SSO om borgerrettighedsbevægelsen i USA

Side | 1

Abstract

The intention of this paper with the title The Civil Rights

Movement is to make a closer study of Martin Luther King

and Malcolm X. The material used is listed on p. 19 in the

list of references. At first in the section called The Civil

Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s an outline of the

Civil Rights Movements is presented. Then follows the

main part of the paper with an analysis of I Have a Dream

and The Ballot or the Bullet which examine how both

Martin Luther King and Malcolm X argue for their means

in the struggle for equal rights. Finally it is concluded that

both leaders had great differences and import similarities.

Side | 2

Indhold

Abstract ............................................................................................................................................................. 1

Indledning .......................................................................................................................................................... 3

Borgerrettighedsbevægelsen i USA i 1950’erne og 1960’erne ......................................................................... 4

Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream………………………………………………………………………………………………………………6

Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet ................................................................................................................... 9

Komparativ analyse af ”I Have a Dream” og ”The Ballot or the Bullet”……………………………………………………….12

Retoriske virkemidler………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….13

Individuelle mål…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….……14

Delkonklusion…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….15

Diskussion………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….15

Konklusion.……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………19

Litteraturliste.……………………………………….………………………………………………………………………………………..…………20

Bilag………...……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..………..21

Bilag 1 - Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream d. 28. august 1963.……………………………………..………………21

Bilag 2 - Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet d. 3 april 1964……..……………………………………..………………25

Bilag 3 - Figur 6.1……………………………………………………………………...……………………………………..………………39

Bilag 4 - Figur 7.1……………………………………………………………………...……………………………………..………………39

Side | 3

Indledning

For at sætte problematikken omhandlende afroamerikanernes problemstilling ind i en historisk

sammenhæng skal man tilbage til 1600-tallet, hvor afrikanske slaver blev transporteret til de

amerikanske kolonier, for at arbejde på plantager. Disse slaver er forfædre til de afroamerikanere,

som i løbet af 1900-tallet samledes og protesterede mod undertrykkelse og racediskrimination.

Dette var en af de grundlæggende årsager til at den amerikanske borgerrettighedsbevægelse blev

stiftet.

Men hvem stod i spidsen for borgerrettighedsbevægelsen, og hvilke midler blev anvendt for at opnå

målene i kampen for borgerrettigheder? Hvad var målene og blev disse realiseret? Dette vil blive

diskuteret i følgende opgave, for at give en historisk forståelse af borgerrettighedsbevægelsens

udvikling.

I det følgende vil der blive redegjort for borgerrettighedsbevægelsen i perioden 1950’erne til

1960’erne, herefter vil opgaven analysere talerne ”I Have a Dream” af Martin Luther King og ”The

Ballot or the Bullet” af Malcolm X. Hensigten med analyserne er at belyse deres individuelle mål,

og hvilke midler de brugte til at opnå disse. Endeligt vil det blive vurderet om

borgerrettighedsforkæmperne opnåede deres mål.

Side | 4

Borgerrettighedsbevægelsen i USA i 1950’erne og 1960’erne

I det følgende vil de væsentligste hovedtræk i borgerrettighedsbevægelsens historie, med afgrænset

fokus til at omhandle perioden 1950’erne til 1960’erne blive gennemgået.

Borgerrettighedsbevægelsens hovedformål var at opnå lige rettigheder for alle borgere i USA, hvor

alle havde den samme ytringsfrihed, respekt og ligestilling. For at opnå borgerrettighedens mål blev

boykots, marchs og sit-ins anvendt.

Den første store protest inden for borgerrettighedsbevægelsens kamp var d. 1. december 1955, hvor

den syerske, Rosa Parks, anvendte et af de sæder i bussen, som kun var forbeholdt hvide, da

busserne var raceadskilte. Rosa Parks nægtede at fjerne sig fra sædet, og blev efterfølgende

anholdt.

Denne situation medførte, at organisationen The Montgomery Improvement Association blev stiftet

d. 5. december 1955, med King som formand. Organisationen stod i spidsen for boykotten af

busserne i Montgomery, hvor flere af afroamerikanerne nægtede at anvende offentlige

transportmidler, som var raceadskilte. Denne boykot medførte at busselskabet mistede omsætning,

hvilket medførte at King og de andre ledere blev anholdt. Boykotten blev omtalt nationalt, men

også internationalt. I det efterfølgende år, i juni 1956, erklærede retten i sydstaten Alabama, at

bussernes raceadskillelse var i strid med den daværende grundlov, og dommen blev stadfæstet af

Højesteret, som er den højeste instans, og fik præjudikats værdi. Efterfølgende benyttede King, og

de andre ledere fra organisationen, Montgomerys første bus som ikke var raceadskilt.

I det efterfølgende år, 1957, stiftede King bevægelsen The Southern Christian Leadership

Conference (SCLC), hvor King selv var formand. Denne bevægelse blev førende indenfor

borgerrettighedsbevægelsen, som stod i spidsen for kampen mod raceadskillelse, og gik ind for

ikke-voldelige protester, i håb om at kunne overtale regeringen til at ændre lovgivningen. Den første

sit-in demonstration var d. 1. februar 1960 i Greensboro. Fire studerende afroamerikanere satte sig

ved et frokostbord i et cafeteria, ved navn Woolworth, som kun var forbeholdt hvide amerikanere.

Dette medførte, at personalet nægtede at servicere dem, hvilket ikke rørte de unge afroamerikanere,

som kom tilbage de efterfølgende dage. Dette vakte røre hos mange amerikanere, som resulterede i,

at der i slutningen af 1960’erne havde været sit-ins i alle sydlige stater, bortset fra Mississippi. De

adskillige sit-ins resulterede i at Woolworth-forretningen, og mange andre butikker i syden, ophørte

Bloom, Jack M.: “Class, Race & The Civil Rights Movement”, 1987, p.143

Weber, Michael: “De sorte amerikaners borgerretsbevægelse”, 1999, p.39

Ritchie, Nigel: ”Borgerretsbevægelsen”, 2002, p. 18-19

Side | 5

med at være race-adskilte og demonstrationerne var dermed en succes.

I april 1963 blev byen Birmingham, som var USA’s mest raceadskilte by, scene for et højdepunkt i

demonstrationerne mod race-adskillelse. King blev anholdt under demonstrationen, men opfordrede

sine medkæmpere til at fortsætte, hvilket resulterede i at flere hundrede vis af mennesker

marcherede gennem Birmingham. Demonstrationen i Birmingham var omfattende, og var omtalt i

alle medier. Demonstrationen i Birmingham medførte, at der kom flere protester i de resterende dele

af syden, og fik dermed præsident Kennedy til at gribe ind, og gik ind for kravet om en ny lov, og

præsenterede loven for kongressen, og demonstrationen i Birmingham havde dermed haft den

ønskede effekt. Borgerrettighedsloven blev implementeret, og forbød alle former for race-

adskillelse på offentlige steder, og race-diskrimination ved valg.

I henhold til borgerrettighedslovens gennemførelse, blev der d. 28. august 1963, arrangeret en

march til Washington. Flere hundredetusinde mennesker var fremmødte ved Lincoln Memorial i

Washington D.C. Det var ved denne march, at King holdt sin berømte tale ”I Have a Dream.”

I mellemtiden kom en ny lederskikkelse, som i modsætning til King, forkastede ideen om ikke-vold.

Han var bl.a. imod, at afroamerikanerne skulle kæmpe for at blive integreret, som ligeværdige

borgere i et samfund, som primært var præget af hvide amerikanere. Dette var Malcolm X, som i

løbet af nogle få år fik få en stor indflydelse for afroamerikanerne i de nordlige ghettoer.

Malcolm X indgik, efter et fængselsophold, i bevægelsen Nation of Islam, hvis synspunkt var at den

hvide amerikaner blev anset som værende djævlen, som havde overtaget al magt på jorden.

Bevægelsens hovedformål var, at adskille afroamerikanerne fra de hvide amerikanere, og dermed

blive uafhængige af de hvide.

