So I say in my conclusion, the only way weโre going to solve it: we got to unite. We got to work together in unity and harmony. And black nationalism is the key. How we are going to overcome the tendency to be at each otherโs throats that always exists in our neighborhood? And the reason this tendency exists, the strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer.
Malcolm X
The Ballot or the Bullet
Malcolm X
DATE: April 3, 1964
Mr. Moderator, Reverend Cleage, brothers and sisters, and friends, and I see some enemies.
In fact, I think weโd be fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large, and didnโt realize that there were some enemies present.
This afternoon, we want to talk about the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet explains itself. But before we get into it, since this is the year of the ballot, or the bullet, I would like to clarify some things that refer to me personally, concerning my own personal position.
Iโm still a Muslim. That is my religion. Itโs still Islam. My religion is still Islam. I still credit Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I am. Heโs the one who opened my eyes.
At present, Iโm the minister of newly founded Muslim Mosque, Incorporated, which has its offices in the Teresa Hotel, right in the heart of Harlem. Thatโs the black belt in New York City.
When we realize that Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister, he heads Abyssinian Baptist Church. But at the same time, heโs more famous for his political struggle. And Dr. King is a Christian minister from Atlanta, Georgia, or in Atlanta, Georgia, but heโs become more famous for being involved in the civil rights struggle.
Thereโs another in New York, Reverend Galamisonโฆ I donโt know if youโve heard of him out here. Heโs a Christian minister from Brooklyn, but has become famous for his fight against a segregated school system in Brooklyn.
Reverend Cleage right here. Heโs a Christian minister here in Detroit. Heโs the head of the Freedom Now Party. All of these are Christian ministers. All of these are Christian ministers, but they donโt come to us as Christian ministers. They come to us as fighters in some other category. Iโm a Muslim minister. The same as they are Christian ministers, Iโm a Muslim minister. And I donโt believe in fighting today in any one front, but on all fronts.
In fact, Iโm a Black Nationalist Freedom Fighter. Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business.
It governs my personal life and my personal morals. My religious philosophy is personal between me and the God in whom I believe.
Just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discussing religion? Weโd have too many differences from the out start, and we could never get together. So, today? Though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political, economic, and social philosophy is Black Nationalism.
As I say, if we bring up religion? Weโll have differences, weโll have arguments, and weโll never be able to get together. But if we keep our religion at home? Keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our God? But when we come out here, we have a fight thatโs common to all of us, against a enemy who is common to all of us.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community. The time when white people can come in our community, and get us to vote for them, so that they can be our political leaders, and tell us what to do and what not to do? Is long gone.
By the same token? The time when that same white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open? Can send another Negro into the community, and get you and me to support him, so he can use him to lead us astray? Those days are long gone too.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I are going to live in a black communityโฆ and thatโs where were going to liveโฆ because as soon as you move into one of theirโฆ soon as you move out of the black community into their community? Itโs mixed for a period of time, but theyโre gone, and youโre right there all by yourself again.
We must understand the politics of our community. And we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature? We will always be misled, lead astray, or deceived, or maneuvered into supporting someone politically, who doesnโt the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we will have to carry on a political program of reeducation: to open our peopleโs eyes; make us because more politically conscious, politically mature; and then we will, whenever we get ready to cast our ballot? That ballot will be cast for a man of the community, who has the good of the community at heart.
The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own, and operate, and control the economy of our community. You canโt open up a black store in a white community. White men wonโt even patronize you. And heโs not wrong! Heโs got sense enough to look out for himself. Itโs you who donโt have sense enough to look out for yourself.
The white man is too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community. But you will let anybody come in and control the economy of your community. Control the housing. Control the education. Control the jobs. Control the businesses, under their pretext that you want to integrate. No! You out of your mind!
The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we have to become involved in a program of reeducation. To educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you spend your dollar out of the community in which you live? The community in which you spend your money becomes richer and richer. The community out of which you take your money, becomes poorer and poorer. And because these Negroes who have been mislead and misguided are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with The Man? The Man is becoming richer and richer, and youโre becoming poorer and poorer. And then what happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditions become rundown. And then you have the audacity to complain about poor housing, and a run down community. While youโll run it down yourself, when you take your dollar out.
