MALCOLM X SPEAKS SELEC TED SPEECHES AND STATEMEN TS EDITED WITH PREFATOR Y NOTES BY GEORGE BREITM AN � GROVE PRESS New York Copyright © 1965 by Merit Publishers and Betty Shabazz All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or CONTENTS by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages in a review. Any members of educational institutions wishing to photocopy part or all of the work for classroom use, or publishers who would like to obtain permission to include the work in an anthology, should send their inquiries to GrovelAtlantic, Inc., 841 Broadway, New York,NY 10003. Published simultaneously in Canada Printed in the United States ofAmerica FOREWORD vii The publisher acknowledges with gratitude the permission of the following companies and individuals to use in this book materials by Malcolm X: I. MESSAGE TO TH E GRASS ROOTS 3 November 10, 1963, Detroit Afro-American Broadcasting Co., Detroit, for "Message to the Grass Roots" and interview by Milton Henry in Cairo, Egypt. "Pierre Berton Show," CFTO-TV, Toronto, Canada, for excerpts from II. A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 18 program taped January 19, 1965. The Militant, for speeches printed in its issues of April 27, 1964, June 8, March 12, 1964, New York City 1964, January 25, 1965, and May 24, 1965. Radio Station WBAI-FM, New York City, for excerpts from interview on 23 January 28,1965. III. THE BAllOT OR THE BULLET Radio Station WINS, New York City, for concluding section of Contact April 3, 1964, Cleveland program,February 18,1965. Village Voice, for excerpts from Febmary 25, 1965, article by Marlene 45 Nadle, "Malcolm X: The Complexity of a Man in the Jungle." IV. THE BLACK REVOLUTION Young Socialist, for excerpts from interview in March-April 1965 issue. April 8, 1964, New York City Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data LETTERS FROM ABROAD 58 X, Malcolm, 1925-1965. V. [Selections, 1990] April 20, 1964, Jedda, Saudi Arabia Malcolm X speaks: selected speeches and statements I edited llvith May 10, 1964, lagos, Nigeria prefatory notes by George Breitman. p. cm. May 11, 1964, Accra, Ghana ISBN 0-8021-3213-8 1. United States-Race relations. 2. Afro-Americans-Civil rights. 3. THE HARLEM "HATE-GANG" SCARE 64 Black Muslims. I. Breitman,Geor ge. II.Title. VI. May 29, 1964, New York City BP223,Z8L57922 1990 297 .87-dc20 90-30051 VII. APPEAL TO AFRICAN HEADS OF STATE 72 Grove Press July 17, 1964, Cairo, Egypt 841 Broadway New York,NY 10003 VIII. AT THE AUDUBON 88 05 15 14 13 12 II 10 December 13, 1964, New York City vi Malcolm X Speaks IX. WITH MRS. FANNIE LO U HAMER 105 December 20 , 1964, New York City FOREWORD X. AT THE AUDUBON 115 December 20, 1964, New York City XI. TO MISSISSIPPI YOUTH 137 Malcolm Little was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on December 31, 1964, New York City May 19, 1925. A dropout from school at 15, he was convicted of burglary and sent to prison in his twenty­ XII. PROSPECTS FOR FREEDOM IN 1965 147 first year. There he was converted to the Nation of Islam January 7, 1965, New York City (Black Muslims). When he left prison in 1952, he dedi­ cated himself to building the Black Muslims, and adopted XIII. AFTER THE BOMBING 157 the name, Malcolm X He withdrew from that movement February 14, 1965, Detroit in March, 1964, organizing first the Muslim Mosque, Inc., and later the non-religious Organization of Afro-American Unity. He made two trips to Africa and the Middle East XIV. CONFRONTATION WITH AN "EXPERT'I 178 during 1964. Three months after his return to the United 18, 1965, February New York City States, he was assassinated in New York on February 21, 1965. His own story of his life is recounted in The XV. LAST ANSWERS AND INTERVIEWS 194 Autobiography of Malcolm X (Grove Press, 1965). A selection of statements made in * * * interviews and meetings between November 23, 1964, and February 21, This book is a selection of speeches by Malcolm X 1965, the last three months of All of them were made during the last year of his life Malcolm XiS life (except for the first selection, made shortly before his departure from the Black Muslim movement). With that exception, it ranges in time from his declaration of in­ dependence on March 12, 1964, to his death. It represents only a small portion of the speeches and interviews he gave during that period in the United States, Africa, the Middle East and Europe. It does not attempt to deal with Malcolm's assassination. The aim of this book is to present, in his own words, the major ideas Malcolm expounded and defended during his last year. We feel that this aim is