Den 22. november 1963 kom Malcolm X’s brud med bevægelsen Nation of Islam, efter mordet på

Kennedy. Bevægelsens medlemmer havde fået besked fra bevægelsens overhoved, Elijah

Muhammad, at de ikke måtte udtale sig om præsident Kennedys død, hvilket X ikke overholdte. X

udtalte ”The chickens have come home to roost. Being an old farm boy myself, chickens coming

home to roost never did make me sad; they’ve always made me glad.”

Dette førte til X’s

suspendering fra bevægelsen. I det efterfølgende år stiftede X sin egen organisation Organization of

Afro-American Unity, som fjernede sig fra Nation of Islam både retorisk og ideologisk. En af hans

mest berømte taler efter bruddet med Nation of Islam, var talen ”The Ballot or the Bullet.”

Ritchie, Nigel: “Borgerretsbevægelsen”, 2002, p. 20

Weber, Michael: “De sorte amerikaners borgerretsbevægelse”, 1999, p. 43

Weber, Michael: “De sorte amerikaners borgerretsbevægelse”, 1999, p. 44-45

Krogh, Torben: ”Det sorte oprør” 1976, p. 13

Krogh, Torben: ”Det sorte oprør” 1976, p. 64

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p. 199

Side | 6

Eftersom disse to borgerrettighedsforkæmpere præsenterede hver sin tilgang til dilemmaet, er det

derfor oplagt at inddrage dem i en analyse, der med udgangspunkt i deres hver især mest berømte

taler, kan belyse deres individuelle mål, og hvilke midler de brugte til at opnå disse.

Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream

King leverede sin tale på trapperne til Lincoln Memorial d. 28. august 1963, et mindesmærke opført

til minde om USA's 16. præsident Abraham Lincoln, som udstedte emancipationserklæringen, som

frigjorde sorte fra slaveriet i sydstaterne. Hans tale nåede ikke kun ud til de tilstedeværende

tilhørere, men også til politikere og interesserede verden over via fjernsyn og radio.

En retorisk analyse af Martin Luther Kings tale viser at dens opbygning er struktureret efter den

klassiske kompositionsmodel bestående af exordium(indledning), efterfulgt af corpus(narratio og

probatio) og afsluttes med peroratio(konklusion).

I exordium lægger King ud med at vække tilhørernes opmærksomhed ved at appellere til ethos:

“I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration

for freedom in the history of our nation.”

Indledningsordene forstærkes af superlativet ”greatest,”

som giver de tilhørende en følelse af vigtigheden af det de skal til at overvære.

King benytter også exordiet til at berette om fortiden, omhandlende Abraham Lincolns

emancipationserklæring og frigørelsen af slaver. Talen følger en kronologisk rækkefølge fra fortid,

ved fortællingen om fortidens gode hensigter, til nutid og til sidst hans drøm for fremtiden.

King refererer til Abraham Lincoln med ordene “Five score years ago(…)”

som er citeret fra

Gettysburgtalen fra 1863, som indledes “Four score and seven years ago(…).”

King benytter sig

af troværdighedsbegrebet ethos ved at referere til Lincoln, og viser derved at selv en af USA's

mest betydningsfulde præsidenter støttede op om frigørelsen af afroamerikanere. King fortsætter

med passager der refererer til Lincoln ved at nævne emancipationserklæringen, der beskrives som

en ”(…)great beacon light of hope(…)”

som sættes i modsætning til ”(…)the flames of withering

injustice.”

King skaber en vellykket pathosappel, der er billedskabende for tilhørerne. Ved at

sammenligne uretfærdigheden af slaveri med brændende flammer, fremkalder King minder om

Pitney, David Howard: “Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the 1950s and 1960s”, 2004, p. 103

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.1-2

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.3

Schlueter, Nathan W.: “One Dream Or Two?: Justice in America and in the Thought of Martin Luther King”, p.13

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.4

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.5

Side | 7

korsafbrændinger, som er symbolet på den højreekstremistisk organisation Ku Klux Klan.

I det næste afsnit følger narratio, som King benytter til at berette om nutidens elendighed. Først gør

han brug af anaforer til at minde om at ”(…)one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free.”

Ordene understreger at afroamerikanerne ikke har opnået deres rettigheder endnu. Efterfølgende får

han tilhørerne til at tænke i billeder, da han gør brug af metaforen: “Negro is still sadly crippled by

the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination,”

som gentager beskyldningerne om

at ”(…)the Negro is still not free.”

I probatio opfordrer King til øjeblikkelig handling. Han etablerer endnu en gentagelsesfigur ved det

tre gange gentagne: “Now is the time(…)”

og anvender dernæst en metaforisk fremstilling af

racisme, som forbindes med en”(…)dark and desolate valley of segregation(…),”

mens

racemæssig retfærdighed forbindes med en“(…)sunlit path.”

Dernæst følger en refutatio. En vekslen mellem probatio og refutatio bidrager med dynamik til

talen.

King retter nu sin opmærksomhed mod sit folk (afroamerikanerne), som sprogligt kommer

til udtryk i en vending som ”(…)I must say to my people(…).”

Afroamerikanerne mindes om at

selvom de har krav på lige rettigheder, må de ikke “(…)allow their creative protest to degenerate

into physical violence.”

I stedet opfordres afroamerikanerne til at “(…)rise to the majestic heights

of meeting physical force with soul force.”

Ordet ”soul force” har sin rod i Mahatma Gandhis

teori om Satyagraha. Denne pacifistiske teori om ikkevoldelig modstand er en stor inspirationskilde

for King.

Han inddrager sit første citat fra Biblen da han nævner: ”Let us not seek to satisfy our

thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.”

Citat bidrager til forståelsen

af Kings måde at praktisere, da han mente at den mest effektive måde at opnå forandring på var ved

ikke-voldelige aktioner.

Ordet ”walk” nævnes i den følgende probatio, hvor King forestiller sig at de sorte vandrer mod håb

og frihed. Denne rejsemetafor bringer ny dynamik til talen.

Han anvender retoriske spørgsmål, når han taler om hvornår de sorte vil være tilfredsstillet: ”When

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “ I Have a Dream”, l.7

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.7

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.28-30

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.27

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.28

Garbers, Lis: “Retorik – Levende tale eller tom snak” 1996, p.29

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.39

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.43

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.44-45

Schlueter, Nathan W. “One Dream Or Two?: Justice in America and in the Thought of Martin Luther King” 2002, p.15

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.41

Side | 8

will you be satisfied? We can never be satisfied.”

Et retorisk smart trick som giver et dialogisk

præg. Tilhørerne føler at de bliver inddraget i talen, og King sikre derved sine tilhøreres

opmærksomhed.

Han slutter de retoriske spørgsmål af med følgende sætning: "No, no we are not satisfied and we

will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream."

Vandmetaforen er en henvisning til profeten Amos i Amos 5:24.

I peroratio introducerer King sin drøm og bevæger sig derved over i en fremtidsvision som i korte

træk omhandler den amerikanske drøm, det amerikanske landskab og den kristne tro, med drømmen

om de hvide amerikaneres accept af de sorte. Han inddrager et bibelsk billedsprog af et ”(…)table

of brotherhood(…)”

i et forsøg på at skabe fællesskab. King indleder gentagende gange sine

sætninger med ”I Have a Dream,”

som fremstår som tydelige pathosappeller.

Et andet stilistisk træk som King anvender til at overbevise sit publikum om sit budskab er antiteser,

hvor modsætninger sammenstilles. I det følgende citat anvendes antiteserne til at overbevise

tilhørerne om at Missippi vil forvandles fra en ”(…)desert state, sweltering with the heat of

injustice and oppression(…)” til ”(…)an oasis of freedom and justice.” Han sætter positive og

negative realiteter op mod hinanden. De positive nøgleord er ”freedom,” og ”justice.” Som

modsætninger nævnes “injustice” og “oppression.” Alle disse nøgleord har en vigtig betydning for

borgerretsbevægelsen. De vender tilbage på en eller anden kombination i Kings taler og prædikener.

Men denne tendens nøgleordnen har til at gentage sig selv har et særligt formål, for ved hjælp af

gentagelsesfigurerne skabes redundans som hjælper tilhørerne til at huske det væsentlige og talens

budskab.

