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MALCOLM X AND THE CORY METHODIST
CHURCH, CLEVELAND, OHIO
The Ballot or the Bullet
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Go here for more about
 Malcolm X.
Go here for more about
Malcolm X's Ballot or Bullet Speech.
It follows the full text transcript of
Malcolm X's Ballot or Bullet speech, delivered at the Cory
Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio — April 3, 1964. |
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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.
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 Reverend 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Honkies 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.
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.
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.
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.
lt. 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 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 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.
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.
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—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.
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.
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. lt.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 supposed 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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
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."
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.
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. 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."
I might stop right here to point out one thing.
Whenever 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.
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.
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.
When 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 it's civil rights,
this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam.
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.
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
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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."
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 engage 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.
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.
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
rine 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.
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.
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.
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.
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 become 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.
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. 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 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? I'll 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. 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 I over there in Rome, they get
in a closet so you can't hear them cussing and
fighting and carrying on.
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.
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.
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.
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 because 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.
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.
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 the 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 understand. 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.
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. 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.
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