THE BALLOT OR THE BULLET MALCOLM X (FINAL)

AUSTIN CAO, MRS. GREGORY 3rd HOUR

On April 3, 1964, the human rights activist Malcolm Little, more commonly known as

Malcolm X, gave this speech in front of the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio. In the

shadow of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and his own separation from the Nation of Islam, his

words reflected a growing dissent in the black community. 10 months after he gave this

speech, the Ballot or the Bullet, Malcolm X was killed after being shot several times to the

chest. 30,000 people attended his funeral. ------------------------------

Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies. The

question tonight, in my humble way of understanding 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. Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to

discuss my religion. 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.

1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. It's a

political year. The year when all of the white politicians will be back in your community

building up our hopes with their trickery, treachery, and their false promises which they

don't intend to keep. The government has failed us; you can’t deny that. Anytime you live in

the twentieth century, 1964, and you walkin' around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the

government has failed us. And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve

turned have failed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves.

There are 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. They're

beginning to see that there ain’t no American dream, only an American nightmare.

I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michigan, and the white man made the

mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mistake of teaching me that

Patrick Henry and George Washington were patriots, and there wasn’t nothing non-violent

about old Pat or George Washington. They didn’t care about the odds. Why they faced the

wrath of the entire British Empire, so vast and so powerful that sun would never set on

them. That’s how big it was, yet these 13 little, scrawny states, tired of taxation without

representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British

Empire “give me liberty or give me death”. And here you have 22 million Afro-American

people today catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw. I’m here to tell that we’ve got

a new generation of black people in this country who don’t care anything whatsoever about

odds. In 1964, it’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if

you’re not ready to pay that price, then don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.

The economic philosophy of black nationalism means that we should control the

economy of our community. 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. If we own the

stores, if we operate the businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own

community, then we have won.

The social philosophy of black nationalism only means that we have to get together

and remove the vices, alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are destroying the

moral fiber of our community. 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 instead it is designed to make the black man re-evaluate himself.

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 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.