Drømmens afsluttende højdepunkt er et bibelcitat, denne gang til Esajas’ bog 40:4, når han påstår at

”(…)one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough

places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord

shall be revealed.”

Teksten omhandler oprindeligt de fangne jøder i Babylon, hvor Gud lover at

vejen tilbage vil blive jævnet for dem, så den bliver lettere for dem at gå.

King sammenkæder

negernes situation med jødernes, og viser at han er fortrolig med Biblen. Dette fungerer samtidig

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.53-54

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.61-63

Bobitt, David A.: ”The Rhetoric of Redemption” 2004, p.56

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.78.

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.75-90.

Sunnemark, Frederik: “Ring Out Freedom!: The Voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Making of the civil rights movement”,

2004, p.211

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.90-91

Garbers, Lis: “Retorik – Levende tale eller tom snak”, 1996, p.29

Side | 9

som et belæg for hans troværdighed.

I slutningen af peroratio citere King en strofe fra Samuel Francis Smiths sang: ”My Country Tis of

Thee.”: “My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died,

land of the Pilgrim's pride, From every mountainside, let freedom ring!”

Citatet er en sikker

pathosappel, da sangen der refereres til er en national sangskat. King benytter sig af sætningen ”let

freedom ring”

til at lave de efterfølgende anaforer, hvor han gør brug af sætningen til at

understrege sin vision. Han afslutter talen med en sidste pathosappel, ved at minde om at folket er

en nation af lige og frie mennesker.

Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet

X holdt talen ”The Ballot or the Bullet” d. 3. april 1964 i Cleveland.

Som beskrevet i redegørelsen fjernede X sig fra Nation of Islam både retorisk og ideologisk. Han

besluttede i stedet at forene sig med borgerrettighedsbevægelsen, hvor han blev det voldelige

alternativ til Kings moderate holdninger.

Bruddet med den muslimske organisation førte til at han

opgav separatisme til fordel for en mere forsonlig holdning mellem sorte borgerrettigheds-

organisationer: ”I am not out to fight other Negro leaders leaders or organizations. We must find a

common solutions, to a common problem. As of this minute, I’ve forgotten everything bad that the

other leaders have said about me, and I pray they can also forget the many bad things I’ve said

about them.”

Denne forsonlige holdning mellem afroamerikanerne bliver der især lagt vægt på i

”The Ballot or the Bullet.”

Malcolm X indleder sin tale med at tilslutte sig både tilhængere og modstandere: “I just can't

believe everyone in here is a friend and I don't want to leave anybody out.”

X overrasker

tilhørerne med en anderledes indledning, som har til formål at vække tilhørernes opmærksomhed.

Med indledningsbemærkningen gør han samtidig sine modstandere opmærksomme på, at han er

bevidst om deres tilstedeværelse. Den overraskende indledning fører hen til præsentation af emnet,

hvor han forudsiger at fremtiden ”(…)points toward either the ballot or the bullet.”

Sætningen

forstærkes ved brug af alliterattion hvor ”ballot” og ”bullet” fremhæves. Slagordene er samtidig

også et af de vigtigste elementer i talen, da han herved opstiller valgmulighederne for de hvide, hvor

valget står imellem at give stemmeretten til afroamerikanerne eller en voldelig revolution. Han

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.100-102

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.103

Ritchie, Nigel: ”Borgerretsbevægelsen” 2002, p. 40

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p.193

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.1-2

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.4

Side | 10

fastholder tilhørerne med ordene:”Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the

bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself.”

X holder sin viden tilbage og skaber

derved spænding og fremdrift. Han udnytter dette retoriske kneb til at informere om sig selv:

“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.”

X inddrager derudover også sin intention om, at han ikke har til hensigt at

hverve nogen til at konvertere til islam. Ved at tilsidesætte sit religiøse tilhørsforhold, gør han talen

gældende for alle, og opnår derved tilslutning fra tilhørerne. Han styrker talens ethos ved at

sammenligne sig selv med velkendte borgerrettighedsforkæmpere som Martin Luther King, Adam

Clayton Powell og Reverend Galamison. Alle tre kristne præster med forskellige trosretninger

han selv derimod var muslimsk præst. Eftersom hovedparten af tilhørerne var kristne, benytter han

kristne præster som belæg for hans troværdighed.

Han henvender sig til så vel protestanter, baptister, muslimer og nationalister i en opfordring til

fællesskab. Han fortsætter denne fællesskabsfølelse ved at anvende personlige pronominer, og

opstiller samtidig en klar adskillelse af sorte og hvide, hvor hvide gøres identisk med politisk

undertrykkelse: ”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.”

Brugen af begrebsparret “us” mod “them” skaber et fælles

fjendebillede som understøtter budskabet om fællesskab. Han forudsiger at”1964 threatens to be

the most explosive year America has ever witnessed,”

da 1964 er valgår i Amerika.

Derfor lægger han vægt på nødvendigheden af at handle nu, og benytter sig derfor af

udråbstegnsstilfiguren exclamatio til at understrege at ”It isn't that time is running out - time has

run out!”

X gør opmærksom på at valgåret er året hvor “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.”

Han fortsætter denne hårde kritik af regeringen ved at fremsætte påstanden: ”This is not even a

government that's based on democracy.”

og forklarer påstanden med belægget: “It is not a

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.5

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.16-17

Powell var præst i den abyssinske baptist kirke i New York, King var baptistpræst i Dexter Avenue Baptist Church og Galamison

var præst i den presbyterianske kirke Siloam Presbyterian Church.

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.23-24

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.38

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.36-37

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.41-43

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.137

Side | 11

government that is made up of representatives of the people.”

Dette belæg understøttes af

hjemlen: “Half of the people in the South can't even vote.”

Hjemlen styrkes af pathos, ved at

nævne det meget følelsesbetonede emne, omhandlende de sortes manglende stemmeret. Der

appelleres til tilhørernes fornuft ved at bygge argumentationen op på faktaoplysninger:

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 civilrights legislation.

Logosappellen understøtter hans påstand om at regeringen er ansvarlig for den vedvarende

undertrykkelse, og kritiseres for passivitet. Ved at bygge argumentationen op på bevisførelse styrker

han sin troværdighed over for tilhørerne.

X kritik af regeringen skifter nu over til at være rettet mod Martin Luther King, som kritiseres for

hans ikkevoldelige aktionsformer. Han nævner aktionsformen ”sit-ins”, som han betragter som

selvvalgt ydmygelse: “It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country(…)”

I stedet

opfordrer han til modstand, dog ”(…)nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent

when the enemy gets violent.”

Kritikken af King fortsætter, da X fordrejer Kings ”American

dream” til et mareridt. I følge X er der ikke nogen “American dream,” hvilket han giver udtryk for

ved at anvende kiasme: “I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.”

Stilfiguren bidrager med rytme og pathos til talen. Han tegner i stedet et realistisk billede af

virkeligheden: “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.”

Metaforen er billedskabende for tilhørerne, og understreger at de sorte ikke er

ligestillet med hvide. Han fremstiller sit budskab logisk, hvilket gør det svært at modargumentere.

X mener at det eneste der kan give de sorte deres borgerrettigheder er konkret handling: "Give it to

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.138

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.138-139

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.96-102

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.510-511

Gade, Ulrik Jørstad. Retorik Magasinet nr. 73: ”Vold, identitet og virkelighed” september 2009, p.32

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.70-71

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.58-60

Side | 12

us now. Don't wait for next year. Give it to us yesterday, and that's not fast enough."

Rækken af

sætninger stiger i intensitet, med højdepunkt i sidste sætningsled, hvilket danner et klimaks. Dette

klimaks fremhæver budskabet, og gentagelsen af ”Give it to us” bidrager med rytme og styrke.

X fortsætter talen med en meget militant retorik, vendt mod den hvide befolkning. Han fremstiller

en generaliserende opfattelse af den hvide befolkning ved at anvende ”the white man” som

betegnelse, og får derved alle hvide til at fremstå som den sorte mands fjende. X tilbageviser alt

samarbejde med hvide, og gør i stor stil brug af retoriske trusler: “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(…)”

fordi at ”(…)you’re…within your moral rights(…)”

opfordrer til at ”(…)die for what you believe in. Let your dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant

by equality.”

