| 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.
l 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 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.
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
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.
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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