[News] Malcolm X: The Ballot or the Bullet

[News at freedomarchives.org]

<http://www.indiana.edu/~rterrill/Text-BorB.html>http://www.indiana.edu/~rterrill/Text-BorB.html
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Ballot or the Bullet

Malcolm X

April 3, 1964

------------------------------------------------------------------------


[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. 
They're beginning to see what they used to only look at. They're becoming 
politically mature. They are realizing that there are new political trends 
from coast to coast. As they see these new political trends, it's possible 
for them to see that every time there's 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 who's going to sit in the 
White House and who's going to be in the dog house.

[11] It was the black man's vote that put the present administration in 
Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted 
vote put in an ad ministration 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 we're 
making. And what a good president we have. If he wasn't good in Texas, he 
sure can't 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 -- that's all he 
is -- and then come out and tell you and me that he's going to be better 
for us because, since he's from the South, he knows how to deal with the 
Southerners. What kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be president, he's 
from the South too. He should be better able to deal with them than Johnson.

[12] In 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 can't 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 you're 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, they're 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. Don't you ever think they're 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" -- 
that's how tight they are. That's his boy, that's his pal, that's his 
buddy. But they're playing that old con game. One of them makes believe 
he's for you, and he's got it fixed where the other one is so tight against 
you, he never has to keep his promise.

[13] So it's 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 got something else that's wide open too. It's got to be the ballot 
or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet. If you're 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 didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's 
camouflage, that's trickery, that's treachery, window-dressing. I'm not 
trying to knock out the Democrats for the Republicans, we'll get to them in 
a minute. But it is true -- you put the Democrats first and the Democrats 
put you last.

[14] Look 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 didn't 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. It's 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 is.

[15] The 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 can't vote. This is not even a 
government that's based on democracy. It is not a government that is made 
up of representatives of the people. Half of the people in the South can't 
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.

[16] 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, there's 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 it's not pitiful for us any longer; it's actually pitiful for 
the white man, because soon now, as the Negro awakens a little more and 
sees the vise that he's in, sees the bag that he's in, sees the real game 
that he's in, then the Negro's going to develop a new tactic.

[17] These 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 don't 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, you've removed one of the obstacles in 
the path of any real meaningful legislation in this country. In fact, when 
you expel them, you don't 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 minority.

[18] If 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 it's 
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 can't belong to that Party without analyzing it.

[19] I say again, I'm not anti-Democrat, I'm not anti Republican, I'm not 
anti-anything. I'm just questioning their sincerity, and some of the 
strategy that they've been using on our people by promising them promises 
that they don't intend to keep. When you keep the Democrats in power, 
you're 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. That's 
why, in 1964, it's time now for you and me to become more politically 
mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we're sup posed to get when 
we cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up 
in a situation where we're going to have to cast a bullet. It's either a 
ballot or a bullet.

[20] In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system that's 
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 it's the white man 
who does it. I haven't ever seen any Negro changing any lines. They don't 
let him get near the line. It's the white man who does this. And usually, 
it's 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 he's not your friend.

[21] So, what I'm trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: You and 
I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we're faced 
with a government conspiracy. Everyone who's filibustering is a senator -- 
that's the government. Everyone who's finagling in Washington, D.C., is a 
congressman -- that's the government. You don't 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 don't 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 Negro.

[22] So, 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, 
we're 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 don't intend to let them pussyfoot and dillydally and 
compromise any longer.

[23] How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then 
can you thank him for giving you only part of what's already yours? You 
haven't even made progress, if what's being given to you, you should have 
had already. That's not progress. And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he 
pointed out we're right back where we were in 1954. We're not even as far 
up as we were in 1954. We're behind where we were in 1954. There's more 
segregation now than there was in 1954. There's more racial animosity, more 
racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than there was in 1954. 
Where is the progress?

[24] And now you're facing a situation where the young Negro's coming up. 
They don't 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 there's a new deal 
coming in. There's new thinking coming in. There's new strategy coming in. 
It'll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand grenades next month, and 
something else next month. It'll be ballots, or it'll be bullets. It'll be 
liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death 
-- it'll be reciprocal. You know what is meant by "reciprocal"? That's one 
of Brother Lomax's words, I stole it from him. I don't usually deal with 
those big words because I don't 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 haven't got anything to lose, and 
they've got every thing to gain. And they'll let you know in a minute: "It 
takes two to tango; when I go, you go."

[25] The 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, we're justified in seeking civil rights, if it means 
equality of opportunity, because all we're 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 rich.

[26] You take the people who are in this audience right now. They're poor, 
we're all poor as individuals. Our weekly salary individually amounts to 
hardly anything. But if you take the salary of everyone in here 
collectively it'll fill up a whole lot of baskets. It's a lot of wealth. If 
you can collect the wages of just these people right here for a year, 
you'll 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 didn't work an eight-hour 
shift, but worked from "can't see" in the morning until "can't see" at 
night, and worked for nothing, making the white man rich, making Uncle Sam 
rich.