X slutter talen af med at gentage indledningsordene: “the ballot or the bullet,” hvilket gør at

tilhørerne bedre husker budskabet, og dermed også talen.

Komparativ analyse af ”I Have a Dream” og ”The Ballot or the Bullet”

I det følgende foretages en komparativ analyse af de to ledere. Det komparative element ligger i at

de to analyserede taler af hhv. King og X sammenstilles, hvorved der igennem disse taler vil blive

påvist ligheder og forskelle, i anvendelsen af mål og midler, mellem de to borgerrettigheds-

forkæmpere.

De to analyserede taler viser at ”The Ballot or the Bullet” indeholder talrige eksempler på

gendrivelse af modpartens argumentation, hvilket kan tolkes som at ”The Ballot or the Bullet” er et

modsvar til ”I Have a Dream.” Kings prædiken om en ”American dream”

fordrejes til et

”American nightmare,”

Kings ”table of brotherhood”

modsættes med: “I'm not going to sit at

your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner(…)”

Endelig

bliver Kings påstand om at indløse en “check”

der vil give “(…)the riches of freedom and the

security of justice(…)”

modsat af et krav om tilbagebetaling for afroamerikanernes ”investment”

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.256-257

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.272-273

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.284

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.285-286

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.74

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.71

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.78

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.58-59

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.13

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.23

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.237

Side | 13

eftersom de har “(…)worked from "can't see" in the morning until "can't see" at night, and worked

for nothing, making the white man rich(…)”

Ved at X tager udgangspunkt i Kings argumentation,

viser han derved at Kings argumentation er uholdbar, og fremhæver sig selv som troværdig.

Retoriske virkemidler

Analyserne viser desuden at King og X har en række retoriske lighedspunkter. De begge fremhæver

sig selv som troværdige over for tilhørerne, ved at anvende ethos. X’s ethos ligger i at han

sammenligner sig med velkendte borgerrettighedsforkæmpere og Kings ethos ligger i de bibelske

henvisninger og i refereringerne til Abraham Lincoln.

Som analyseret under foregående afsnit gør X brug af alliteration til at fremhæve ”ballot”

”bullet”

som er talens centrale budskab. King gør ligeledes brug af dette retoriske virkemiddel til

at øge sit budskabs styrke, hvor bogstavet c gentager sig: “I have a dream that my four little

children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by

the content of their character.”

Derudover er der også ligheder i deres anvendelse af

gentagelsesfigurer. Til eksempel for Kings anvendelse:“With this faith, we will be able to hew out

of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling

discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to

work together(…)”

Og til eksempel for X’s anvendelse:“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.”

Anaforerne har lighedstræk i form af anvendelsen af personlige pronominer som

sætningsbegyndelse, hvilket appellerer til en fællesskabsfølelse. Generelt bærer talerne præg af

mange personlige pronominer, såsom ”we” og ”our,” dog skiller ”The Ballot or the Bullet” sig her

ud fra ”I Have a Dream” ved også at anvende pronominer som ”they” og ”them.” Som nævnt

inddrager X disse pronominer med det formål at stille ”we” og ”our” over for ”they” og ”them”

for herved at skabe et fælles fjendebillede, hvor ”we” og ”our” repræsentere afroamerikanerne og

”they” og ”them” repræsentere de hvide amerikanere. Denne raceadskillelse står i modsætning til

”I Have a Dream,” hvor King anvender fællesskabsfremmende pronominer til at inddrage hele

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.248-49

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.4

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.83

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.94

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.466-67

Side | 14

nationen i en opfordring til sammenhold. I modsætning til King anvender X en meget militant

retorik, som et middel til at skabe en overbevisning om at afroamerikanerne skal være uafhængige

af hvide. Han er af den mening at afroamerikanere skal forenes, inden de integrerer sig i de hvide

samfund.

Ved en pressekonference i New York d. 12 marts 1964, udtalte han:”There can be no

black-white unity until there is first some black unity. There can be no workers’ solidarity until

there is first some racial solidarity. We cannot think of uniting with others, until we have first united

among ourselves.”

X mener ikke at racerne kan forenes, før at afroamerikanerne har forenet sig i

en sort nationalisme. Han mener at denne manglende nationalistiske bevidsthed er grunden til at

afroamerikanerne må lade sig underkue, og fortsat bliver uretfærdigt behandlet af de hvide

amerikanere.

Retorisk set er King og X modsætninger på mange punkter, ligeledes har de også

forskellige mål. Disse individuelle mål vil fremgå af det følgende, som en tydelig kontrast mellem

de to borgerrettighedsforkæmpere.

Individuelle mål

I analysen af ”I Have a Dream” nævnes “civil rights” som gentages flere gange i løbet af talen.

Et vigtigt element i ”The Ballot or the Bullet” er derfor at når King nævner “civil rights” nævner X

“human rights.” X fremhæver derved at han ikke alene ønsker borgerrettigheder, men kræver at få

gennemført en lovgivning som forbyder forskelsbehandling. Ifølge X kan afroamerikanerne godt

opnå borgerrettigheder, uden at være sikret en menneskeværdig tilværelse.

Ligeledes er deres

metoder til at opnå disse rettigheder forskellige. King mener at de midler, som man anvender, skal

være ligeså rene som de mål man søger at opnå, og at det er forkert, hvis man benytter umoralske

metoder til at opnå moralske mål.

Denne ikke volds-filosofi gentages flere gange: "We must not

allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again, we must rise to

the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.”

Overfor denne ikke volds-filosofi

fremhæver X i stedet selvforsvar: “nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but violent

when the enemy gets violent.”

X gør således op med Kings ikke volds-filosofi, da han mener at

afroamerikanerne ikke skal lade sig ydmyge.

Ligeledes kan det ud fra citatet og foregående

Ritchie, Nigel: “Borgerretsbevægelsen”, 2002, p.41

Paris, Peter J.: “Black religious leaders” 1991, p.194

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p.110

Krogh, Torben: ”Det sorte oprør” 1976, p. 16

King, Martin Luther: ”Vi kan ikke vente” 1963, p.92

Bilag 1: King, Martin Luther: “I Have a Dream”, l.43-44

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.510-11

Krogh, Torben: ”Det sorte oprør” 1976, p.22

Side | 15

analyse konstateres at X herved understreger at opgøret med Nation of Islam ikke har ændret hans

ideologi om vold. X ønsker i stedet at hans indtræden i borgerrettighedsbevægelsen skal føre til en

radikal ændring af bevægelsen, og derved gøre den mere militant.

Endelig er der, som analyseret i

foregående afsnit, X’s kritik af Kings fredelige midler, herunder sit-ins, som han betragter som

selvvalgt ydmygelse. X opfordrer i stedet til modstand, da ”(…)you’re…within your moral

rights(…).”

Selvom de to parters tilgang til integration er forskellige, sammenfatter James Cone

afgørende ligheder mellem King og X. I Martin & Malcolm & America påstår Cone at “they were

like two soldiers fighting their enemies from different angles of vision, each pointing out the other’s

blind spots and correcting the other’s errors.”

Det kan ud fra citatet udledes, at King og X

formentlig ikke er så forskellige, som analysen antager.

Delkonklusion

Ud fra ovenstående gennemgang konkluderes det, at King og X har en række retoriske

lighedspunkter, samtidig sætter de begge racediskrimination under debat, hvor de begge kæmper for

at forbedre de afroamerikanske vilkår socialt og politisk. Gennem analyserne er der også fundet

direkte modsætninger mellem de to borgerrettighedsforkæmpere. De har især forskellige tilgange til

måder at demonstrere på, hvor King ser ikke-vold som det mest effektive middel til at opnå sine

mål, hvorimod X er militant og opfordrer til modstand. Ligeledes viser analyserne også at de to

borgerrettighedsforkæmpere har forskellige mål. I forlængelse af disse målsætninger følger en

diskussion af om hvorvidt de opnåede deres mål.

