Malcolm X
“The Ballot or the Bullet”
April 3, 1964
Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters,
friends and enemies: I just can't believe everyone in here is
a friend, and I don't want to leave anybody out. The
question tonight, as I understand it, is "The Negro Revolt,
and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In my
little humble way of understanding it, 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.
I'm still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That's my
personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian
minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New
York, but at the same time takes part in the political
struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people
in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian
minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another
organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in
this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess you've heard
of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has
been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate
segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a
Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in
action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.
Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to discuss
my religion. I'm not here to try and change your religion.
I'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ
about, because it's time for us to submerge our differences
and realize that 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.
Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-
white, but it does mean we're anti-exploitation, we're anti-
degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man
doesn't want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and
exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are Christians or
Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must
first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences,
let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us
not have anything to argue about until we get finished
arguing with the man. If the late President Kennedy could
get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat,
we certainly have more in common with each other than
Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.
If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to
agree that we're going to be forced either to use the ballot
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 1 of 15
or the bullet. It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't that time
is running out—time has run out!
1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has
ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? It's also a
political year. It's the year when all of the white politicians
will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you
and me for some votes. The year when all of the white
political crooks will be right back in your and my
community with their false promises, building up our hopes
for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with
their false promises which they don't intend to keep. As
they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one
thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of black man
on the scene in America today—I'm sorry, Brother Lomax
—who just doesn't intend to turn the other cheek any
longer.
Don't let anybody tell you anything about the odds are
against you. If they draft you, they send you to Korea and
make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be brave over
there, you can be brave right here. These odds aren't as
great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will at least
know what you're fighting for.
I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact,
I'm not a student of much of anything. I'm not a Democrat.
I'm not a Republican, and I don't even consider myself an
American. If you and I were Americans, there'd be no
problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, they're
already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the
Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that
came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an
American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we
aren't Americans yet.
Well, I am one who doesn't believe in deluding myself. I'm
not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with
nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the
table doesn't make you a diner, unless you eat some of
what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't make
you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make
you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you
wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any
amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn't be faced
with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now.
They don't have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a
Polack an American.
No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black
people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22
million black people who are the victims of democracy,
nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I'm not standing here
speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-
saluter, or a flag-waver—no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim
of this American system. And I see America through the
eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an
American nightmare.
These 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are
coming open. They're beginning to see what they used to
only look at. They're becoming politically mature. They are
realizing that there are new political trends from coast to
coast. As they see these new political trends, it's possible
for them to see that every time there's an election the races
are so close that they have to have a recount. They had to
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
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recount in Massachusetts to see who was going to be
governor, it was so close. It was the same way in Rhode
Island, in Minnesota, and in many other parts of the
country. And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they
ran for president. It was so close they had to count all over
again. Well, what does this mean? It means that when white
people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of
votes of their own, it is left up to them to determine who's
going to sit in the White House and who's going to be in the
dog house.
lt. was the black man's vote that put the present
administration in Washington, D.C. Your vote, your dumb
vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an
administration in Washington, D.C., that has seen fit to pass
every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you until last,
then filibustering on top of that. And your and my leaders
have the audacity to run around clapping their hands and
talk about how much progress we're making. And what a
good president we have. If he wasn't good in Texas, he sure
can't be good in Washington, D.C. Because Texas is a lynch
state. It is in the same breath as Mississippi, no different;
only they lynch you in Texas with a Texas accent and lynch
you in Mississippi with a Mississippi accent. And these
Negro leaders have the audacity to go and have some coffee
in the White House with a Texan, a Southern cracker—
that's all he is—and then come out and tell you and me that
he's going to be better for us because, since he's from the
South, he knows how to deal with the Southerners. What
kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be president, he's from
the South too. He should be better able to deal with them
than Johnson.
In this present administration they have in the House of
Representatives 257 Democrats to only 177 Republicans.
They control two-thirds of the House vote. Why can't they
pass something that will help you and me? In the Senate,
there are 67 senators who are of the Democratic Party.
Only 33 of them are Republicans. Why, the Democrats have
got the government sewed up, and you're the one who
sewed it up for them. And what have they given you for it?