You and I are in a double trap, because not only do we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it? When we try and spend it in our own community, weโre trapped because we havenโt had sense enough to have set up stores and control the businesses of our community. The man whoโs controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesnโt look like we do. Heโs a man who doesnโt even live in the community. So you and I, even when we try and spend out money in the block where we live, or the area where we live? Weโre spending it with a man who when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money, in another part oft town.
So weโre trapped. Trapped. Double trapped. Triple trapped. Anywhere we go, weโre find that weโre trapped. And every kind of solution that someone comes up with, is just another trap. But the political and economic philosophy of Black Nationalismโฆ the economic philosophy of Black Nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little stores and developing them and expanding them into larger operations. Woolworth didnโt start out big like they are today; they started out with a dime store, and expanded, and expanded, and expanded until today they are all over the country and all over the world and they getting some of everybodyโs money.
Now this is what you and Iโฆ General Motors, the same way, it didnโt start out like it is. It started out just a little rat-race type operation. And it expanded and it expanded until today itโs where it is right now. And you and I have to make a start. And the best place to start is right in the community where we live.
So our people not only have to be reeducated to the importance of supporting black business, but the black man himself has to be made aware of the importance of going into business. And once you and I go into business, we own and operate at least the businesses in our community. What we will be doing is developing a situation, wherein, we will actually be able to create employment for the people in the community. And once you can create some employment in the community where you live, it will eliminate the necessity of you and me having to act ignorantly and disgracefully, boycotting and picketing some cracker someplace else trying to beg him for a job.
Anytime you have to rely upon your enemy for a job, youโre in bad shape. And he is your enemy. You wouldnโt be in this country if some enemy hadnโt kidnapped you and brought you here. On the other hand, some of you think you came here on the Mayflower.
So as you can see, brothers and sisters, today, this afternoon it is not our intention to discuss religion. Weโre going to forget religion. If we bring up religion weโll be in an argument. And the best way to keep away from arguments and differences, as I said earlier, put your religion at home, in the closet, keep it between you and your God. Because if it hasnโt done anything more for you than it has, you need to forget it anyway.
Whether you are a Christian or a Muslim or a nationalist, we all have the same problem. They donโt hang you because youโre a Baptist; they hang you because youโre black. They donโt attack me because Iโm a Muslim. They attack me because Iโm black. They attacked all of us for the same reason. All of us catch hell from the same enemy. Weโre all in the same bag, in the same boat.
We suffer political oppression, economic exploitation and social degradation. All of them from the same enemy. The government has failed us. You canโt deny that. Any time youโre living in the 20th century, 1964, and you walking around here singing โWe Shall Overcome,โ the government has failed you. This is part of whatโs wrong with you, you do too much singing. Today itโs time to stop singing and start swinging.
You canโt sing up on freedom. But you can swing up on some freedom. Cassius Clay can sing. But singing didnโt help him to become the heavyweight champion of the world. Swinging helped him.
So this government has failed us. The government itself has failed us. And the white liberals who have been posing as our friends have failed us. And once we see that all of these other sources to which weโve turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do-it-yourself philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a itโs-already-too-late philosophy. This is what you and I need to get with. And the only time, the only way weโre going to solve our problem is with a self-help program. Before we can get a self-help program started, we have to have a self-help philosophy. Black nationalism is a self-help philosophy.
Whatโs so good about it, you can stay right in the church where you are and still take black nationalism as your philosophy. You can stay in any kind of civic organization that you belong to and still take black nationalism as your philosophy. You can be an atheist and still take black nationalism as your philosophy. This is a philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument, because if youโre black, you should be thinking black. And if youโre black and you not thinking black at this late date, well, Iโm sorry for you.
Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought pattern. Once you change your thought pattern you change your attitude. Once you change your attitude it changes your behavior pattern. And then you go on into some action. As long as you got a sit-down philosophy youโll have a sit-down thought pattern. And as long as you think that old sit-down thought, youโll be in some kind of sit-down action. Theyโll have you sitting in everywhere.
Itโs not so good to refer to what youโre going to do as a sit-in. That right there castrates you. Right there it brings you down. What goes with it? What? Think of the image of someone sitting. An old woman can sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit, a coward can sit, anything can sit. Well, you and I been sitting long enough and itโs time for us today to start doing some standing and some fighting to back that up.
When we look at other parts of this Earth upon which we live, we find that black, brown, red and yellow people in Africa and Asia are getting their independence. Theyโre not getting it by singing, โWe Shall Overcome.โ No, theyโre getting it through nationalism. It is nationalism that brought about the independence of the people in Asia. Every nation in Asia gained its independence through the philosophy of nationalism. Every nation on the African continent that has gotten its independence brought it about through the philosophy of nationalism. And it will take black nationalism to bring about the freedom of 22 million Afro-Americans, here in this country, where we have suffered colonialism for the past 400 years.
America is just as much a colonial power as England ever was. America is just as much a colonial power as France ever was. In fact, America is more so a colonial power than they, because she is a hypocritical colonial power behind it. What is 20thโฆ What do you call second-class citizenship? Why, thatโs colonization. Second-class citizenship is nothing but 20th slavery. How you going to tell me youโre a second-class citizen? They donโt have second-class citizenship in any other government on this Earth. They just have slaves and people who are free! Well, this country is a hypocrite! They try and make you think they set you free by calling you a second-class citizen. No, youโre nothing but a 20th century slave.
Just as it took nationalism to remove colonialism from Asia and Africa, itโll take black nationalism today to remove colonialism from the backs and the minds of twenty-two million Afro-Americans here in this country. And 1964 looks like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet.
Why does it look like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet? Because Negroes have listened to the trickery and the lies and the false promises of the white man now for too long, and theyโre fed up. Theyโve become disenchanted. Theyโve become disillusioned. Theyโve become dissatisfied. And all of this has built up frustrations in the black community that makes the black community throughout America today more explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians can ever invent. Whenever you got a racial powder keg sitting in your lap, youโre in more trouble than if you had an atomic powder keg sitting in your lap. When a racial powder keg goes off, it doesnโt care who it knocks out the way. Understand this, itโs dangerous.
And in 1964, this seems to be the year. Because what can the white man use, now, to fool us? After he put down that March on Washington, and you see all through that now, he tricked you, had you marching down to Washington. Had you marching back and forth between the feet of a dead man named Lincoln and another dead man named George Washington, singing, โWe Shall Overcome.โ
He made a chump out of you. He made a fool out of you. He made you think you were going somewhere and you end up going nowhere but between Lincoln and Washington.
So today our people are disillusioned. Theyโve become disenchanted. Theyโve become dissatisfied. And in their frustrations they want action. And in 1964 youโll see this young black man, this new generation, asking for the ballot or the bullet. That old Uncle Tom action is outdated. The young generation donโt want to hear anything about โthe odds are against us.โ What do we care about odds?
When this country here was first being founded, there were thirteen colonies. The whites were colonized. They were fed up with this taxation without representation. So some of them stood up and said, โLiberty or death!โ I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michigan. The white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mistake of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot, and George Washingtonโฆ Wasnโt nothing non-violent about olโ Pat, or George Washington. โLiberty or deathโ is was what brought about the freedom of whites in this country from the English.
They didnโt care about the odds. Why, they faced the wrath of the entire British Empire. And in those days, they used to say that the British Empire was so vast and so powerful that the sun would never set on it. This is how big it was, yet these thirteen little scrawny states, tired of taxation without representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire, โLiberty or death.โ And here you have 22 million Afro-Americans, black people today, catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw.