Diskussion

Som det fremgår af ovenstående analyse blev ”I Have a Dream” givet d. 28. august 1963, efterfulgt

af ”The Ballot or the Bullet” d. 3. april 1964. Ligeledes fremgår det at talernes ubestridte mål var at

opnå borgerrettigheder til afroamerikanerne. Dette mål blev indfriet da Lyndon Baines Johnson d. 2.

juli 1964 vedtog Civil Rights Act. Denne vidtrækkende borgerrettighedslov forbød al race og

kønsdiskrimination på offentlige steder såsom parker, hoteller og restauranter. Denne vedtagelse

markerede ligeledes afslutningen for den lovfæstede racisme i syden.

Efter Lyndon Baines

Johnson havde underskrevet lovkomplekset, udtalte han at ”those who are equal before God shall

now be equal in the polling booths, in the classrooms, in the factories, and in hotels, restaurants,

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p.195

Bilag 2: X, Malcolm: “The Ballot or the Bullet”, l.284

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p.270-71

Poulsen, Niels Bjerre: ”USA - Historie og Identitet”, 2010, p. 44

Side | 16

movie theaters, and other places that provide service to the public.”

Ovenstående vedtagelse af borgerrettighedsloven var af væsentlig betydning for afroamerikanerne,

da det bl.a. medførte, at afroamerikanerne fik ligestilling på arbejdsmarkedet i tidsperioden 1959-

1980, og fik retten til at kunne udføre de arbejdsopgaver, som før kun var forbeholdt de hvide

amerikanere. Dette viser figur 6.1,

som angiver en statistik over, hvor stor en procentdel af

afroamerikanerne som begyndte at besidde de jobs, som før kun var forbeholdt de hvide

amerikanere.

I 1959 var det ca. 14 procent af alle afroamerikanere, som var i beskæftigelse, hvorimod der i 1980

var 39 procent af afroamerikanerne, som var kommet på arbejdsmarkedet. Denne fordobling

bevidner, at borgerrettighedsloven havde virkning, hvert fald indenfor arbejdsmarkedet.

Med udgangspunkt i figur 6.1 kan det diskuteres om loven havde den ønskede effekt.

Afroamerikanerne fik ligestilling indenfor arbejdsmarkedet, og alligevel ikke. Samtidig med at

afroamerikanerne begyndte at få ligestilling på arbejdsmarkedet, var der stadig flere

betydningsfulde jobs, som stadig kun var forbeholdt hvide amerikanere. Dette er et modargument til

ovenstående, da borgerrettighedsloven dermed ikke havde den fulde ønskede virkning. Det kan

dermed konkluderes at borgerrettighederne blev gennemført, men med modifikationer.

Dernæst viser figur 7.1

hvor stor en procentdel af børn i skolealderen 14-17 år, som officielt var

tilmeldt skolesystemet. Figuren viser, at antallet af tilmeldinger blandt afroamerikanerne steg

progressivt i årene efter borgerrettighedslovens implementering. I starten af 1950’erne viser tallene,

at ca. hver fjerde unge afroamerikaner i alderen 14-17 år, officielt ikke var tilmeldt skolesystemet.

Det officielle tal faldt markant i de efterfølgende år. I 1980’erne var det ca. hver attende unge

afroamerikaner i alderen 14-17 år, som officielt ikke var tilmeldt en skole. Statistikken indikerer, at

der også inden for uddannelse var en stor fremgang i årene I starten af 1980’erne, var

ca. 94 procent af de unge afroamerikanere tilmeldt skolesystemet, holdt op i mod de hvide

amerikanere, hvor 93 procent var tilmeldt. Statistikken bevidner dermed, at afroamerikanerne

opnåede lighed indenfor uddannelsessystemet.

Dernæst kan det diskuteres om de to borgerrettighedskæmpere egentlig opnåede det, som de havde

forventet, i årene lige efter borgerrettighedslovens indførelse. Store dele af den afroamerikanske

befolkning var skuffede, da de havde forventet at få rettigheden til at kunne stemme, som også var

X’s formål med talen ”The Ballot or the Bullet.” Stemmerets-loven blev efterfølgende gennemført i

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p.210

Bilag 4: Murray, Charles: “Losing Ground: American Social Policy, ”, 1984, p. 86, figur 6.1

Bilag 5: Murray, Charles: “Losing Ground: American Social Policy, ”, 1984, p. 86, figur 7.1

Side | 17

året efter, i august 1965, hvor loven blev vedtaget i Kongressen. Stemmeretsloven havde den

virkning, at myndighederne ikke længere kunne stille kravet om, at man skulle kunne læse og skrive

for at kunne afgive sin stemme til valget. Dette havde en markant betydning for afroamerikanerne,

da store dele af den afroamerikanske befolkning ikke var uddannet og dermed ikke havde de før

forlangte kundskaber.

Det må dermed konstateres, at King og X’s mål med deres taler ”I Have a Dream” og ”The Ballot

or the Bullet” havde den forventede effekt på samfundet, som de havde ønsket og håbet på, da

afroamerikanerne nu ikke alene havde de samme rettigheder som de hvide amerikanere, men også

besad evnen til at kunne stemme.

Det kan derudover diskuteres om det var King eller X, som var årsagen til, at borgerrettighedsloven

fik gennemslagskraft. I New York Times d. 12. juli 1964 blev det konstateret, på baggrund af en

opinionsundersøgelse, at tre fjerdedele af New Yorks afroamerikanere mente, at King var den af de

to borgerrettighedsforkæmpere, som havde gjort/gjorde mest for afroamerikanere, hvorimod kun 6

procent mente, at det var X, som havde gjort mest.

Dette er en opinionsundersøgelse, som ikke

giver et definitivt resultat, men som giver en indikation om, hvem afroamerikanerne foretrak, og

hvem de mente havde lagt fundamentet for, at deres rettigheder blev gennemført i 1964.

Det kan derudover også anføres, at King var en aktiv borgerrettighedsbekæmper, som allerede

startede sin karriere i 1955, hvor den førnævnte sag omhandlende Rosa Parks vakte røre. Han blev

efter sagen i Montgomery en førende leder og forkæmper for at skaffe afroamerikanerne lige

rettigheder, som de hvide amerikanere. X var før gennemførelsen af borgerrettighedsloven medlem

af Nation of Islam, hvorfra han blev smidt ud, da han ytrede sig om præsident Kennedy, hvilket han

ikke havde beføjelse til, da han ikke måtte udtale sig om politiske emner. Senere stiftede han sin

egen organisation Organization of Afro-American Unity, som han offentliggjorde til et pressemøde

d. 28. juni 1964, hvis hensigt ligeledes var at få borgerrettigheder til afroamerikanerne, men

erklærede også, at han var villig til at drage til vold, hvis dette blev nødvendigt.

Der kan ud fra ovenstående ikke udledes et definitivt svar på, hvem af de to

borgerrettighedsforkæmpere som var årsagen til, at borgerrettighedsloven blev gennemført, men

citatet fra d. 19. januar 1964, hvor King var indbudt til møde i Det Hvide Hus med Lyndon Baines

Johnson, hvor mødets formål var, at King skulle ”consult with [Johnson] and advise him in the

Cone, James H.: “Martin & Malcolm & America: A dream or a nightmare” 1991, p.195

X, Malcolm: ”Selvbiografi”, 1965, p. 426

Side | 18

future.”

, må pålægges en stor betydning, og udlede af dette, at King formentlig var den af de to

borgerrettighedsforkæmpere, som etablerede fundamentet til at få rettighederne gennemført.

Paris, Peter J.: “Black religious leaders” 1991, p.225

Side | 19

Konklusion

Det kan konkluderes at Martin Luther King og Malcolm X var de mest fremtrædende

borgerrettighedsforkæmpere i perioden fra 1950’erne til 1960’erne. Hver især havde de deres

tilgang til måden at opnå borgerrettigheder til afroamerikanerne. Martin Luther King var med sin

ikke volds-filosofi, af den overbevisning, at den mest effektive måde at opnå forandring på var ved

ikke-voldelige aktioner. King ønskede at inddrage hele nationen i en opfordring til sammenhold.

Som modsætning til Kings filosofi, stod Malcolm X som det voldelige alternativ til Kings moderate

holdninger. X gik ind for selvforsvar, og mente at afroamerikanerne skulle være uafhængige af

hvide.