Four years in office, and just now getting around to some
civil-rights legislation. Just now, after everything else is
gone, out of the way, they're going to sit down now and
play with you all summer long—the same old giant con
game that they call filibuster. All those are in cahoots
together. Don't you ever think they're not in cahoots
together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights
filibuster is a man from Georgia named Richard Russell.
When Johnson became president, the first man he asked for
when he got back to Washington, D.C., was "Dicky"—that's
how tight they are. That's his boy, that's his pal, that's his
buddy. But they're playing that old con game. One of them
makes believe he's for you, and he's got it fixed where the
other one is so tight against you, he never has to keep his
promise.
So it's time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them
coming up with that kind of conspiracy, let them know your
eyes are open. And let them know you—something else
that's wide open too. It's got to be the ballot or the bullet.
The ballot or the bullet. If you're afraid to use an expression
like that, you should get on out of the country; you should
get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the
alley. They get all the Negro vote, and after they get it, the
Negro gets nothing in return. All they did when they got to
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 3 of 15
Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big
Negroes didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's
camouflage, that's trickery, that's treachery, window-
dressing. I'm not trying to knock out the Democrats for the
Republicans. We'll get to them in a minute. But it is true;
you put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last.
Look at it the way it is. What alibis do they use, since they
control Congress and the Senate? What alibi do they use
when you and I ask, "Well, when are you going to keep your
promise?" They blame the Dixiecrats. What is a Dixiecrat? A
Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in
disguise. The titular head of the Democrats is also the head
of the Dixiecrats, because the Dixiecrats are a part of the
Democratic Party. The Democrats have never kicked the
Dixiecrats out of the party. The Dixiecrats bolted
themselves once, but the Democrats didn't put them out.
Imagine, these lowdown Southern segregationists put the
Northern Democrats down. But the Northern Democrats
have never put the Dixiecrats down. No, look at that thing
the way it is. They have got a con game going on, a political
con game, and you and I are in the middle. It's time for you
and me to wake up and start looking at it like it is, and
trying to understand it like it is; and then we can deal with
it like it is.
The Dixiecrats in Washington, D.C., control the key
committees that run the government. The only reason the
Dixiecrats control these committees is because they have
seniority. The only reason they have seniority is because
they come from states where Negroes can't vote. This is not
even a government that's based on democracy. lt. is not a
government that is made up of representatives of the
people. Half of the people in the South can't even vote.
Eastland is not even supposed to be in Washington. Half of
the senators and congressmen who occupy these key
positions in Washington, D.C., are there illegally, are there
unconstitutionally.
I was in Washington, D.C., a week ago Thursday, when they
were debating whether or not they should let the bill come
onto the floor. And in the back of the room where the
Senate meets, there's a huge map of the United States, and
on that map it shows the location of Negroes throughout
the country. And it shows that the Southern section of the
country, the states that are most heavily concentrated with
Negroes, are the ones that have senators and congressmen
standing up filibustering and doing all other kinds of
trickery to keep the Negro from being able to vote. This is
pitiful. But it's not pitiful for us any longer; it's actually
pitiful for the white man, because soon now, as the Negro
awakens a little more and sees the vise that he's in, sees the
bag that he's in, sees the real game that he's in, then the
Negro's going to develop a new tactic.
These senators and congressmen actually violate the
constitutional amendments that guarantee the people of
that particular state or county the right to vote. And the
Constitution itself has within it the machinery to expel any
representative from a state where the voting rights of the
people are violated. You don't even need new legislation.
Any person in Congress right now, who is there from a state
or a district where the voting rights of the people are
violated, that particular person should be expelled from
Congress. And when you expel him, you've removed one of
the obstacles in the path of any real meaningful legislation
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 4 of 15
in this country. In fact, when you expel them, you don't
need new legislation, because they will be replaced by black
representatives from counties and districts where the black
man is in the majority, not in the minority.
