Malcolm X has been greatly maligned and slandered. This pamphlet provides invaluable material to show what he really stood for. From his own words, voiced over a period of almost a year, we can judge his views on some of the key problems facing the movement for black emancipation in the United States.
Of special interest is the evolution of these views as reflected in these same declarations. It is quite evident that Malcolm X was developing at a remarkable rate when he was struck down by the assassins! bullets,
Some of the highlights are indicated in the following ex-
tracts:
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March 12, 1964
"Our political philosophy will be Black Nationalism, Our. economic and social philosophy will be Black Nationalism, Our cultural emphasis will be Black Nationalism. :
"Many of our people aren't religiously inclined, so the Muslim Mosque, Inc., will be organized in such manner to provide for the active participation of all Negroes in our political, economic, and social programs, despite their religious or nonreligious beliefs.
"The political philosophy of Black Nationalism means: we must control the politics and the politicians of our community. They must no. longer take orders from outside forces. We will organize and sweep out of office all Negro politietans who are puppets for the outside forces,"
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PAS April 8, 1964
“If George Washington didn't get independence for this country nonviolently, and if Patrick Henry didn't come up with a nonviolent statement, and you taught me to look upon them as. patriots and heroes then its time for you to realize that I have studied your books well."
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“Nand I. say your people because I certainly. couldn't include myself among those for whom independence was fought in 1776. How in the world can a Negro talk about the Declaration of Independence when he is still singing 'We Shall Overcome'? Our people are increasingly developing the opinion that we just have nothing to lose but the chains of segregation and the chains of second-class citizenship."
"So 1964 will see the Negro revolt evolve and merge into the world-wide black revolution that has been taking place on this earth since 1945, The so-called revolt will become a real black revolution, Now the black revolution has been taking place in Africa and Asia and in Latin America, Now when I say black, I mean nonwhite. Black, brown, red or yellow. Our brothers and sisters in Asia, who were colonized by the Europeans, and in Latin America, the peasants, who were colonized by the Europeans, have been involved in a struggle since 1945 to get the colonialists, or the colonizing powers, the Europeans, off their land, out of their country.
"This is a real revolution. Revolution is always based on land. Revolution is never based on begging somebody for an integrated cup of coffee. Revolutions are never fought by turning the other cheek. Revolutions are never based upon love your enemy, and pray for those who spitefully use you. And revolutions are never. waged singing, 'We Shall Overcome.'! Revolutions are based upon bloodshed, Revolutions are never compromising. Revolutions are never based upon negotiations, Revolutions are never based upon any kind of tokenism whatsoever, Revolutions are never even based upon that which is begging a corrupt society or a corrupt system to accept us into it. Revolutions overturn systems, and there is no system on this earth which has proved itself more corrupt, more criminal than this system, that in 1964 still colonizes 22, 000, 000 African-Americans, still enslaves 22,000,000 Afro-Americans.
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"All of our people have the same goals. The same objective. That objective is freedom, justice, equality. All of us want recogs: nition and respect as human beings. We don't want to be integration= ists. Nor do we want to be separationists. We want to be human beings. Integration is only a method that is used by some groups to obtain freedom, justice, equality and respect as human beings. Separation is only a method that is used by other groups to obtain free-_ dom, justice, equality or human dignity.
"So our people have made the mistake of confusing. the methods with the objectives. As long as we agree on objectives, we. should “never fall out with each other just because we believe in different methods or tactics or strategy to reach a common objective.
"We have to keep in mind at all times that we are not fighting for integration, nor are we fighting for separation. We are fighting for recognition as human beings. We are fighting for the right to live as free humans in this society. In fact, we are actually fighting for rights that are even greater than civil rights and that is human rights.
“We are fighting for human rights in 1964. This is a shame, The civil-rights struggle has failed to produce concrete results because it has kept us barking up the wrong tree. It has made us put the cart ahead of the horse. We must have human rights before we can. secure civil rights. We must be respected as humans before we can be recognized as citizens."
"The difference between the thinking and the scope of the Negroes who are involved in the human-rights struggle and those who are involved in the civil-rights struggle -- those so-called Negroes involved in the human-rights struggle don't look upon themselves as Americans.
"They look upon themselves as a part of dark mankind. They see the whole struggle now within the confines of the American stage, but they look upon the struggle on the world stage. And, in the world context, they see that the dark man outnumbers the white man. On the world stage the white man is just a microscopic minority.
"So in this country you find two different types of Afro- Americans, the type who looks upon himself as a minority and you as the majority, because his scope is limited to the American scene; and then you have the type who looks upon himself as part of the majority and you as part of a microscopic minority. And this one uses a different approach in trying to struggle for his rights. He doesn't beg. He doesn't thank you for what you give him, because you are only giving him what he should have had a hundred years ago. He doesn't think you are doing him any favors."
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"There are only 11,000,000 of our people in South Africa, there are 22,000,000 of them here. And we are receiving an injustice which is just as criminal as that which is being done to the black people of South Africa." .
