Please write your own separate post for this answering the following questions in a robust paragraph. 1.How would you define (the philosophy of) the Black Muslims (or the Nation of Islam) after readin

Malcolm X

Delivered 12 April, 1964 in Detroit (USA)

Mr. Moderator, Reverend Cleage, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, and friends and I see

some enemies. In fact, I think we’d be fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large and

didn’t realize that there were so me 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 lik e to clarify some things that refer to me per-

sonally - concerning my own personal position.

I'm still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Is lam. My religion is still Islam. I still credit

Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I am . He’s the one who opened my eyes. At pre-

sent, I'm the Minister of the newly founded Musl im Mosque, Inc., which has its offices in the

Teresa Hotel, right in the heart of Harlem - that’s the black belt in New York city. And when

we realize that Adam Clayton Powell is a Christ ian minister, he’s the - he heads Abyssinian

Baptist Church, but at the same time, he’s mo re famous for his political struggling. And Dr.

King is a Christian Minister, in Atlanta, Geor gia, but he’s become more famous for being

involved in the civil rights st ruggle. There’s another in New York, Reverend Galamison - I

don’t know if you’ve heard of him out here - he’s a Christian Minister from Brooklyn, but

has become famous for his fight against a segregated school system in Brooklyn. Reverend

Clee, right here, is a Christian Minister, here in Detroit. He’s the head of the “Freedom Now

Party”. All of these are Christia n Ministers, but they don’t come to us as Christian Ministers.

They come to us as fighters in some other categ ory. I’m a Muslim minister - the same as they

are Christian Ministers - I’m a Muslim minister. And I don’t beli eve in fighting today in any

one front, but on all fronts. In fact, I’ m a black Nationalist Freedom Fighter.

Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my perso-

nal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the

God in whom I believe; just as the religious philosophy of thes e others is between them and

the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discus-

sing religion, we’d have too many differences fr om the outstart and we could never get toget-

her. So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my pol itical, economic, and social

philosophy is Black Nationalism. You and I - as I say, if we bring up religion we’ll have dif-

ferences; we’ll have arguments; and we’ll never be able to get together. But if we keep our

religion at home, keep our religion in the clos et, keep our religion between ourselves and our

God, but when we come out here, we have a figh t that’s common to all of us against an ene-

my 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 tim e when white people can come

in our community and get us to vo te 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 t oken, the time when that same

white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open, can send another negro into the commu-

nity 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 community - and that’s where we’re going to live, cause as soon

as you move into one of their - soon as you move out of the Black community into their

community, it’s mixed for a period of time, but they’re gone and you’re 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 part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or

maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our

community at heart. So the political philos ophy of Black Nationalism only means that we

will have to carry on a program, a political pr ogram, of re-education to open our peoples

eyes, make us become more politically consciou s, politically mature, and then 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 of heart. The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means

that we should own and operate and contro l the economy of our community. You would ne-

ver found - you can’t open up a black store in a white community. White men won’t even

patronize you. And he’s not wrong. He’s got sense enough to look out for himself. You the

one who don’t 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 anyone come in and take control of the economy of your

community, control the housing, co ntrol the education, control the jobs, control the busines-

ses, under the pre-text that you want to integrate. No, you outta your mind. The political, the

economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only mean s that we have to become involved in a

program of re-education 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 which you take your money

becomes poorer and poorer. And because these Negroes, who have been mislead, misguided,

are breaking their necks to take their m oney and spend it with The Man, The Man is

becoming richer and richer, and you’re be coming poorer and poorer. And then what hap-

pens? The community in which you live beco mes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditi-

ons become run down. And then you have the a udacity to complain about poor housing in a

run-down community. Why you run it down your self when you take your dollar out. And

you and I are in the dou ble-track, because not only do we lose by taking our money somepla-

ce else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we’re trapped be-

cause we haven’t had sense enough to set up st ores and control the businesses of our own

community. The man who’s controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn’t

look like we do. He’s a man who doesn’t even live in the community. So you and I, even

when we try to spend our money in the block wh ere we live or the area where we live, we’re

spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in an-

other part of the town.