If the black man in these Southern states had his full voting
rights, the key Dixiecrats in Washington, D. C., which means
the key Democrats in Washington, D.C., would lose their
seats. The Democratic Party itself would lose its power. It
would cease to be powerful as a party. When you see the
amount of power that would be lost by the Democratic
Party if it were to lose the Dixiecrat wing, or branch, or
element, you can see where it's against the interests of the
Democrats to give voting rights to Negroes in states where
the Democrats have been in complete power and authority
ever since the Civil War. You just can't belong to that Party
without analyzing it.
I say again, I'm not anti-Democrat, I'm not anti-Republican,
I'm not anti-anything. I'm just questioning their sincerity,
and some of the strategy that they've been using on our
people by promising them promises that they don't intend
to keep. When you keep the Democrats in power, you're
keeping the Dixiecrats in power. I doubt that my good
Brother Lomax will deny that. A vote for a Democrat is a
vote for a Dixiecrat. That's why, in 1964, it's time now for
you and me to become more politically mature and realize
what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we
cast a ballot; and that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to
end up in a situation where we're going to have to cast a
bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet.
In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system
that's known as gerrymandering, whatever that means. It
means when Negroes become too heavily concentrated in a
certain area, and begin to gain too much political power,
the white man comes along and changes the district lines.
You may say, "Why do you keep saying white man?"
Because it's the white man who does it. I haven't ever seen
any Negro changing any lines. They don't let him get near
the line. It's the white man who does this. And usually, it's
the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on
the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be
friendly, but he's not your friend.
So, what I'm trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this:
You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist
conspiracy, we're faced with a government conspiracy.
Everyone who's filibustering is a senator—that's the
government. Everyone who's finagling in Washington, D.C.,
is a congressman—that's the government. You don't have
anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a
part of the government. The same government that you go
abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a
conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you
of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent
housing, deprive you of decent education. You don't need to
go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the
government of America, that is responsible for the
oppression and exploitation and degradation of black
people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap.
This government has failed the Negro. This so-called
democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals
have definitely failed the Negro.
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 5 of 15
So, where do we go from here? First, we need some friends.
We need some new allies. The entire civil-rights struggle
needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation. We
need to look at this civil-rights thing from another angle—
from the inside as well as from the outside. To those of us
whose philosophy is black nationalism, the only way you
can get involved in the civil-rights struggle is give it a new
interpretation. That old interpretation excluded us. It kept
us out. So, we're giving a new interpretation to the civil-
rights struggle, an interpretation that will enable us to
come into it, take part in it. And these handkerchief-heads
who have been dillydallying and pussy footing and
compromising—we don't intend to let them pussyfoot and
dillydally and compromise any longer.
How can you thank a man for giving you what's already
yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only
part of what's already yours? You haven't even made
progress, if what's being given to you, you should have had
already. That's not progress. And I love my Brother Lomax,
the way he pointed out we're right back where we were in
1954. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're
behind where we were in 1954. There's more segregation
now than there was in 1954. There's more racial animosity,
more racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than
there was in 1954. Where is the progress?
And now you're facing a situation where the young Negro's
coming up. They don't want to hear that "turn the-other-
cheek" stuff, no. In Jacksonville, those were teenagers, they
were throwing Molotov cocktails. Negroes have never done
that before. But it shows you there's a new deal coming in.
There's new thinking coming in. There's new strategy
coming in. It'll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand
grenades next month, and something else next month. It'll
be ballots, or it'll be bullets. It'll be liberty, or it will be
death. The only difference about this kind of death—it'll be
reciprocal. You know what is meant by "reciprocal"? That's
one of Brother Lomax's words. I stole it from him. I don't
usually deal with those big words because I don't usually
deal with big people. I deal with small people. I find you can
get a whole lot of small people and whip hell out of a whole
lot of big people. They haven't got anything to lose, and
they've got every thing to gain. And they'll let you know in a
minute: "It takes two to tango; when I go, you go."
The black nationalists, those whose philosophy is black
nationalism, in bringing about this new interpretation of
the entire meaning of civil rights, look upon it as meaning,
as Brother Lomax has pointed out, equality of opportunity.
