Malcolm X April 3, 1964 , Ballot or Bullet speech
kangarooistan
http://www.historicaldocuments.com/BallotortheBulletMalcolmX.htm
Malcolm X April 3, 1964 Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio
[1] Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and
enemies: I just can't believe everyone in here is a friend and I don't
want to leave anybody out.
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.
[2] Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the
bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. I'm still
a Muslim, my religion is still Islam. That's 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
Rev. Galamison, I guess you've 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 necessary.
[3] Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to discuss my
religion. I'm not here to try and change your religion. I'm not here
to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because it's 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 you're a Baptist, or a
Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're educated or
illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're
going to catch hell just like I am. We're 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 man.
[4] Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white,
but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-degradation,
we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't 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 other.
[5] If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree
that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet.
It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't 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? It's also a
political year. It's 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 don't 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 --
I'm sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesn't intend to turn the other
cheek any longer.
[6] Don't 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 aren't as great as those odds. And if you fight
here, you will at least know what you're fighting for.
[7] I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I'm
not a student of much of anything. I'm not a Democrat, I'm not a
Republican, and I don't even consider myself an American. If you and I
were Americans, there'd be no problem. Those Hunkies that just got off
the boat, they're 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 aren't Americans yet.
[8] Well, I am one who doesn't believe in deluding myself. I'm 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 doesn't make you
a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in
America doesn't make you an American. Being born here in America
doesn't make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you
wouldn't need any legislation, you wouldn't need any amendments to the
Constitution, you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in
Washington, D.C., right now. They don't have to pass civil-rights
legislation to make a Polack an American.
[9] No, I'm not an American. I'm 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,
I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or
a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver -- no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim
of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the
victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.
[10] These 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming
open.
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