So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, trip le-rapped. Anywhere we go we find that we’

re trapped. And every kind of solution that some one comes up with is just another trap. But

the political and economic philosophy of Black Nationalism - the economic philosophy of

Black Nationalism shows our people the importan ce of setting up these little stores and deve-

loping them and expanding them into larger ope rations. Woolworth didn’t start out big like

they are today. They started out with a dime store and expanded and expanded and then ex-

panded until today, they’re are all over the country and all over the world, and they get to so-

me of everybody’s money. Now this is what you and I - General Motors is same way. They

didn’t start out like they it is. It started out ju st a little rat race type operation. And it expand-

ed and it expanded until today 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 re-educated to the importan ce of supporting black business, but the black man himself has

to be made aware of the importance of going in to business. And once you and I go into busi-

ness, 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 so me 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 practice some place else trying to beg him for a job. Anytime

you have to rely upon your enemy for a job - y ou’re in bad shape. When you have - he is

your enemy. Let me tell you, you wouldn’t be in this country if some enemy hadn’t kidnap-

ped you and brought you here.

On the other hand, some of you think you came he re on the Mayflower. So as you can see

brothers and sisters this afte rnoon, it is not our intention to discuss religion. We’re going to

forget religion. If we bring up religion, we’ll be in an argument, and the best way to keep a-

way from arguments and differences - as I said earlier - put your religion at home - in the clo-

set. Keep it between you and your God. Because if it hasn’t done anything more for you than

it has, you need to forget it anyway. Whether yo u are a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Nationa-

list, we all have the same problem. They don’t hang you because you’re a Baptist; they hang

you 'cause you’re black. They don’t attack me b ecause I’m a Muslim; they attack me 'cause

I’m black. They attack all of us for the same r eason; all of us catch hell from the same ene-

my. We’re all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer political oppression, economic

exploitation, and social degrad ation - all of them from the same enemy. The government has

failed us; you can’t deny that. Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you wal-

kin' around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” th e government has failed us. This is part of

what’s wrong with you do too much singing. To day it’s time to stop singing and start swing-

ing. You can’t sing up on freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom. Cassius Clay can

sing, but singing didn’t help him to become th e heavy-weight champion of the world – swi-

nging helped him become the heavy-weight champion. This government has failed us; the

government itself has failed us, and the white lib erals who have been posing as our friends

have failed us. And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve turned have fail-

ed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourse lves. We need a self-help program, a do-it-your-

self philosophy, a do-it-ri ght-now philosophy, a it’s-already-t oo-late philosophy. This is what

you and I need to get with, and the only way we are going to solve our problem is with a self-

help program. Before we can get a self-help pr ogram started we have to have a self-help phi-

losophy.

Black nationalism is a self-hel p philosophy. What's is so good a bout 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 th at you belong to and still take black nationalism as your phi-

losophy. 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. 'Cause if you are black

you should be thinking black, and if you are black and you not thinking black at this late

date, well I’m sorry for you. Once you cha nge your philosophy, you change your thought

pattern. Once you change your thought patter n, you change your attitude. Once you change

your attitude, it changes your behaviour pattern and then you go on into some action. As long

as you gotta sit-down philosophy, you’ll have a s it-down thought pattern, and as long as you

think that old sit-down thought you’ll be in so me kind of sit-down action. They’ll have you

sitting in everywhere. It’s not so good to refe r to what you’re going to do as a sit-in. That

right there castrates you. Right there it brings you down. What goes with it? Think of the I-

mage of someone sitting. An old woman can sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit. A co-

ward can sit. Anything can sit. Well you and I been sitting long enough, and it’s time today

for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that up.