[27] This is our investment. This is our contribution -- our blood. Not 
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 who's 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. Don't wait for 
next year. Give it to us yesterday, and that's not fast enough."

[28] I might stop right here to point out one thing. When ever you're going 
after something that belongs to you, anyone who's 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 segregation. Which means 
segregation is against the law. Which means a segregationist is breaking 
the law. A segregationist is a criminal. You can't 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 side.

[29] Now, 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, I'm telling you, kill that dog. I say it, if they put 
me in jail tomorrow, kill that dog. Then you'll put a stop to it. Now, if 
these white people in here don't want to see that kind of action, get down 
and tell the mayor to tell the police department to pull the dogs in. 
That's all you have to do. If you don't do it, someone else will.

[30] If you don't take this kind of stand, your little children will grow 
up and look at you and think "shame." If you don't take an uncompromising 
stand -- I don't mean go out and get violent; but at the same time you 
should never be nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence. I'm 
nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But when you drop that 
violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not responsible for 
what I do. And that's the way every Negro should get. Any time you know 
you're within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, 
in accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don't die 
alone. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality. 
What's good for the goose is good for the gander.

[31] When we begin to get in this area, we need new fiends, 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 it's 
civil rights, this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam.

[32] But the United Nations has what's 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 
don't even know there's a human-rights tree on the same floor.

[33] When 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 you're asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are some 
thing 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 Sam's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the blood 
of the black man in this country. He's the earth's 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 side.

[34] Let the world know how bloody his hands are. Let the world know the 
hypocrisy that's practiced over here. Let it be the ballot or the bullet. 
Let him know that it must be the ballot or the bullet.

[35] When you take your case to Washington, D.C., you're taking it to the 
criminal who's responsible; it's like running from the wolf to the fox. 
They're 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 world.

[36] By ballot I only mean freedom. Don't 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 important.

[37] Right now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-Americans 
-- that's what we are -- Africans who are in America. You're nothing but 
Africans. Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself 
African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one 
catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans. An 
African can go anywhere he wants right now. All you've got to do is tie 
your head up. That's right, go anywhere you want. Just stop being a Negro. 
Change your name to Hoogagagooba. That'll show you how silly the white man 
is. You're dealing with a silly man. A friend of mine who's 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 he's sitting, black as night, but because he had his head wrapped up 
the waitress looked back at him and says, "Why, there wouldn't no nigger 
dare come in here."

[38] So, you're dealing with a man whose bias and prejudice are making him 
lose his mind, his intelligence, every day. He's frightened. He looks 
around and sees what's taking place on this earth, and he sees that the 
pendulum of time is swinging in your direction. The dark people are waking 
up. They're losing their fear of the white man. No place where he's 
fighting right now is he winning. Everywhere he's fighting, he's fighting 
someone your and my complexion. And they're beating him. He can't win any 
more. He's won his last battle. He failed to win the Korean War. He 
couldn't win it. He had to sign a truce. That's a loss. Any time Uncle Sam, 
with all his machinery for warfare, is held to a draw by some rice eaters, 
he's lost the battle. He had to sign a truce. America's not supposed to 
sign a truce. She's supposed to be bad. But she's not bad any more. She's 
bad as long as she can use her hydrogen bomb, but she can't use hers for 
fear Russia might use hers. Russia can't use hers, for fear that Sam might 
use his. So, both of them are weapon less. They can't use the weapon 
because each's weapon nullifies the other's. So the only place where action 
can take place is on the ground. And the white man can't 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 en gage him in guerrilla warfare. That's not his style. You've got to 
have heart to be a guerrilla warrior, and he hasn't got any heart. I'm 
telling you now.

[39] 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 you're 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 that's 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. He'd 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 couldn't 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 death.

[40] The 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 don't need it -- 
modern warfare today won't work. This is the day of the guerrilla. They did 
the same thing in Algeria. Algerians, who were nothing but Bedouins, took a 
knife and sneaked off to the hills, and de Gaulle and all of his 
highfalutin' war machinery couldn't defeat those guerrillas. Nowhere on 
this earth does the white man win in a guerrilla warfare. It's not his 
speed. Just as guerrilla warfare is prevailing in Asia and in parts of 
Africa and in parts of Latin America, you've got to be mighty naive, or 
you've got to play the black man cheap, if you don't think some day he's 
going to wake up and find that it's got to be the ballot or the bullet.

[41] I would like to say, in closing, a few things concerning the Muslim 
Mosque, Inc., which we established recently in New York City. It's true 
we're Muslims and our religion is Islam, but we don't 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 that's designed to eliminate the evils, 
the political, economic and social evils that are afflicting the people of 
our community.

[42] The 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. Don't be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. 
You don't 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. 
It's being taught in the NAACP. It's being taught in CORE meetings. It's 
being taught in SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee meetings. 
It's being taught in Muslim meetings. It's being taught where nothing but 
atheists and agnostics come together. It's being taught everywhere. Black 
people are fed up with the dillydallying, pussyfooting, compromising 
approach that we've been using toward getting our freedom. We want freedom 
now, but we're not going to get it saying "We Shall Overcome." We've got to 
fight until we overcome.