Det kan ligeledes konkluderes, at de to borgerrettighedsforkæmpere begge kæmpede for at forbedre

de afroamerikanske vilkår socialt og politisk. Dette blev realiseret d. 2. juli 1964, hvor Civil Rights

Act blev implementeret, og race-adskillelse var ikke længere en realitet.

Voting Rights Act blev gennemført i det efterfølgende år, og satte punktum for den lovfæstede

racisme.

Side | 20

Litteraturliste

Bloom, Jack M.: Class, Race, And The Civil Rights Movement. 1. udg. Indiana University Press,

1987. (Bog)

Bobbitt, David A.: The Rhetoric of Redemption: Burke\'s Redemption Drama and King\'s \"I Have

a Dream\". 1. udg. Rowman & Littlefield, 2004. (Bog)

Cone, James H.: Martin & Malcolm & America: a dream or a nightmare. 1. udg. Orbis Books,

1991. (Bog)

Gade, Ulrik Jørstad: Vold, identitet og virkelighed. I: RetorikMagasinet nr. 73, 9.2009, s. 31-35

(Artikel)

Garbers, Lis og Sten Høgel: Retorik - Levende tale eller tom snak?. 1. udg. Nyt Nordisk Forlag

Arnold Busck A/S, 1996. (Bog)

King, Martin Luther: Vi kan ikke vente. 1. udg. Jespersen og Pios Forlag, 1965. (Bog)

Krogh, Torben: Det sorte oprør. 1. udg. Nordisk Forlag A/S, 1976. (Bog)

Murray, Charles: Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1. udg. Basic Books, Inc.,

Publishers, 1984. (Bog)

Paris, Peter J.: Black religious leaders: conflict in unity. 2. udg. Westminster/John Knox Press,

1991. (Bog)

Pitney, David Howard: Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and the Civil Rights Struggle of the

1950s and 1960s. 1. udg. Bedford, 2004. (Bog)

Poulsen, Niels Bjerre: USA - Historie og identitet. 2. udg. Gads Forlag & Niels Bjerre-Poulsen,

2010. (Bog)

Ritchie, Nigel: Borgerretsbevægelsen, Mennesker i historien. 1. udg. Flachs, 2002. (Bog)

Schlueter, Nathan W.: One Dream or Two? Justice in America and in the Thought of Martin Luther

King, Jr.. Side 13-15. 1. udg. Lexington Books, 2002. (Bog)

Side | 21

Sunnemark, Frederik: Ring out freedom!: the voice of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the making of

the civil rights movement.. 1. udg. Indiana University Press, 2004. (Bog)

Weber, Michael: De sorte amerikaneres Borgerretsbevægelse, Årsager & Virkninger

1. udg. Forlaget Åløkken A/S, 1999. (Bog)

X, Malcolm: Malcolm X Selvbiografi. 2. udg. Forlaget Per Kofod, 1965. (Bog)

Bilag

Bilag 1 - Martin Luther King, I Have a Dream d. 28. august 1963

1. I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest

2. demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

3. Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed

4. the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of

5. hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It

6. came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

7. But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of

8. the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of

9. discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the

10. midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still

11. languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

12. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

13. In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our

14. republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of

15. Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall

16. heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be

17. guaranteed the "unalienable Rights" of "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." It is

18. obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of

19. color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the

20. Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

21. But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there

22. are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so, we've come to

23. cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the

24. security of justice.

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25. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now.

26. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of

27. gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise

28. from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is

29. the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of

30. brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

31. It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering

32. summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating

33. autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. And

34. those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a

35. rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. And there will be neither rest nor

36. tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of

37. revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice

38. emerges.

39. But there is something that I must say to my people, who stand on the warm threshold which

40. leads into the palace of justice: In the process of gaining our rightful place, we must not be

41. guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from

42. the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of

43. dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical

44. violence. Again and again, we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force

45. with soul force.

46. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to

47. a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence

48. here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have

49. come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

50. We cannot walk alone.

51. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead.

52. We cannot turn back.

53. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?"

54. We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of

55. police brutality.

56. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain

57. lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as

58. long as the negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be

59. satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their self-hood and robbed of their dignity by

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60. signs stating: "For Whites Only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi

61. cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we

62. are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until "justice rolls down like waters, and

63. righteousness like a mighty stream."

64. I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations.

65. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. And some of you have come from

66. areas where your quest – quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution

67. and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative

68. suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to

69. Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to

70. Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow

71. this situation can and will be changed.

72. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends.

73. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is

74. a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

75. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed:

76. "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."

77. I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the

78. sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

79. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of

80. injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of

81. freedom and justice.

82. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not

83. be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.

84. I have a dream today!

85. I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor

86. having his lips dripping with the words of "interposition" and "nullification" -- one day right

87. there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white

88. boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.

89. I have a dream today!

90. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall

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91. be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made

92. straight; "and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together."

93. This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with.

94. With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With

95. this faith, we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful

96. symphony of brotherhood. With this faith, we will be able to work together, to pray

97. together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together,

98. knowing that we will be free one day.

99. And this will be the day -- this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing

100. with new meaning:

101. My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing.

102. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride,

103. From every mountainside, let freedom ring!

104. And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

105. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

106. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York.

107. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

108. Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

109. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.

110. But not only that:

111. Let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

112. Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

113. Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi.

114. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

115. And when this happens, when we allow freedom ring, when we let it ring from every

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116. village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up

117. that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles,

118. Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old

119. Negro spiritual:

120. Free at last! Free at last!

121. Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!

Bilag 2 - Malcolm X, The Ballot or the Bullet d. 3 april, 1964

1. Mr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just can't believe

2. everyone in here is a friend, and I don't want to leave anybody out. The question tonight, as I

3. understand it, is "The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here?" or What Next?" In

4. my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.

5. Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify

6. something concerning myself. I'm still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. That's my

7. personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the

8. Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political

9. struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin

10. Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Georgia, who heads another

11. organization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend

12. Galamison, I guess you've heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has

13. been deeply involved in the school boycotts to eliminate segregated education; well, I

14. myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action

15. on all fronts by whatever means necessary.

16. Although I'm still a Muslim, I'm not here tonight to discuss my religion. I'm not here to try

17. and change your religion. I'm not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about,

18. because it's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first

19. see that we have the same problem, a common problem, a problem that will make you catch

20. hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're

21. educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch

22. hell just like I am. We're all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell

23. from the same man. He just happens to be a white man. All of us have suffered here, in this

24. country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the

25. hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.

26. Now in speaking like this, it doesn't mean that we're anti-white, but it does mean we're anti-

27. exploitation, we're anti-degradation, we're anti-oppression. And if the white man doesn't

28. want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether

29. we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to

30. forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out

31. in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man.

32. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some

33. wheat, we certainly have more in common with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev

34. had with each other.

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35. If we don't do something real soon, I think you'll have to agree that we're going to be forced

36. either to use the ballot or the bullet. It's one or the other in 1964. It isn't that time is running

37. out -- time has run out!

38. 1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most

39. explosive year. Why? It's also a political year. It's the year when all of the white politicians

40. will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year

41. when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with

42. their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their

43. treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep. As they nourish these

44. dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we have the type of

45. black man on the scene in America today -- I'm sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesn't

46. intend to turn the other cheek any longer.

47. Don't let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they

48. send you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be brave over there,

49. you can be brave right here. These odds aren't as great as those odds. And if you fight here,

50. you will at least know what you're fighting for.

51. I'm not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, I'm not a student of much of

52. anything. I'm not a Democrat. I'm not a Republican, and I don't even consider myself an

53. American. If you and I were Americans, there'd be no problem. Those Honkies that just got

54. off the boat, they're already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees

55. are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is

56. already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here, we aren't Americans

57. yet.