When we look like - 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. They’re not

getting it by singing “We Shall Overcome.” No, they’re 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 natio-

nalism. And it will take black nationalism - that to bring about the freedom of 22 million Af-

ro-Americans here in this country where we have suffered colonialism for the past 400 years.

America is just as much a colonial power as E ngland ever was. America is just as much a co-

lonial power as France ever was. In fact, America is more so a colonial power than they be-

cause she’s a hypocritica l colonial power behind it. What do you call second-class citizen-

ship? Why, that’s coloni zation. Second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century slavery.

How you gonna tell me you’re a second class c itizen. They don’t have second0class citizen-

ship 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, you’re nothing but a 20

th century slave. Just as it took natio-

nalism to remove colonialism from Asia and Af rica, it’ll take black nationalism today to re-

move colonialism from the backs and the minds of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this

country.

And 1964 looks like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet. Why doe s 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 they’re fed up.

They’ve become disenchanted. They’ve become disillusioned. They’ve become dissatisfied,

and all of this has built up frustrations in th e black community that makes the black commu-

nity throughout America today mo re explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians can

ever invent. Whenever you got a racial powder ke g sitting in your lap, you’re in more trouble

than if you had an atomic powder keg sitting in your lap. When a racial powder keg goes off,

it doesn’t care who it knocks out the way. Understand this, it’s dangerous. And in 1964 this

seems to be the year, because what can the wh ite man use now to fool us after he put down

that march on Washington? And you see all th rough that now. He tricked you, had you marc-

hing down to Washington. Yes, had you marching b ack and forth between the feet of a dead

man named Lincoln and another dead man na med George Washington singing “We Shall O-

vercome”. He made a chump out of you. He ma de a fool out of you. He made you think you

were going somewhere and you end up going nowh ere but between Lincoln and Washington.

So today, our people are disillusioned. They’v e become disenchanted. They’ve become dis-

satisfied, and in their frustrations they want action. And in 1964 you’ll 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 don’ t want to hear anything about the odds are against us.

What do we care about odds?

When this country here was first being founde d there were 13 colonies. The whites were

colonized. They were fed up with this taxation without representation, so some of them stood

up and said “liberty or death.” Though I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michi-

gan, the white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mis-

take of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot, and George Washington, wasn’t nothing

non-violent about old Pat or George Washingt on. Liberty or death was what brought about

the freedom of whites in this country from the English. They didn’t 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 when the sun - the sun would never set on them.

This is how big it was, yet thes e 13 little, scrawny states, tired of taxation without representa-

tion, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire “liber-

ty or death”. And here you have 22 million Af ro-American black people today catching more

hell than Patrick Henry ever saw. And I’m he re to tell you in case you don’t know it that you

got a new generation of black people in this country who don’t care anything whatsoever about odds. They don’t want to hear you old Uncle Tom handkerchief heads talking about the

odds. No. This is a new generation. If they’re gonna draft these youn\

g black men and send

them over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese - if you’re not afraid of

those odds, you shouldn’t be afraid of these odds.

Why is America, why does this loom to be su ch 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 can’t find them until e-

lection time. They’re going to come in with fals e promises, and as they make these false pro-

mises they're gonna feed our frustrations and this will only serve to make matters worse. I’m

no politician. I’m not even a student of politics. I’m not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an

American, and got sense enough to know it. I’m 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 sp eak, I don’t speak as a Democrat, or a Republi-

can, *nor an American*. I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy. You and I

have never seen democracy; all we’ve seen is hypocrisy. When we open our eyes today and

look around America, we see America not throu gh the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the

fruits of Americanism, we see America through the eyes of so meone who has been the victim

of Americanism. We don’t see any American dream; we’ve experienced only the American

nightmare. We haven’t benefited from America’s democracy; we’ve only suffered from A-

merica’s hypocrisy. And the gene ration that’s coming up now can see it and are not afraid to

say it. If you go to jail, so what? If you black, you were born in jail. If you black, you were

born in jail, in the North as well as the S outh. Stop talking about the South. Long as you

south of the Canadian border, you’re south.