Well, we're justified in seeking civil rights, if it means
equality of opportunity, because all we're doing there is
trying to collect for our investment. Our mothers and
fathers invested sweat and blood. Three hundred and ten
years we worked in this country without a dime in return—
I mean without a dime in return. You let the white man
walk around here talking about how rich this country is,
but you never stop to think how it got rich so quick. It got
rich because you made it rich.
You take the people who are in this audience right now.
They're poor. We're all poor as individuals. Our weekly
salary individually amounts to hardly anything. But if you
take the salary of everyone in here collectively, it'll fill up a
whole lot of baskets. It's a lot of wealth. If you can collect
the wages of just these people right here for a year, you'll
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 6 of 15
be rich—richer than rich. When you look at it like that,
think how rich Uncle Sam had to become, not with this
handful, but millions of black people. Your and my mother
and father, who didn't work an eight-hour shift, but worked
from "can't see" in the morning until "can't see" at night,
and worked for nothing, making the white man rich,
making Uncle Sam rich. This is our investment. This is our
contribution, our blood.
Not only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood.
Every time he had a call to arms, we were the first ones in
uniform. We died on every battlefield the white man had.
We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody who's
standing up in America today. We have made a greater
contribution and have collected less. Civil rights, for those
of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, means: "Give
it to us now. Don't wait for next year. Give it to us
yesterday, and that's not fast enough."
I might stop right here to point out one thing. Whenever
you're going after something that belongs to you, anyone
who's depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal.
Understand that. Whenever you are going after something
that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay claim to
it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive you of
that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a criminal. And
this was pointed out by the Supreme Court decision. It
outlawed segregation.
Which means segregation is against the law. Which means a
segregationist is breaking the law. A segregationist is a
criminal. You can't label him as anything other than that.
And when you demonstrate against segregation, the law is
on your side. The Supreme Court is on your side.
Now, who is it that opposes you in carrying out the law?
The police department itself. With police dogs and clubs.
Whenever you demonstrate against segregation, whether it
is segregated education, segregated housing, or anything
else, the law is on your side, and anyone who stands in the
way is not the law any longer. They are breaking the law;
they are not representatives of the law. Any time you
demonstrate against segregation and a man has the
audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog, kill him,
I'm telling you, kill that dog. I say it if they put me in jail
tomorrow, kill that dog. Then you'll put a stop to it. Now, if
these white people in here don't want to see that kind of
action, get down and tell the mayor to tell the police
department to pull the dogs in. That's all you have to do. If
you don't do it, someone else will.
If you don't take this kind of stand, your little children will
grow up and look at you and think "shame." If you don't
take an uncompromising stand, I don't mean go out and get
violent; but at the same time you should never be
nonviolent unless you run into some nonviolence. I'm
nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But
when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me
go insane, and I'm not responsible for what I do. And that's
the way every Negro should get. Any time you know you're
within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral
rights, in accord with justice, then die for what you believe
in. But don't die alone. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is
what is meant by equality. What's good for the goose is
good for the gander.
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 7 of 15
When we begin to get in this area, we need new friends, we
need new allies. We need to expand the civil-rights struggle
to a higher level—to the level of human rights. Whenever
you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or
not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle
Sam. No one from the outside world can speak out in your
behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle. Civil
rights comes within the domestic affairs of this country. All
of our African brothers and our Asian brothers and our
Latin-American brothers cannot open their mouths and
interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States. And as
long as it's civil rights, this comes under the jurisdiction of
Uncle Sam.
But the United Nations has what's known as the charter of
human rights; it has a committee that deals in human
rights. You may wonder why all of the atrocities that have
been committed in Africa and in Hungary and in Asia, and
in Latin America are brought before the UN, and the Negro
problem is never brought before the UN. This is part of the
conspiracy. This old, tricky blue eyed liberal who is
supposed to be your and my friend, supposed to be in our
corner, supposed to be subsidizing our struggle, and
supposed to be acting in the capacity of an adviser, never
tells you anything about human rights. They keep you
wrapped up in civil rights. And you spend so much time
barking up the civil-rights tree, you don't even know there's
a human-rights tree on the same floor.