58. Well, I am one who doesn't believe in deluding myself. I'm not going to sit at your table and

59. watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn't

60. make you a diner, unless you eat some of what's on that plate. Being here in America doesn't

61. make you an American. Being born here in America doesn't make you an American. Why, if

62. birth made you American, you wouldn't need any legislation; you wouldn't need any

63. amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn't be faced with civil-rights filibustering in

64. Washington, D.C., right now. They don't have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a

65. Polack an American.

66. No, I'm not an American. I'm one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of

67. Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy,

68. nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I'm not standing here speaking to you as an American,

69. or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver -- no, not I. I'm speaking as a victim of this

70. American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any

71. American dream; I see an American nightmare.

72. These 22 million victims are waking up. Their eyes are coming open. They're beginning to

73. see what they used to only look at. They're becoming politically mature. They are realizing

74. that there are new political trends from coast to coast. As they see these new political trends,

75. it's possible for them to see that every time there's an election the races are so close that they

76. have to have a recount. They had to recount in Massachusetts to see who was going to be

77. governor, it was so close. It was the same way in Rhode Island, in Minnesota, and in many

78. other parts of the country. And the same with Kennedy and Nixon when they ran for

79. president. It was so close they had to count all over again. Well, what does this mean? It

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80. means that when white people are evenly divided, and black people have a bloc of votes of

81. their own, it is left up to them to determine who's going to sit in the White House and who's

82. going to be in the dog house.

83. lt. was the black man's vote that put the present administration in Washington, D.C. Your

84. vote, your dumb vote, your ignorant vote, your wasted vote put in an administration in

85. Washington, D.C., that has seen fit to pass every kind of legislation imaginable, saving you

86. until last, then filibustering on top of that. And your and my leaders have the audacity to run

87. around clapping their hands and talk about how much progress we're making. And what a

88. good president we have. If he wasn't good in Texas, he sure can't be good in Washington,

89. D.C. Because Texas is a lynch state. It is in the same breath as Mississippi, no different;

90. only they lynch you in Texas with a Texas accent and lynch you in Mississippi with a

91. Mississippi accent. And these Negro leaders have the audacity to go and have some coffee

92. in the White House with a Texan, a Southern cracker -- that's all he is -- and then come out

93. and tell you and me that he's going to be better for us because, since he's from the South, he

94. knows how to deal with the Southerners. What kind of logic is that? Let Eastland be

95. president, he's from the South too. He should be better able to deal with them than Johnson.

96. In this present administration they have in the House of Representatives 257 Democrats to

97. only 177 Republicans. They control two-thirds of the House vote. Why can't they pass

98. something that will help you and me? In the Senate, there are 67 senators who are of the

99. Democratic Party. Only 33 of them are Republicans. Why, the Democrats have got the

100. government sewed up, and you're the one who sewed it up for them. And what have

101. they given you for it? Four years in office, and just now getting around to some civil-

102. rights legislation. Just now, after everything else is gone, out of the way, they're going

103. to sit down now and play with you all summer long -- the same old giant con game

104. that they call filibuster. All those are in cahoots together. Don't you ever think they're

105. not in cahoots together, for the man that is heading the civil-rights filibuster is a man

106. from Georgia named Richard Russell. When Johnson became president, the first man

107. he asked for when he got back to Washington, D.C., was "Dicky" -- that's how tight

108. they are. That's his boy, that's his pal, that's his buddy. But they're playing that old con

109. game. One of them makes believe he's for you, and he's got it fixed where the other

110. one is so tight against you, he never has to keep his promise.

111. So it's time in 1964 to wake up. And when you see them coming up with that kind of

112. conspiracy, let them know your eyes are open. And let them know you -- something

113. else that's wide open too. It's got to be the ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet.

114. If you're afraid to use an expression like that, you should get on out of the country;

115. you should get back in the cotton patch; you should get back in the alley. They get all

116. the Negro vote, and after they get it, the Negro gets nothing in return. All they did

117. when they got to Washington was give a few big Negroes big jobs. Those big Negroes

118. didn't need big jobs, they already had jobs. That's camouflage, that's trickery, that's

119. treachery, window-dressing. I'm not trying to knock out the Democrats for the

120. Republicans. We'll get to them in a minute. But it is true; you put the Democrats first

121. and the Democrats put you last.

122. Look at it the way it is. What alibis do they use, since they control Congress and the

123. Senate? What alibi do they use when you and I ask, "Well, when are you going to

124. keep your promise?" They blame the Dixiecrats. What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A

125. Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise. The titular head of the Democrats is

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126. also the head of the Dixiecrats, because the Dixiecrats are a part of the Democratic

127. Party. The Democrats have never kicked the Dixiecrats out of the party. The

128. Dixiecrats bolted themselves once, but the Democrats didn't put them out. Imagine,

129. these lowdown Southern segregationists put the Northern Democrats down. But the

130. Northern Democrats have never put the Dixiecrats down. No, look at that thing the

131. way it is. They have got a con game going on, a political con game, and you and I are

132. in the middle. It's time for you and me to wake up and start looking at it like it is, and

133. trying to understand it like it is; and then we can deal with it like it is.

134. The Dixiecrats in Washington, D.C., control the key committees that run the

135. government. The only reason the Dixiecrats control these committees is because they

136. have seniority. The only reason they have seniority is because they come from states

137. where Negroes can't vote. This is not even a government that's based on democracy. lt.

138. is not a government that is made up of representatives of the people. Half of the

139. people in the South can't even vote. Eastland is not even supposed to be in

140. Washington. Half of the senators and congressmen who occupy these key positions in

141. Washington, D.C., are there illegally, are there unconstitutionally.

142. I was in Washington, D.C., a week ago Thursday, when they were debating whether

143. or not they should let the bill come onto the floor. And in the back of the room where

144. the Senate meets, there's a huge map of the United States, and on that map it shows

145. the location of Negroes throughout the country. And it shows that the Southern section

146. of the country, the states that are most heavily concentrated with Negroes, are the ones

147. that have senators and congressmen standing up filibustering and doing all other kinds

148. of trickery to keep the Negro from being able to vote. This is pitiful. But it's not pitiful

149. for us any longer; it's actually pitiful for the white man, because soon now, as the

150. Negro awakens a little more and sees the vise that he's in, sees the bag that he's in,

151. sees the real game that he's in, then the Negro's going to develop a new tactic.

152. These senators and congressmen actually violate the constitutional amendments that

153. guarantee the people of that particular state or county the right to vote. And the

154. Constitution itself has within it the machinery to expel any representative from a state

155. where the voting rights of the people are violated. You don't even need new

156. legislation. Any person in Congress right now, who is there from a state or a district

157. where the voting rights of the people are violated, that particular person should be

158. expelled from Congress. And when you expel him, you've removed one of the

159. obstacles in the path of any real meaningful legislation in this country. In fact, when

160. you expel them, you don't need new legislation, because they will be replaced by

161. black representatives from counties and districts where the black man is in the

162. majority, not in the minority.

163. If the black man in these Southern states had his full voting rights, the key Dixiecrats

164. in Washington, D. C., which means the key Democrats in Washington, D.C., would

165. lose their seats. The Democratic Party itself would lose its power. It would cease to be

166. powerful as a party. When you see the amount of power that would be lost by the

167. Democratic Party if it were to lose the Dixiecrat wing, or branch, or element, you can

168. see where it's against the interests of the Democrats to give voting rights to Negroes in

169. states where the Democrats have been in complete power and authority ever since the

170. Civil War. You just can't belong to that Party without analyzing it.

171. I say again, I'm not anti-Democrat, I'm not anti-Republican, I'm not anti-anything. I'm

172. just questioning their sincerity, and some of the strategy that they've been using on our

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173. people by promising them promises that they don't intend to keep. When you keep the

174. Democrats in power, you're keeping the Dixiecrats in power. I doubt that my good

175. Brother Lomax will deny that. A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a Dixiecrat. That's

176. why, in 1964, it's time now for you and me to become more politically mature and

177. realize what the ballot is for; what we're supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and

178. that if we don't cast a ballot, it's going to end up in a situation where we're going to

179. have to cast a bullet. It's either a ballot or a bullet.

180. In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system that's known as

181. gerrymandering, whatever that means. It means when Negroes become too heavily

182. concentrated in a certain area, and begin to gain too much political power, the white

183. man comes along and changes the district lines. You may say, "Why do you keep

184. saying white man?" Because it's the white man who does it. I haven't ever seen any

185. Negro changing any lines. They don't let him get near the line. It's the white man who

186. does this. And usually, it's the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on

187. the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he's not your

188. friend.