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"In fact, when you see how many of these committee men are from the South you can see that we have nothing but a crackers government in Washington, D.C. And their head is a cracker President. I said a cracker President.-. Texas is just as much a cracker state as Mississippi -- and even more so, In Texas they lynch you with a Texas accent and in Mississippi they lynch you with a Mississippi accent.
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v May 29, 1964
"Also, they say travel broadens your scope, and recently I've had an opportunity to do a lot of it, in the Middle East and Africa, and while I was traveling I noticed that most of the countries that had recently emerged into independence, they have turned away from the so-called capitalistic system in the direction of socialism... So out of curiosity, I can't resist the temptation to do a little investigating wherever that particular philosophy happens to be in existence or an attempt is being made to bring it into existence,"
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"The system in this country cannot produce freedom for an Afro-American, It is impossible for this system, this economic sys-
*CGontemptuous term used by whites themselves for the most ignorant and boorish sectors of the white population in the South. -- Editor.
tem, this political system, this social system, this system, period. - It's impossible for this system as it stands to produce freedom right now for the black man in this country."
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Most of the countries that were colonial powers were capitalist countries and the last bulwark of capitalism today is America and it's impossible for a white person today to believe. in capitalism and not believe in racism. You can't have capitalism without racism, And if you find a person without racism and you happen to get that person into a conversation and they have a philosophy that makes you sure they don't have this racism in their outlook, usually they're socialists or their political philosophy is socialism. "
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January 7, 1965
"In 1964, 97 per cent of the black American voters supported Lyndon B. Johnson, Hubert Humphrey and the Democratic party. Ninetyseven per cent! No one minority group in the history of the world has ever given so much of its uncompromising support to one candidate and one party. No one people, no one group has ever gone all the way to support a party and its candidate as did the > people, the black people, in America in 1964, o-
"And the first act of the Democratic party, Lyndon B. included, in 1965, when the representatives from the state of Mississippi who refused to support Johnson came to Washington, D.C., and the black people of Mississippi sent representatives there to challenge the legality of these people being seated, what did Johnson say? Nothing! What did Humphrey say? Nothing! What did Robert Pretty- Boy Kennedy say? Nothing! Nothing! Not one thing! These are the people that black people have supported. This is the party that. they have supported...
"The frustration of these black representatives from Mississippi when they arrived in Washington, D.C., the other day, thinking, you know, that the Great Society was going to include them -- only to see the door close in their face like that. That's what makes them think, That's what makes them realize what they're up against. It is this type of frustration that produced the Mau Mau. They reached the point where they saw that it takes power to talk to power. It takes power to make power respect you. It takes madness almost to deal with a power structure that's so corrupt -- so corrupt.
"So 1965 should see a lot of action. Since the old methods haven't worked, they'll be forced to try new methods..."
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January 28, 1965
"The Organization of Afro-American Unity feels that as long as our people in this country confine their struggle within the limitations and under the jurisdiction of the United States government, we remain within the confines of the vicious system that has done nothing but exploit and oppress us ever since we've been here. So we feel that our only real hope is to make known that our problem is not a Negro problem or an American problem but rather, it has become a human problem, a world problem, and it has to be attacked at the world level, at a level at which all segments of humanity can intervene in our behalf."
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"Now the African nations are speaking out and linking the problem of racism in Mississippi with the problem of racism in the Congo and also the problem of racism in South Vietnam. It's all racism. It's all part of the vicious racist system that the Western powers have used to continue to degrade and exploit and oppress the people in Africa and Asia and Latin America during recent centuries.
"and when these people in these different areas begin to see that the problem is the same problem and when the 22,000,000 black . Americans see that our problem is the same as the problem of the people who are-being oppressed in South Vietnam and the Congo and Latin America, then the oppressed people of this earth make up a majority, not a minority. Then we approach our problem then as a majority that can demand, not as a minority that has to beg,"
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“We see where the problem of Vietnam is the problem of the oppressed and the oppressor, The problem in the Congo is the problem of the oppressed and the oppressor, The problem in Mississippi and Alabama and New York is the problem of the oppressed and the oppressor, The oppressed people all over the world have the same problems and it is only now that they're becoming sufficiently sophisticated to see that all they have to do to get the oppressor off their back ds. to unite and realize that it is one problem -- that our problems are inseparable. And then our action will be inseparable. Our action willbe one of unity and in the unity of oppressed people is. actually the strength, and the best strength of the oppressed people,"
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v Interview in the. "Young Socialist"
"When I told him that my political, social and economic philosophy was black nationalism, he asked me very frankly, well, where did that leave him? Because he was white. He was an African, but he was Algerian, and to all appearances, he was a white man. . .
"So, I had to do a lot of thinking and reappraising of my de- | finition of black nationalism, Can we sum up the solution to the problems confronting our people as black nationalism? And if you notice, I haven't been using the expression for several months. But I still would be hard pressed to give a specific definition of the over-all philosophy which I think is necessary for the liberation of the black people in this country."
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