And Iโm here to tell you in case you donโt know it that you got a new, you got a new generation of black people in this country who donโt care anything whatsoever about odds. They donโt want to hear you olโ Uncle Tom, handkerchief-heads talking about the odds. No! This is a new generation. If theyโre going to draft these young black men, and send them over to Korea or to South Vietnam to face 800 million Chineseโฆ If youโre not afraid of those odds, you shouldnโt be afraid of these odds.
Why is Americaโฆ Why does this loom to be such an explosive political year? Because this is the year of politics. This is the year when all of the white politicians are going to come into the Negro community. You never see them until election time. You canโt find them until election time. Theyโre going to come in with false promises. And as they make these false promises theyโre going to feed our frustrations, and this will only serve to make matters worse. Iโm no politician. Iโm not even a student of politics. Iโm not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an American, and got sense enough to know it.
Iโm one of the 22 million black victims of the Democrats. One of the 22 million black victims of the Republicans and one of the 22 million black victims of Americanism. And when I speak, I donโt speak as a Democrat or a Republican, nor an American. I speak as a victim of Americaโs so-called democracy. You and I have never seen democracy, all weโve seen is hypocrisy.
When we open our eyes today and look around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the fruits of Americanism. We see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim of Americanism. We donโt see any American dream. Weโve experienced only the American nightmare. We havenโt benefited from Americaโs democracy. Weโve only suffered from Americaโs hypocrisy. And the generation thatโs coming up now can see it. And are not afraid to say it. If you go to jail, so what? If youโre black, you were born in jail.
If you black you were born in jail, in the North as well as the South. Stop talking about the South. As long as you south of the Canadian border, you South. Donโt call Governor Wallace a Dixie governor, Romney is a Dixie Governor.
Twenty-two million black victims of Americanism are waking up and they are gaining a new political consciousness, becoming politically mature. And as they becomeโฆ Develop this political maturity, theyโre able to see the recent trends in these political elections. They see that the whites are so evenly divided that every time they vote, the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all over again. Which means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, thatโs who gets it. Youโre in a position to determine whoโll go to the White House and whoโll stay in the doghouse.
Youโre the one who has that power. You can keep Johnson in Washington D.C., or you can send him back to his Texas cotton patch. Youโre the one who sent Kennedy to Washington. Youโre the one who put the present Democratic administration in Washington, D.C. The whites were evenly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80 percent of your votes behind the Democrats that put the Democrats in the White House.
When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is the key factor. And despite the fact that you are in a position to be the determining factor, what do you get out of it? The Democrats have been in Washington, D.C. only because of the Negro vote. Theyโve been down there four years. And theyโreโฆ All other legislation they wanted to bring up theyโve brought it up, and gotten it out of the way, and now they bring up you. And now they bring up you! You put them first and they put you last. Because youโre a chump! A political chump.
In Washington, D.C., in the House of Representatives there are 257 who are Democrats. Only 177 are Republican. In the Senate there are 67 Democrats. Only 33 are Republicans. The party that you backed controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and the Senate and still they canโt keep their promise to you. Because youโre a chump.
Any time you throw your weight behind a political party that controls two-thirds of the government, and that party canโt keep the promise that it made to you during election-time, and youโre dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that party, youโre not only a chump but youโre a traitor to your race.
What kind of alibi do come up with? They try and pass the buck to the Dixiecrats. Now, back during the days when you were blind, deaf and dumb, ignorant, politically immature, naturally you went along with that. But today, as your eyes come open, and you develop political maturity, youโre able to see and think for yourself, and you can see that a Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.
You look at the structure of the government that controls this country, is controlled by 16 senatorial committees and 20 congressional committees. Of the 16 senatorial committees that run the government, 10 of them are in the hands of southern segregationists. Of the 20 congressional committees that run the government, 12 of them are in the hands of southern segregationists. And theyโre going to tell you and me that the South lost the war?
You, today, are in the hands of a government of segregationists. Racists, white supremacists, who belong to the Democratic party but disguise themselves as Dixiecrats. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat. Whoever runs the Democrats is also the father of the Dixiecrats. And the father of all of them is sitting in the White House. I say, and Iโll say it again, you got a president whoโs nothing but a southern segregationist from the state of Texas. Theyโll lynch in Texas as quick as theyโll lynch you in Mississippi. Only in Texas they lynch you with a Texas accent, in Mississippi they lynch you with a Mississippi accent.