Don’t call Governor Wallace a Dixie governor ; Romney is a Dixie governor. 22 million

black victims of Americanism are waking up an d they’re gaining a new political conscious-

ness, becoming politically mature. And as they deve lop this political maturity, they’re able to

see the recent trends in these political elections. They see that the whites are so evenly divid-

ed that every time they vote the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all

over again. And that means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick

together is in a strategic posit ion. Either way you go, that’s who gets it. You’re in a position

to determine who will go to the White House, and who will stay in the doghouse. You’ re the

one who has that power. You can keep Johnson in Washington DC, or you can send him

back to his Texas cotton patch. You’re the one who sent Kennedy to Washington. You’ re the

one who put the present Democratic Administ ration in Washington DC. The whites were e-

venly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80% of your vo tes 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 ar e in a position to be the determining factor,

what do you get out of it? The Democrats have been in Wa shington DC only because of the

Negro vote. They’ve been down there four years, and there all ot her legislations they wanted

to bring up they 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 'cause you’re a chump, a

political chump. In Washington DC, in the H ouse of Representatives there are 257 who are

Democrats; only 177 are Republican . In the Senate there are 67 Democrats; only 33 are Re-

publicans. The Party that you back ed controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and

the Senate, and still they can’t keep their promise to you, 'cause you’re a chump. Anytime

you throw your weight behind the political party that controls two-thirds of the government,

and that Party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re

dumb enough to walk around contin uing to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only

a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race.

And what kind of alibi do they come up with? They try and pass the buck to the Dixiecrats.

Now back during the days when you were bli nd, deaf, and dumb, ignorant, politically imma-

ture, naturally you went along with that. But to day as your eyes come open, and you develop

political maturity, you’re able to see and think for yourself, a nd 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; it’s 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 cong-

ressional committees that run the government, 12 of them are in the hands of Southern segre-

gationists. And they're going to tell you and me th at 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 Demo-

crat. Whoever runs the Democrats is also the fath er of the Dixiecrats, and the father of all of

them is sitting in the White House. I say an d I say it again: You got a President who’s noth-

ing but a Southern segregationi st from the state of Texas. They’ll lynch you in Texas as

quickly as they’ll lynch you in Mississippi. On ly in Texas they lynch you with a Texas ac-

cent; in Mississippi they lynch you with a Missi ssippi accent. And 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 he’s alright. And those Uncle Toms can’t pass up the coffee. They come away

from the coffee table telling you and me that this man is alright 'cause he’s from the South,

and since he’s from the South he can deal with the South. Look at the logic that they’ re us-

ing. What about Eastland? He’s from the South. Make him the President. He can - if Johnson

is a good man from the 'cause he’s from Texas, and being from Texas will enable him to deal

with the South, Eastland can deal with the S outh better than Johnson. Oh, I say you’ ve been

misled. You been had. You been took.

I was in Washington a couple weeks ago while th e Senators were filibustering, and I noticed

in the back of the Senate a huge map, and on th is 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 le-

gislation? Because the civil rights legislation is supposed to guarantee voting rights to Negro-

es in those states, and those se nators from those states know th at if the Negroes in those sta-

tes 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

who’s from that particular dist rict, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be expelled

from the Congress. Now, if this particular aspect of the Constitution was enforced, why you

wouldn’t have a cracker in Washington DC. Bu t what would happen when you expel the Di-

xiecrat, you’re expelling the Democrat. When yo u destroy the power of the Dixiecrat, you’re

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. They’re playing a

giant con game, a political con game. You know how it goes. One of them comes to you and

makes believe he's for you, and he’s in cahoots with the other one that’s 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 wh at they’ve been doing with you and me all these

years. First thing Johnson got off the plane when he become President, he asked “Where’s

Dicky?” You know who “Dicky” is? Dicky is old Southern cracker Richard Russell. Look

here, yes. Lyndon Johnson’s best friend is the on e who is the head, who’s heading the forces

that are filibustering civil rights legislation. You tell me how in the hell is he going to be Johnson’s best friend? How can Johnson be his friend, and your friend too? No, that man is

too tricky. Especially if his friend is still old Dicky. Whenever the Negroes keep the Demo-

crats in power, they’re keeping the Dixiecrats in power. Is this true? A vote for a Democrat is

nothing but a vote for a Dixiecrat . I know you don’t like me saying that, but I, I’m not the

kind of person who come here to say what you like. I’m going to tell you the truth, whether

you like it or not.