When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of
human rights, you can then take the case of the black man
in this country before the nations in the UN. You can take it
before the General Assembly. You can take Uncle Sam
before a world court. But the only level you can do it on is
the level of human rights. Civil rights keeps you under his
restrictions, under his jurisdiction. Civil rights keeps you in
his pocket. Civil rights means you're asking Uncle Sam to
treat you right. Human rights are something you were born
with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human
rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of
this earth. And any time any one violates your human
rights, you can take them to the world court.
Uncle Sam's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with
the blood of the black man in this country. He's the earth's
number-one hypocrite. He has the audacity—yes, he has—
imagine him posing as the leader of the free world. The free
world! And you over here singing "We Shall Overcome."
Expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights.
Take it into the United Nations, where our African brothers
can throw their weight on our side, where our Asian
brothers can throw their weight on our side, where our
Latin-American brothers can throw their weight on our
side, and where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there
waiting to throw their weight on our side.
Let the world know how bloody his hands are. Let the
world know the hypocrisy that's practiced over here. Let it
be the ballot or the bullet. Let him know that it must be the
ballot or the bullet.
When you take your case to Washington, D.C., you're taking
it to the criminal who's responsible; it's like running from
the wolf to the fox. They're all in cahoots together. They all
work political chicanery and make you look like a chump
before the eyes of the world. Here you are walking around
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 8 of 15
in America, getting ready to be drafted and sent abroad, like
a tin soldier, and when you get over there, people ask you
what are you fighting for, and you have to stick your tongue
in your cheek. No, take Uncle Sam to court, take him before
the world.
By ballot I only mean freedom. Don't you know—I disagree
with Lomax on this issue—that the ballot is more
important than the dollar? Can I prove it? Yes. Look in the
UN. There are poor nations in the UN; yet those poor
nations can get together with their voting power and keep
the rich nations from making a move. They have one nation
—one vote, everyone has an equal vote. And when those
brothers from Asia, and Africa and the darker parts of this
earth get together, their voting power is sufficient to hold
Sam in check. Or Russia in check. Or some other section of
the earth in check. So, the ballot is most important.
Right now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-
Americans—that's what we are—Africans who are in
America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but Africans.
In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of
Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one
catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for
Africans. An African can go anywhere he wants right now.
All you've got to do is tie your head up. That's right, go
anywhere you want. Just stop being a Negro. Change your
name to Hoogagagooba. That'll show you how silly the
white man is. You're dealing with a silly man. A friend of
mine who's very dark put a turban on his head and went
into a restaurant in Atlanta before they called themselves
desegregated. He went into a white restaurant, he sat down,
they served him, and he said, "What would happen if a
Negro came in here? And there he's sitting, black as night,
but because he had his head wrapped up the waitress
looked back at him and says, "Why, there wouldn't no
nigger dare come in here."
So, you're dealing with a man whose bias and prejudice are
making him lose his mind, his intelligence, every day. He's
frightened. He looks around and sees what's taking place on
this earth, and he sees that the pendulum of time is
swinging in your direction. The dark people are waking up.
They're losing their fear of the white man. No place where
he's fighting right now is he winning. Everywhere he's
fighting, he's fighting someone your and my complexion.
And they're beating him. He can't win any more. He's won
his last battle. He failed to win the Korean War. He couldn't
win it. He had to sign a truce. That's a loss.
Any time Uncle Sam, with all his machinery for warfare, is
held to a draw by some rice eaters, he's lost the battle. He
had to sign a truce. America's not supposed to sign a truce.
She's supposed to be bad. But she's not bad any more. She's
bad as long as she can use her hydrogen bomb, but she
can't use hers for fear Russia might use hers. Russia can't
use hers, for fear that Sam might use his. So, both of them
are weapon-less. They can't use the weapon because each's
weapon nullifies the other's. So the only place where action
can take place is on the ground. And the white man can't
win another war fighting on the ground. Those days are
over The black man knows it, the brown man knows it, the
red man knows it, and the yellow man knows it. So they
engage him in guerrilla warfare. That's not his style. You've
got to have heart to be a guerrilla warrior, and he hasn't got
any heart. I'm telling you now.