The first thing the cracker does when he comes in power, he takes all the Negro leaders and invites them for coffee. To show that heโs all right. And those Uncle Toms canโt pass up the coffee. They come away from the coffee table telling you and me that this man is all right. Because heโs from the South and since heโs from the South he can deal with the South. Look at the logic that theyโre using. What about Eastland? Heโs from the South. Why not make him the president? If Johnson is a good man because heโs from Texas, and being from Texas will enable him to deal with the South, Eastland can deal with the South better than Johnson!
Oh, I say you been misled. You been had. You been took. I was in Washington a couple of weeks ago while the senators were filibustering and I noticed in the back of the Senate a huge map, and on this map it showed the distribution of Negroes in America. And surprisingly, the same senators that were involved in the filibuster were from the states where there were the most Negroes. Why were they filibustering the civil rights legislation? Because the civil rights legislation is supposed to guarantee boarding rights to Negroes from those states. And those senators from those states know that if the Negroes in those states can vote, those senators are down the drain. The representatives of those states go down the drain.
And in the Constitution of this country it has a stipulation, wherein, whenever the rights, the voting rights of people in a certain district are violated, then the representative whoโs from that particular district, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be expelled from the Congress. Now, if this particular aspect of the Constitution was enforced, why, you wouldnโt have a cracker in Washington, D.C.
But what would happen? When you expel the Dixiecrat, youโre expelling the Democrat. When you destroy the power of the Dixiecrat, you are destroying the power of the Democratic Party. So how in the world can the Democratic Party in the South actually side with you, in sincerity, when all of its power is based in the South?
These Northern Democrats are in cahoots with the southern Democrats. Theyโre playing a giant con game, a political con game. You know how it goes. One of them comes to you and make believe heโs for you. And heโs in cahoots with the other one thatโs not for you. Why? Because neither one of them is for you. But they got to make you go with one of them or the other.
So this is a con game, and this is what theyโve been doing with you and me all of these years. First thing, Johnson got off the plane when he become president, he ask, โWhereโs Dickey?โ You know who Dickey is? Dickey is old southern cracker Richard Russell. Lookie here! Yes, Lyndon B. Johnsonโs best friend is the one who is a head, whoโs heading the forces that are filibustering civil rights legislation. You tell me how in the hell is he going to be Johnsonโs best friend? How can Johnson be his friend and your friend too? No, that man is too tricky. Especially if his friend is still olโ Dickey.
Whenever the Negroes keep the Democrats in power theyโre keeping the Dixiecrats in power. This is true! A vote for a Democrat is nothing but a vote for a Dixiecrat. I know you donโt like me saying that. Iโm not the kind of person who come here to say what you like. Iโm going to tell you the truth whether you like it or not.
Up here in the North you have the same thing. The Democratic Party, they donโt do it that way. They got a thing they call gerrymandering. They maneuver you out of power. Even though you can vote they fix it so youโre voting for nobody. They got you going and coming. In the South theyโre outright political wolves, in the North theyโre political foxes. A fox and a wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family. Now, you take your choice. You going to choose a northern dog or a southern dog? Because either dog you choose, I guarantee you, youโll still be in the doghouse.
This is why I say itโs the ballot or the bullet. Itโs liberty or itโs death. Itโs freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. America today finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are bloody, oh yes they are. They have never had a bloodless revolution. Or a non-violent revolution. That donโt happen even in Hollywood. You donโt have a revolution in which you love your enemy. And you donโt have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. Revolutions destroy systems.
A revolution is bloody, but America is in a unique position. Sheโs the only country in history, in the position actually to become involved in a bloodless revolution. The Russian Revolution was bloody, Chinese Revolution was bloody, French Revolution was bloody, Cuban Revolution was bloody. And there was nothing more bloody than the American Revolution. But today, this country can become involved in a revolution that wonโt take bloodshed. All sheโs got to do is give the black man in this country everything thatโs due him, everything.