largely fulfilled by the speeches and other material included here, even though not all of his speeches were available to us. Convinced that Malcolm will be the subject of much study and many controversies in the years to come- by activists in the black freedom struggle - as well as historians, viii Malcolm X Speaks scholars and students- we' believe that the present book will serve as an invaluable source of material for their studies and disputes, and that it will correct, at least partially, some misconceptions about one of the most I. MESSAGE TO THE GRASS ROOTS misunderstood and misrepresented men of our time. Malcolm was primarily a speaker, not a writer. The only things in this book written by him are his memo­ randum to the Organization of African Unity in Cairo and some letters. The printed speeches do not convey In late 1963, the Detroit Council for Human Rights adequately his remarkable qualities as a speaker, their announced a Northern Negro Le.adership Conference to effect on his audiences and the interplay between him be held in Detroit on November 9 and 10. When the and them. These would be best conveyed by a series of council's chairman, Rev. C. L. Franklin, sought to ex­ long-playing record albums presenting this material in clude black nationalists and Freedom Now Party advo­ his own voice, with its tones of indignation and anger, cates from the conference, Rev. Albert B. Cleage, Jr., with its chuckles, and with the interruptions df applause resigned from the council and, in collaboration with the and laughter from the audience. (We counted almost 150 Group On Advanced Leadership (GOAL), arranged for such interruptions by the audience in the tape of a sin­ a Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference. gle speech, "The Ballot or the Bullet. j Since the cost of This was held in Detroit at the same time as the more such a series of albums would, however, limit the num­ conservative gathering, which was addressed by Congress­ ber of people who could buy them, presentation of the man Adam Clayton Powell among others. The two-day speeches in book form is the next best thing. Grass Roots conference was climaxed by a large public In editing, we have made only such changes as any rally at the King Solomon Baptist Church, with Rev. speaker would make in preparing his speeches for print, Cleage, journalist William Worthy and Malcolm X as the and such as we believe Malcolm would have made himself. chief speakers. The audience, almost all black and with That is, we have corrected slips of the tongue and minor non-Muslims in the great majority, interrupted Malcolm grammatical lapses which are unavoidable in most speech­ with applause and laughter so often that he asked it to es given extemporaneously or from brief notes. Since desist because of the lateness of the hour. we sought to avoid repetitions, common to speakers who A few weeks after the conference, President Kennedy speak as often as Malcolm did, we have omitted sections was assassinated and Elijah Muhammad silenced Mal­ that were repeated or paraphrased in other speeches in­ colm X. This is, therefore, one of the last speeches cluded here. Omissions of this kind are indicated by three Malcolm gave before leaVing Muhammad's organization. periods (. ) . It is the only specimen of his speeches as a Black Mus­ The explanatory notes accompanying the speeches lim included in this book. But it is not a typical Black are intended primarily to indicate where and when they Muslim speech .. Even though Malcolm continued to preface were given, with a minimum of interpretative or editorial certain statements with the phrase, "The Honorable Elijah comment; The reader is urged to bear in mind through­ Muhammad says," he was increasingly, in the period out the book that Malcolm's ideas were developing with before the split, giving his own special stamp to the Black rapidity and that certain positions he took in the first two Muslims' ideas, including the idea of separation. The months after his break with the Black Muslims under­ emphasis of this speech is considerably different from went further change in the last months of his life. earlier ones of the type included in Louis E. Lomax's -G.B. book, When the Word Is Given.. .. 4 Malcolm X Speaks Message to the Grass Roots 5 The following selection consists of about one-half of people who came here on the "Mayflower," you were the speech. The long-playing record, "Message to the Grass brought here by the so-called Pilgrims, or Founding Roots by Malcolm X," published by the Afro-American Fathers. They were the ones who brought you here.