Up here, in the North you have the same thi ng. The Democratic party don’t do it. They don’t

do it that way. They got a think that they call gerrymandering. They maneuver you out of po-

wer. Even though you vote, they fix it so you’re voting for nobody; they’ve got you going

and coming. In the South, they’re outright political wolves. In the North, they’re political fo-

xes. 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 cho-

ose I guarantee you you’ll still be in the dog house. This is why I say it’s the ballot or the

bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s fr eedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. America

today finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are bloody. Oh, yes, they

are. They haven’t never had a blood-less revolution, or a non-vio lent revolution. That doesn’t

happen even in Hollywood. You don’t have a revolution in which you love your enemy, and

you don’t have a revolution in wh ich you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate

you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. Revolutions destroy systems. A revolution is bloo-

dy, but America is in a unique position. She’s the only country in history in a position actual-

ly to become involved in a blood-less revolu tion. The Russian revolution was bloody, Chine-

se revolution was bloody, French revolutio n was bloody, Cuban revolution was bloody, and

there was nothing more bloody then the American Revolution. But today this country can be-

come involved in a revolution that won’t take bloodshed. All she’s got to do is give the black

man in this country everything that’s due him, everything.

I hope that the white man can see this, 'cause if he doesn’t see it you’re finished. If you don’t

see it you’re going to become involved in some action in which you don’t have a chance.

And we don’t care anything about your atomic bomb; it's useless because other countries ha-

ve atomic bombs. When two or three differe nt 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,

you gotta come on down to Earth. And there's more black people on Earth than there are whi-

te people on Earth.

I only got a couple more minutes. The white man can never win another war on the ground.

His days of war, victory, his reign, his days of ground victory are over. Can I prove it? Yes.

Take all the action that’s going on this earth right now that he’s involved in - tell me where

he’s winning. Nowhere. Why 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 he’s supposed to have

and ran him across the Yalu. Why? 'Cause th e day that he can win on the ground has passed.

Up in French Indo-China those little peasants , rice growers took on the might of the French

army and ran all the Frenchmen - you remember Dien Bien Phu. No.

The same thing happened in Algeria, in Africa, they didn’t have anything but a rifle. The

French had all these highly mechanized instru ments of warfare, but they put some guerilla

action on, and a white man can’t fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla action takes heart, takes

nerve, and he doesn’t have that. He’s brave wh en he’s got tanks. He’s brave when he’s got

planes. He’s brave when he’s got bombs. He’s brave when he’s\

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 - that’s all he needs, all he needs is a blade - and when the sun goes down

and it’s dark, it’s even-steven.

So it’s the ballot or the bullet. Today our people can see that we’re faced with a government

conspiracy. This government has failed us. The senators who are filibustering concerning

your and my rights, that's the government. Don’t say it’s Southern senators. This is the go-

vernment; this is a government filibuster. It’s not a segregationist filibuster. It’s a govern-

ment filibuster. Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Sena-

te, it’s the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, that’s the government. Any kind of pussy-

footing, that’s the government. Any kind of act that’s designed to delay or deprive you and

me right now of getting full rights, that’s the government that's responsible. And any time

you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights

of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government e xpecting redress. Ins-

tead, 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 ha-

ve become involved in the civil rights struggle. We have injected ourselves into the civil

rights struggle, and we intend to expand it from th e level of civil rights to the level of human

rights. As long as you're fighting on the level of civil rights, you’re under Uncle Sam’s juris-

diction. You’re going to his c ourt expecting him to correct the problem. He created the prob-

lem. He’s the criminal. You don’t 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 th e government of Portugal began

to trample upon the rights of our brothers and si sters in Angola, it was taken before the U.N.