I hope that the white man can see this. Because if you donโt see it youโre finished. If you donโt see it youโre going to become involved in some action in which you donโt have a chance. We donโt care anything about your atomic bomb; itโs useless, because other countries have atomic bombs. When two or three different countries have atomic bombs, nobody can use them. So it means that the white man today is without a weapon. If you want some action youโve got to come on down to Earth, and thereโs more black people on Earth than there are white people.
I only got a couple more minutes. The white man can never win another war on the ground. His days of war, victory, his days of battleground victory are over. Can I prove it? Yes. Take all the action thatโs going on this Earth right now that heโs involved in. Tell me where heโs winning, nowhere. Why, some rice farmers, some rice farmers! Some rice-eaters ran him out of Korea, yes they ran him out of Korea. Rice-eaters, with nothing but gym shoes and a rifle and a bowl of rice, took him and his tanks and his napalm and all that other action heโs supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu. Why? Because the day that he can win on the ground has passed.
Up in French Indochina, those little peasants, rice-growers, took on the might of the French army and ran all the Frenchmen, you remember Dien Bien Phu! The same thing happened in Algeria, in Africa. They didnโt have anything but a rifle. The French had all these highly mechanized instruments of warfare. But they put some guerilla action on. And a white man canโt fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla action takes heart, take nerve, and he doesnโt have that. Heโs brave when heโs got tanks. Heโs brave when heโs got planes. Heโs brave when heโs got bombs. Heโs brave when heโs got a whole lot of company along with him. But you take that little man from Africa and Asia; turn him loose in the woods with a blade. A blade. Thatโs all he needs. All he needs is a blade. And when the sun comes down, goes down and itโs dark, itโs even-Stephen.
So itโs the ballot or the bullet. Today, our people can see that weโre faced with a government conspiracy. This government has failed us. The senators who are filibustering concerning your and my rights, thatโs the government. Donโt say itโs southern senators, this is the government. This is a government filibuster. Itโs not a segregationist filibuster, itโs a government filibuster. Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Senate, thatโs the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, thatโs the government. Any kind of pussy-footing, thatโs the government. Any kind of act thatโs designed to delay or deprive you and me, right now, of getting full rights, thatโs the government thatโs responsible. And anytime you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights of a people in 1964, then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress. Instead you have to take that government to the world court and accuse it of genocide and all of the other crimes that it is guilty of today.
So those of us whose political and economic and social philosophy is black nationalism have become involved in the civil rights struggle. We have injected ourselves into the civil rights struggle. And we intend to expand it from the level of civil rights to the level of human rights. As long as you fight it on the level of civil rights, youโre under Uncle Samโs jurisdiction. Youโre going to his court expecting him to correct the problem. He created the problem. Heโs the criminal! You donโt take your case to the criminal, you take your criminal to court.
When the government of South Africa began to trample upon the human rights of the people of South Africa they were taken to the U.N. When the government of Portugal began to trample upon the rights of our brothers and sisters in Angola, it was taken before the U.N. Why, even the white man took the Hungarian question to the U.N. And just this week, Chief Justice Goldberg was crying over three million Jews in Russia, about their human rights, charging Russia with violating the U.N. Charter because of its mistreatment of the human rights of Jews in Russia. Now you tell me how can the plight of everybody on this Earth reach the halls of the United Nations and you have twenty-two million Afro-Americans whose churches are being bombed, whose little girls are being murdered, whose leaders are being shot down in broad daylight? Now you tell me why the leaders of this struggle have never taken it before the United Nations.
So our next move is to take the entire civil rights struggle, problem, into the United Nations and let the world see that Uncle Sam is guilty of violating the human rights of 22 million Afro-Americans right down to the year of 1964 and still has the audacity or the nerve to stand up and represent himself as the leader of the free world? Not only is he a crook, heโs a hypocrite. Here he is standing up in front of other people, Uncle Sam, with the blood of your and mine mothers and fathers on his hands. With the blood dripping down his jaws like a bloody-jawed wolf. And still got the nerve to point his finger at other countries. In 1964 you canโt even get civil rights legislation and this man has got the nerve to stand up and talk about South Africa or talk about Nazi Germany or talk about Portugal. No, no more days like those!