[43] The 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 can't 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 don't 
live, the community where you live will get poorer and poorer, and the 
community where you spend your money will get richer and richer. Then 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. He's got us in a vise.

[44] So the economic philosophy of black nationalism means in every church, 
in every civic organization, in every fraternal order, it's 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 we're 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 don't have to picket and boycott and beg some cracker downtown for 
a job in his business.

[45] The 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 won't be running around here 
trying to knock our way into a social circle where we're not wanted.

[46] 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. Don't change the 
white man's mind -- you can't change his mind, and that whole thing about 
appealing to the moral conscience of America -- America's conscience is 
bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long time ago. Uncle Sam has no 
conscience. They don't know what morals are. They don't try and eliminate 
an evil because it's evil, or because it's illegal, or because it's 
immoral; they eliminate it only when it threatens their existence. So 
you're wasting your time appealing to the moral conscience of a bankrupt 
man like Uncle Sam. If he had a conscience, he'd straighten this thing out 
with no more pressure being put upon him. So it is not necessary to change 
the white man's mind. We have to change our own mind. You can't change his 
mind about us. We've 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 that's necessary to get this problem solved our selves. How can we 
do this? How can we avoid jealousy? How can we avoid the suspicion and the 
divisions that exist in the community? I'll tell you how.

[47] I have watched how Billy Graham comes into a city, spreading what he 
calls the gospel of Christ, which is only white nationalism. That's what he 
is. Billy Graham is a white nationalist; I'm a black nationalist. But since 
it's 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? 
Don't think because they're church leaders that they don't have weaknesses 
that make them envious and jealous -- no, everybody's got it. It's not an 
accident that when they want to choose a cardinal as Pope over there in 
Rome, they get in a closet so you can't hear them cussing and fighting and 
carrying on.

[48] Billy 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 we're going to take a page from his book. Our 
gospel is black nationalism. We're not trying to threaten the existence of 
any organization, but we're spreading the gospel of black nationalism. 
Anywhere there's 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 that's for the uplift of the black man. 
And when you get into it and see them pussyfooting or compromising, pull 
out of it because that's not black nationalism. We'll find another one.

[49] And 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, we'll form a black 
nationalist party. If it's necessary to form a black nationalist army, 
we'll form a black nationalist army. It'll be the ballot or the bullet. 
It'll be liberty or it'll be death.

[50] It's 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. There's no white man going to tell me 
anything about my rights. Brothers and sisters, always remember, if it 
doesn't 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 it's not a country of freedom, change it.

[51] We 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. We'll work 
with you on the voter-registration drive, we'll work with you on rent 
strikes, we'll work with you on school boycotts -- I don't believe in any 
kind of integration; I'm not even worried about it because I know you're 
not going to get it anyway; you're not going to get it because you're 
afraid to die; you've got to be ready to die if you try and force yourself 
on the white man, because he'll 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 we're 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 it's all black. A segregated school means a school that 
is controlled by people who have no real interest in it whatsoever.

[52] Let 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. It's the all-Negro section that's 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 you're under someone else's control, you're 
segregated. They'll always give you the lowest or the worst that there is 
to offer, but it doesn't mean you're segregated just because you have your 
own. You've got to control your own. Just like the white man has control of 
his, you need to control yours.

[53] You 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 you're gone. And the white man will 
integrate faster than he'll let you separate. So we will work with you 
against t}~e segregated school system because it's 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 education. Last 
but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles 
and shotguns. The only thing that I've 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, it's 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 doesn't mean you're going to get a rifle and form 
battalions and go out looking for white folks, although you'd be within 
your rights -- I mean, you'd be justified; but that would be illegal and we 
don't do anything illegal. If the white man doesn't want the black man 
buying rifles and shotguns, then let the government do its job. That's all. 
And don't 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 doesn't 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 know. If he's 
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 can't begrudge you 
and me spending $12 or $15 for a single-shot, or double-action. I hope you 
under stand. Don't 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 can't find who did it. 
Why, this man -- he can find Eichmann hiding down in Argentina somewhere. 
Let two or three American soldiers, who are minding somebody else's 
business way over in South Vietnam, get killed, and he'll 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 
doesn't have free elections in his own country. No, if you never see me 
another time in your life, if I die in the morning, I'll die saying one 
thing: the ballot or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet.

[54] 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 haven't seen anything. There's some more going down in '64. And 
this time they're not going like they went last year. They're not going 
singing ''We Shall Overcome." They're not going with white friends. They're 
not going with placards already painted for them. They're not going with 
round-trip tickets. They're going with one way tickets.

[55] And if they don't want that non-nonviolent army going down there, tell 
them to bring the filibuster to a halt. The black nationalists aren't going 
to wait. Lyndon B. Johnson is the head of the Democratic Party. If he's 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, don't 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, it's the ballot or the bullet. Thank you.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://freedomarchives.org/pipermail/news_freedomarchives.org/attachments/20041103/3c67efe0/attachment.htm>