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 9 of 15
I just want to give you a little briefing on guerrilla warfare
because, before you know it, before you know it. It takes
heart to be a guerrilla warrior because you're on your own.
In conventional warfare you have tanks and a whole lot of
other people with you to back you up—planes over your
head and all that kind of stuff. But a guerrilla is on his own.
All you have is a rifle, some sneakers and a bowl of rice, and
that's all you need—and a lot of heart. The Japanese on
some of those islands in the Pacific, when the American
soldiers landed, one Japanese sometimes could hold the
whole army off. He'd just wait until the sun went down, and
when the sun went down they were all equal. He would
take his little blade and slip from bush to bush, and from
American to American. The white soldiers couldn't cope
with that. Whenever you see a white soldier that fought in
the Pacific, he has the shakes, he has a nervous condition,
because they scared him to death.
The same thing happened to the French up in French
Indochina. People who just a few years previously were
rice farmers got together and ran the heavily-mechanized
French army out of Indochina. You don't need it—modern
warfare today won't work. This is the day of the guerrilla.
They did the same thing in Algeria. Algerians, who were
nothing but Bedouins, took a rine and sneaked off to the
hills, and de Gaulle and all of his highfalutin' war machinery
couldn't defeat those guerrillas. Nowhere on this earth does
the white man win in a guerrilla warfare. It's not his speed.
Just as guerrilla warfare is prevailing in Asia and in parts of
Africa and in parts of Latin America, you've got to be
mighty naive, or you've got to play the black man cheap, if
you don't think some day he's going to wake up and find
that it's got to be the ballot or the bullet.
I would like to say, in closing, a few things concerning the
Muslim Mosque, Inc., which we established recently in New
York City. It's true we're Muslims and our religion is Islam,
but we don't mix our religion with our politics and our
economics and our social and civil activities—not any more
We keep our religion in our mosque. After our religious
services are over, then as Muslims we become involved in
political action, economic action and social and civic action.
We become involved with anybody, any where, any time
and in any manner that's designed to eliminate the evils,
the political, economic and social evils that are afflicting the
people of our community.
The political philosophy of black nationalism means that
the black man should control the politics and the politicians
in his own community; no more. The black man in the black
community has to be re-educated into the science of
politics so he will know what politics is supposed to bring
him in return. Don't be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is
like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a
target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your
ballot in your pocket.
The political philosophy of black nationalism is being
taught in the Christian church. It's being taught in the
NAACP. It's being taught in CORE meetings. It's being
taught in SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating
Committee meetings. It's being taught in Muslim meetings.
It's being taught where nothing but atheists and agnostics
come together. It's being taught everywhere. Black people
are fed up with the dillydallying, pussyfooting,
compromising approach that we've been using toward
getting our freedom. We want freedom now, but we're not
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 10 of 15
going to get it saying "We Shall Overcome." We've got to
fight until we overcome.
The economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and
simple. It only means that we should control the economy
of our community. Why should white people be running all
the stores in our community? Why should white people be
running the banks of our community? Why should the
economy of our community be in the hands of the white
man? Why? 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. The philosophy of black
nationalism involves a re-education program in the black
community in regards to economics. Our people have to be
made to see that any time you take your dollar out of your
community and spend it in a community where you don't
live, the community where you live will get poorer and
poorer, and the community where you spend your money
will get richer and richer.
Then you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or
a slum area. And where you and I are concerned, not only
do we lose it when we spend it out of the community, but
the white man has got all our stores in the community tied
up; so that though we spend it in the community, at
sundown the man who runs the store takes it over across
town somewhere. He's got us in a vise.
So the economic philosophy of black nationalism means in
every church, in every civic organization, in every fraternal
order, it's time now for our people to become conscious of
the importance of controlling the economy of our
community. If we own the stores, if we operate the
businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our
own community, then we're developing to the position
where we are creating employment for our own kind. Once
you gain control of the economy of your own community,
then you don't have to picket and boycott and beg some
cracker downtown for a job in his business.