Why even the white man took the Hungarian ques tion to the U.N. And just this week Chief

Justice Goldberg was crying over 3 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 22 million Afro-Ameri cans whose choices are being bound, 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 ha ve never taken it before the United Nations. So

our next move is to take the entire civil rights struggle problems into the United Nations, and

let the world see that Uncle Sam is guilty of violating the human rights of 22 million Afro-

Americans.

Uncle Sam 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, he’s 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 hi s jaws like a bloody-jawed wolf, and still got the nerve to

point his finger at other count ries. You can’t even get civil rights legislation. And this man

has got the nerve to stand up and talk about Sout h Africa, or talk about Nazi Germany, or talk

about Deutschland. Why? No more days like th ose. So, I say in my conclusion the only way

we're going to solve it - we’ve got to unite in unity and harmony, and black nationalism is the

key. How we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each others throats that always exists in

our neighbourhoods? 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 I’m

for separation and you for integration to keep us fighting with each other. No, I’m not for

separation and you’re not for integration. What you and I is for is freedom. Only you think that integration would get you freedom, I think separation would get me freedom. We both

got the same objective, we just got different ways of getting at it.

So I studied this man, Billy Graham, who preach es white nationalism, that’s what he preac-

hes. I say that’s what he preaches. The whole church structure in this country is white natio-

nalism. You go inside a white church that’s wh at they preaching is white nationalism. They

got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white - that’s white nationalism. So what

he does the way he circumvents the jealousy an d envy that he ordinarily would incur among

the heads of the church, wherever he go into an area where the church already is you going

into trouble, 'cause they got th at thing what you call it - syndicated, they got a syndicate - just

like the rest of the Racketeers have. I’m going to say what’s on my mind 'cause the churches

are, the preachers already proved to you that they got a syndicate.

And when you're out in the rackets, whenev er you're getting in another man’s territory, you

know, they gang up on you. And that’s the same way with you ran into the same thing. So

how Billy Graham gets around that, instead of going into somebody else’s territory, like he

going to start up a new church, he doesn’t try to start a church. He just goes in preaching Ch-

rist. And he says everybody w ho believes in Him, wherever you go wherever you find him.

So this helps all the churches and since it helps all the churches they don’t mind fight him.

Well, we gonna do the same thing, only our gos pel s 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 you own, the politics of your community, the economy of

your community, and all of the society in which you live should be und er your control. And

once you feel that this philosophy will solve your problem, go join any church where that’s

preached. Don’t join a church where white nationalism is preached. Now you can go to a

Negro church and be exposed to white nationa lism 'cause you are when you walk in a Negro

church and a white Mary and some white angels - that Negro church is preaching white na-

tionalism. But when you go to a church and you s ee the pastor of that church with a philosop-

hy and a program that’s designed to bring black people together and elevate black people -

join that church. Join that church. If you see where th e 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 that’s based on lifting the

black man up and making him master of his own community.

It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be th e bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if you’re not ready

to pay that price don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.

One more thing: I was on a program in Illinoi s recently with Senator Paul Douglas, a so-cal-

led liberal, so-called Democrat, so-called white man, at which time he told me that our Afri-

can 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 w eeks it’s my intenti-

on and plan to make a tour of our African homel and. And I hope that when I come back, I’ll

be able to come back and let you know how our African brothers and sisters feel toward us.

And I know before I go there th at they love us. We’re one; we’re the same; the same man

who has colonized them all thes e 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. I want to thank Milton and Richard Henley for

inviting me here this afternoon, and also Reve rend Cleage. And I want them to know that a-

nything 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, th e 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

I’ll be on the next jet right on into the city.