, but were spreading the gospel of black nationalism.
Anywhere theres a church that is also preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join that church.
If the NAACP is preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join the NAACP.
If CORE is spreading and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join CORE.
Join any organization that has a gospel thats for the uplift of the black man.
And when you get into it and see them pussyfooting or compromising, pull out of it because thats not black nationalism.
Well find another in this manner, the organizations will increase in number and in quantity and in quality, and by August, it is then our intention to have a black nationalist convention which will consist of delegates from all over the country who are interested in the political, economic and social philosophy of black nationalism.
After these delegates convene, we will hold a seminar; we will hold discussions; we will listen to everyone.
We want to hear new ideas and new solutions and new answers.
And at that time, if we see fit then to form a black nationalist party, well form a black nationalist party.
If its necessary to form a black nationalist army, well form a black nationalist army.
Itll be the ballot or the bullet.
Itll be liberty or itll be time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some cracker senators, Northern crackers and Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights.
Theres no white man going to tell me anything about my rights.
Brothers and sisters, always remember, if it doesnt take senators and congressmen and presidential proclamations to give freedom to the white man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation or Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the black man.
You let that white man know, if this is a country of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if its not a country of freedom, change will work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, who is genuinely interested in tackling the problem head-on, nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent when the enemy gets violent.
Well work with you on the voter-registration drive, well work with you on rent strikes, well work with you on school boycotts; I dont believe in any kind of integration; Im not even worried about it, because I know youre not going to get it anyway; youre not going to get it because youre afraid to die; youve got to be ready to die if you try and force yourself on the white man, because hell get just as violent as those crackers in Mississippi, right here in Cleveland.
But we will still work with you on the school boycotts be cause were against a segregated school system.
A segregated school system produces children who, when they graduate, graduate with crippled minds.
But this does not mean that a school is segregated because its all black.
A segregated school means a school that is controlled by people who have no real interest in it me explain what I mean.
A segregated district or community is a community in which people live, but outsiders control the politics and the economy of that community.
They never refer to the white section as a segregated community.
Its the all-Negro section thats a segregated community.
Why? The white man controls his own school, his own bank, his own economy, his own politics, his own everything, his own community; but he also controls yours.
When youre under someone elses control, youre segregated.
Theyll always give you the lowest or the worst that there is to offer, but it doesnt mean youre segregated just because you have your own.
Youve got to control your own.
Just like the white man has control of his, you need to control know the best way to get rid of segregation? The white man is more afraid of separation than he is of integration.
Segregation means that he puts you away from him, but not far enough for you to be out of his jurisdiction; separation means youre gone.
And the white man will integrate faster than hell let you separate.
So we will work with you against the segregated school system because its criminal, because it is absolutely destructive, in every way imaginable, to the minds of the children who have to be exposed to that type of crippling but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and shotguns.
The only thing that Ive ever said is that in areas where the government has proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of Negroes, its time for Negroes to defend themselves.
Article number two of the constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun.
It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle.
This doesnt mean youre going to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although youd be within your rights -- I mean, youd be justified; but that would be illegal and we dont do anything illegal.
If the white man doesnt want the black man buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its s all.
And dont let the white man come to you and ask you what you think about what Malcolm says -- why, you old Uncle Tom.
He would never ask you if he thought you were going to say, Amen! No, he is making a Tom out of you.
So, this doesnt mean forming rifle clubs and going out looking for people, but it is time, in 1964, if you are a man, to let that man hes not going to do his job in running the government and providing you and me with the protection that our taxes are supposed to be for, since he spends all those billions for his defense budget, he certainly cant begrudge you and me spending $12 or $15 for a single-shot, or double-action.
I hope you understand.
Dont go out shooting people, but any time -- brothers and sisters, and especially the men in this audience; some of you wearing Congressional Medals of Honor, with shoulders this wide, chests this big, muscles that big -- any time you and I sit around and read where they bomb a church and murder in cold blood, not some grownups, but four little girls while they were praying to the same God the white man taught them to pray to, and you and I see the government go down and cant find who did , this man -- he can find Eichmann hiding down in Argentina somewhere.
Let two or three American soldiers, who are minding somebody elses business way over in South Vietnam, get killed, and hell send battleships, sticking his nose in their business.
He wanted to send troops down to Cuba and make them have what he calls free elections -- this old cracker who doesnt have free elections in his own country.
No, if you never see me another time in your life, if I die in the morning, Ill die saying one thing: the ballot or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet.
If a Negro in 1964 has to sit around and wait for some cracker senator to filibuster when it comes to the rights of black people, why, you and I should hang our heads in shame.
You talk about a march on Washington in 1963, you havent seen anything.
Theres some more going down in 64.
And this time theyre not going like they went last year.
Theyre not going singing We Shall Overcome.
Theyre not going with white friends.
Theyre not going with placards already painted for them.
Theyre not going with round-trip tickets.
Theyre going with one way tickets.
And if they dont want that non-nonviolent army going down there, tell them to bring the filibuster to a black nationalists arent going to wait.
Lyndon B.
Johnson is the head of the Democratic Party.
If hes for civil rights, let him go into the Senate next week and declare himself.
Let him go in there right now and declare himself.
Let him go in there and denounce the Southern branch of his party.
Let him go in there right now and take a moral stand -- right now, not later.
Tell him, dont wait until election time.
If he waits too long, brothers and sisters, he will be responsible for letting a condition develop in this country which will create a climate that will bring seeds up out of the ground with vegetation on the end of them looking like something these people never dreamed of.
In 1964, its the ballot or the k you.