The social philosophy of black nationalism only means that
we have to get together and remove the evils, the vices,
alcoholism, drug addiction, and other evils that are
destroying the moral fiber of our community. We our selves
have to lift the level of our community, the standard of our
community to a higher level, make our own society
beautiful so that we will be satisfied in our own social
circles and won't be running around here trying to knock
our way into a social circle where we're not wanted. 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 to make the black man
re-evaluate himself. Don't change the white man's mind—
you can't change his mind, and that whole thing about
appealing to the moral conscience of America—America's
conscience is bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long time
ago. Uncle Sam has no conscience.
They don't know what morals are. They don't try and
eliminate an evil because it's evil, or because it's illegal, or
because it's immoral; they eliminate it only when it
threatens their existence. So you're wasting your time
appealing to the moral conscience of a bankrupt man like
Uncle Sam. If he had a conscience, he'd straighten this thing
out with no more pressure being put upon him. So it is not
necessary to change the white man's mind. We have to
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 11 of 15
change our own mind. You can't change his mind about us.
We've got to change our own minds about each other. We
have to see each other with new eyes. We have to see each
other as brothers and sisters. We have to come together
with warmth so we can develop unity and harmony that's
necessary to get this problem solved ourselves. How can we
do this? How can we avoid jealousy? How can we avoid the
suspicion and the divisions that exist in the community? I'll
tell you how.
I have watched how Billy Graham comes into a city,
spreading what he calls the gospel of Christ, which is only
white nationalism. That's what he is. Billy Graham is a
white nationalist; I'm a black nationalist. But since it's the
natural tendency for leaders to be jealous and look upon a
powerful figure like Graham with suspicion and envy, how
is it possible for him to come into a city and get all the
cooperation of the church leaders? Don't think because
they're church leaders that they don't have weaknesses
that make them envious and jealous—no, everybody's got
it. It's not an accident that when they want to choose a
cardinal, as Pope I over there in Rome, they get in a closet
so you can't hear them cussing and fighting and carrying
on.
Billy Graham comes in preaching the gospel of Christ. He
evangelizes the gospel. He stirs everybody up, but he never
tries to start a church. If he came in trying to start a church,
all the churches would be against him. So, he just comes in
talking about Christ and tells everybody who gets Christ to
go to any church where Christ is; and in this way the church
cooperates with him. So we're going to take a page from his
book.
Our gospel is black nationalism. We're not trying to
threaten the existence of any organization, but we're
spreading the gospel of black nationalism. Anywhere
there's a church that is also preaching and practicing the
gospel of black nationalism, join that church. If the NAACP
is preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism,
join the NAACP. If CORE is spreading and practicing the
gospel of black nationalism, join CORE. Join any
organization that has a gospel that's for the uplift of the
black man. And when you get into it and see them
pussyfooting or compromising, pull out of it because that's
not black nationalism. We'll find another one.
And in this manner, the organizations will increase in
number and in quantity and in quality, and by August, it is
then our intention to have a black nationalist convention
which will consist of delegates from all over the country
who are interested in the political, economic and social
philosophy of black nationalism. After these delegates
convene, we will hold a seminar; we will hold discussions;
we will listen to everyone. We want to hear new ideas and
new solutions and new answers. And at that time, if we see
fit then to form a black nationalist party, we'll form a black
nationalist party. If it's necessary to form a black nationalist
army, we'll form a black nationalist army. It'll be the ballot
or the bullet. It'll be liberty or it'll be death.
It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country,
letting some cracker senators, Northern crackers and
Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come
to a conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to
have civil rights. There's no white man going to tell me
anything about my rights. Brothers and sisters, always
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 12 of 15
remember, if it doesn't take senators and congressmen and
presidential proclamations to give freedom to the white
man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation or
Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the black man.
You let that white man know, if this is a country of freedom,
let it be a country of freedom; and if it's not a country of
freedom, change it.