So I say in my conclusion, the only way weโre going to solve it: we got to unite. We got to work together in unity and harmony. And black nationalism is the key. How we are going to overcome the tendency to be at each otherโs throats that always exists in our neighborhood? And the reason this tendency exists, the strategy of the white man has always been divide and conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you, Iโm for separation and you for integration, and keep us fighting with each other. No, Iโm not for separation and youโre not for integration, what you and I are for is freedom. Only, you think that integration will get you freedom; I think that separation will get me freedom. We both got the same objective, we just got different ways of gettingโ at it.
So I studied this man, Billy Graham, who preaches white nationalism. Thatโs what he preaches. I say, thatโs what he preaches. The whole church structure in this country is white nationalism, you go inside a white church, thatโs what they preaching, white nationalism. They got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white, thatโs white nationalism.
So what he does, the way he circumvents the jealousy and envy that he ordinarily would incur among the heads of the church, whenever you go into an area where the church already is, you going to run into trouble. Because they got that thing, what you call it, syndicated โฆ they got a syndicate just like the racketeers have. Iโm going to say whatโs on my mind because the preachers already proved to you that they got a syndicate. And when youโre out in the rackets, whenever youโre getting in another manโs territory, they gang up on you. And thatโs the same way with you. You run into the same thing. So how Billy Graham gets around that, instead of going into somebody elseโs territory, like he going to start a new church, he doesnโt try and start a church, he just goes in preaching Christ. And he says anybody who believe in him, you go wherever you find him.
So, this helps all the churches, and since it helps all the churches, they donโt fight him. Well, we going to do the same thing, only our gospel is black nationalism. His gospel is white nationalism, our gospel is black nationalism. And the gospel of black nationalism, as I told you, means you should control your own, the politics of your community, the economy of your community, and all of the society in which you live should be under your control. And once youโฆfeel that this philosophy will solve your problem, go join any church where thatโs preached. Donโt join any church where white nationalism is preached. Why, you can go to a Negro church and be exposed to white nationalism. Because when you are onโฆ When you walk in a Negro church and see a white Jesus and a white Mary and some white angels, that Negro church is preaching white nationalism.
But, when you go to a church and you see the pastor of that church with a philosophy and a program thatโs designed to bring black people together and elevate black people, join that church. Join that church. If you see where the NAACP is preaching and practicing that which is designed to make black nationalism materialize, join the NAACP. Join any kind of organization, civic, religious, fraternal, political or otherwise thatโs based on lifting the black man up and making him master of his own community.
It will be the ballot, or it will be the bullet. It will be liberty, or it will be death. And if youโre not ready to pay that price, donโt use the word freedom in your vocabulary. One more thing. I was on a program in Illinois recently with Senator Paul Douglas, a so-called liberal, so-called democrat, so-called white man, at which time he told me that our African Brothers were not interested in us in Africa. He said, the Africans are not interested in the American Negro. I knew he was lying, but, during the next two or three weeks, it is my intention and plan to make a tour of our African homeland, and I hope that when I come back, Iโll be able to come back and let you know how our African brothers and sisters feel towards us. And I know before I go there, that they love us. Weโre one, weโre the same. The same man who has colonized them all these years colonized you and me too all these years, and all we have to do now is wake up and work in unity and harmony and the battle will be over.
I want to thank the Freedom Now Party and the goal, and I want to think Milton and Richard Henley for inviting me here this afternoon, and also Reverend Cleage, and I want them to know that anything that I can ever do, at any time, to work with anybody in any kind of program that is sincerely designed to eliminate the political, the economic and the social evils that confront all of our people, in Detroit and elsewhere, all they got to do is give me a telephone call and Iโll be on the next jet right on into the city.