We will work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, who is
genuinely interested in tackling the problem head-on,
nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent
when the enemy gets violent. We'll work with you on the
voter-registration drive, we'll work with you on rent
strikes, we'll work with you on school boycotts; I don't
believe in any kind of integration; I'm not even worried
about it, because I know you're not going to get it anyway;
you're not going to get it because you're afraid to die;
you've got to be ready to die if you try and force yourself on
the white man, because he'll get just as violent as those
crackers in Mississippi, right here in Cleveland. But we will
still work with you on the school boycotts because we're
against a segregated school system. A segregated school
system produces children who, when they graduate,
graduate with crippled minds. But this does not mean that a
school is segregated because it's all black. A segregated
school means a school that is controlled by people who
have no real interest in it whatsoever.
Let me explain what I mean. A segregated district or
community is a community in which people live, but
outsiders control the politics and the economy of that
community. They never refer to the white section as a
segregated community. It's the all-Negro section that's a
segregated community. Why? The white man controls his
own school, his own bank, his own economy, his own
politics, his own everything, his own community; but he
also controls yours. When you're under someone else's
control, you're segregated. They'll always give you the
lowest or the worst that there is to offer, but it doesn't
mean you're segregated just because you have your own.
You've got to control your own. Just like the white man has
control of his, you need to control yours.
You know the best way to get rid of segregation? The white
man is more afraid of separation than he is of integration.
Segregation means that he puts you away from him, but not
far enough for you to be out of his jurisdiction; separation
means you're gone. And the white man will integrate faster
than he'll let you separate. So we will work with you against
the segregated school system because it's criminal, because
it is absolutely destructive, in every way imaginable, to the
minds of the children who have to be exposed to that type
of crippling education.
Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great
controversy over rifles and shotguns. The only thing that
I've ever said is that in areas where the government has
proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives
and the property of Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend
themselves. Article number two of the constitutional
amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle
or a shotgun. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or
a rifle. This doesn't mean you're going to get a rifle and
form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although
you'd be within your rights—I mean, you'd be justified; but
that would be illegal and we don't do anything illegal. If the
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 13 of 15
white man doesn't want the black man buying rifles and
shotguns, then let the government do its job.
That's all. And don't let the white man come to you and ask
you what you think about what Malcolm says—why, you
old Uncle Tom. He would never ask you if he thought you
were going to say, "Amen!" No, he is making a Tom out of
you." So, this doesn't mean forming rifle clubs and going
out looking for people, but it is time, in 1964, if you are a
man, to let that man know.
If he's not going to do his job in running the government
and providing you and me with the protection that our
taxes are supposed to be for, since he spends all those
billions for his defense budget, he certainly can't begrudge
you and me spending $12 or $15 for a single-shot, or
double-action. I hope you understand. Don't go out
shooting people, but any time—brothers and sisters, and
especially the men in this audience; some of you wearing
Congressional Medals of Honor, with shoulders this wide,
chests this big, muscles that big—any time you and I sit
around and read where they bomb a church and murder in
cold blood, not some grownups, but four little girls while
they were praying to the same God the white man taught
them to pray to, and you and I see the government go down
and can't find who did it.
Why, this man—he can find Eichmann hiding down in
Argentina somewhere. Let two or three American soldiers,
who are minding somebody else's business way over in
South Vietnam, get killed, and he'll send battleships,
sticking his nose in their business. He wanted to send
troops down to Cuba and make them have what he calls
free elections—this old cracker who doesn't have free
elections in his own country.
No, if you never see me another time in your life, if I die in
the morning, I'll die saying one thing: the ballot or the
bullet, the ballot or the bullet.
If a Negro in 1964 has to sit around and wait for some
cracker senator to filibuster when it comes to the rights of
black people, why, you and I should hang our heads in
shame. You talk about a march on Washington in 1963, you
haven't seen anything. There's some more going down in
'64.
And this time they're not going like they went last year.
They're not going singing ''We Shall Overcome." They're
not going with white friends. They're not going with
placards already painted for them. They're not going with
round-trip tickets. They're going with one way tickets. And
if they don't want that non-nonviolent army going down
there, tell them to bring the filibuster to a halt.
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 declare himself.
Let him go in there and denounce the Southern branch of
his party. 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
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 14 of 15
looking like something these people never dreamed of. In
1964, it's the ballot or the bullet.
Thank you.
Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet”
Page 15 of 15