189. So, what I'm trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: You and I in America are

190. faced not with a segregationist conspiracy, we're faced with a government conspiracy.

191. Everyone who's filibustering is a senator -- that's the government. Everyone who's

192. finagling in Washington, D.C., is a congressman -- that's the government. You don't

193. have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the

194. government. The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the

195. government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of

196. your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent

197. education. You don't need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the

198. government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and

199. degradation of black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This

200. government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And

201. all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro.

202. So, where do we go from here? First, we need some friends. We need some new allies.

203. The entire civil-rights struggle needs a new interpretation, a broader interpretation.

204. We need to look at this civil-rights thing from another angle -- from the inside as well

205. as from the outside. To those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, the only

206. way you can get involved in the civil-rights struggle is give it a new interpretation.

207. That old interpretation excluded us. It kept us out. So, we're giving a new

208. interpretation to the civil-rights struggle, an interpretation that will enable us to come

209. into it, take part in it. And these handkerchief-heads who have been dillydallying and

210. pussy footing and compromising -- we don't intend to let them pussyfoot and

211. dillydally and compromise any longer.

212. How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you

213. thank him for giving you only part of what's already yours? You haven't even made

214. progress, if what's being given to you, you should have had already. That's not

215. progress. And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out we're right back

216. where we were in 1954. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're behind

217. where we were in 1954. There's more segregation now than there was in 1954. There's

218. more racial animosity, more racial hatred, more racial violence today in 1964, than

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219. there was in 1954. Where is the progress?

220. And now you're facing a situation where the young Negro's coming up. They don't

221. want to hear that "turn the-other-cheek" stuff, no. In Jacksonville, those were

222. teenagers, they were throwing Molotov cocktails. Negroes have never done that

223. before. But it shows you there's a new deal coming in. There's new thinking coming

224. in. There's new strategy coming in. It'll be Molotov cocktails this month, hand

225. grenades next month, and something else next month. It'll be ballots, or it'll be bullets.

226. It'll be liberty, or it will be death. The only difference about this kind of death -- it'll be

227. reciprocal. You know what is meant by "reciprocal"? That's one of Brother Lomax's

228. words. I stole it from him. I don't usually deal with those big words because I don't

229. usually deal with big people. I deal with small people. I find you can get a whole lot of

230. small people and whip hell out of a whole lot of big people. They haven't got anything

231. to lose, and they've got every thing to gain. And they'll let you know in a minute: "It

232. takes two to tango; when I go, you go."

233. The black nationalists, those whose philosophy is black nationalism, in bringing about

234. this new interpretation of the entire meaning of civil rights, look upon it as meaning,

235. as Brother Lomax has pointed out, equality of opportunity. Well, we're justified in

236. seeking civil rights, if it means equality of opportunity, because all we're doing there

237. is trying to collect for our investment. Our mothers and fathers invested sweat and

238. blood. Three hundred and ten years we worked in this country without a dime in

239. return -- I mean without a dime in return. You let the white man walk around here

240. talking about how rich this country is, but you never stop to think how it got rich so

241. quick. It got rich because you made it rich.

242. You take the people who are in this audience right now. They're poor. We're all poor

243. as individuals. Our weekly salary individually amounts to hardly anything. But if you

244. take the salary of everyone in here collectively, it'll fill up a whole lot of baskets. It's a

245. lot of wealth. If you can collect the wages of just these people right here for a year,

246. you'll be rich -- richer than rich. When you look at it like that, think how rich Uncle

247. Sam had to become, not with this handful, but millions of black people. Your and my

248. mother and father, who didn't work an eight-hour shift, but worked from "can't see" in

249. the morning until "can't see" at night, and worked for nothing, making the white man

250. rich, making Uncle Sam rich. This is our investment. This is our contribution, our

251. blood.

252. Not only did we give of our free labor, we gave of our blood. Every time he had a call

253. to arms, we were the first ones in uniform. We died on every battlefield the white man

254. had. We have made a greater sacrifice than anybody who's standing up in America

255. today. We have made a greater contribution and have collected less. Civil rights, for

256. those of us whose philosophy is black nationalism, means: "Give it to us now. Don't

257. wait for next year. Give it to us yesterday, and that's not fast enough."

258. I might stop right here to point out one thing. Whenever you're going after something

259. that belongs to you, anyone who's depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal.

260. Understand that. Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within

261. your legal rights to lay claim to it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive

262. you of that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a criminal. And this was pointed out

Side | 31

263. by the Supreme Court decision. It outlawed segregation.

264. Which means segregation is against the law. Which means a segregationist is breaking

265. the law. A segregationist is a criminal. You can't label him as anything other than that.

266. And when you demonstrate against segregation, the law is on your side. The Supreme

267. Court is on your side.

268. Now, who is it that opposes you in carrying out the law? The police department itself.

269. With police dogs and clubs. Whenever you demonstrate against segregation, whether

270. it is segregated education, segregated housing, or anything else, the law is on your

271. side, and anyone who stands in the way is not the law any longer. They are breaking

272. the law; they are not representatives of the law. Any time you demonstrate against

273. segregation and a man has the audacity to put a police dog on you, kill that dog, kill

274. him, I'm telling you, kill that dog. I say it, if they put me in jail tomorrow, kill that

275. dog. Then you'll put a stop to it. Now, if these white people in here don't want to see

276. that kind of action, get down and tell the mayor to tell the police department to pull

277. the dogs in. That's all you have to do. If you don't do it, someone else will.

278. If you don't take this kind of stand, your little children will grow up and look at you

279. and think "shame." If you don't take an uncompromising stand, I don't mean go out

280. and get violent; but at the same time you should never be nonviolent unless you run

281. into some nonviolence. I'm nonviolent with those who are nonviolent with me. But

282. when you drop that violence on me, then you've made me go insane, and I'm not

283. responsible for what I do. And that's the way every Negro should get. Any time you

284. know you're within the law, within your legal rights, within your moral rights, in

285. accord with justice, then die for what you believe in. But don't die alone. Let your

286. dying be reciprocal. This is what is meant by equality. What's good for the goose is

287. good for the gander.

288. When we begin to get in this area, we need new friends, we need new allies. We need

289. to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level -- to the level of human rights.

290. Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are

291. confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. No one from the outside world

292. can speak out in your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle. Civil

293. rights comes within the domestic affairs of this country. All of our African brothers

294. and our Asian brothers and our Latin-American brothers cannot open their mouths and

295. interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States. And as long as it's civil rights,

296. this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam.

297. But the United Nations has what's known as the charter of human rights; it has a

298. committee that deals in human rights. You may wonder why all of the atrocities that

299. have been committed in Africa and in Hungary and in Asia, and in Latin America are

300. brought before the UN, and the Negro problem is never brought before the UN. This

301. is part of the conspiracy. This old, tricky blue eyed liberal who is supposed to be your

302. and my friend, supposed to be in our corner, supposed to be subsidizing our struggle,

303. and supposed to be acting in the capacity of an adviser, never tells you anything about

304. human rights. They keep you wrapped up in civil rights. And you spend so much time

305. barking up the civil-rights tree, you don't even know there's a human-rights tree on the

Side | 32

306. same floor.

307. When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then

308. take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the UN. You can

309. take it before the General Assembly. You can take Uncle Sam before a world court.

310. But the only level you can do it on is the level of human rights. Civil rights keeps you

311. under his restrictions, under his jurisdiction. Civil rights keeps you in his pocket. Civil

312. rights means you're asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are something

313. you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the

314. rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth. And any time any one violates

315. your human rights, you can take them to the world court.

316. Uncle Sam's hands are dripping with blood, dripping with the blood of the black man

317. in this country. He's the earth's number-one hypocrite. He has the audacity -- yes, he

318. has -- imagine him posing as the leader of the free world. The free world! And you

319. over here singing "We Shall Overcome." Expand the civil-rights struggle to the level

320. of human rights. Take it into the United Nations, where our African brothers can

321. throw their weight on our side, where our Asian brothers can throw their weight on

322. our side, where our Latin-American brothers can throw their weight on our side, and

323. where 800 million Chinamen are sitting there waiting to throw their weight on our

324. side.

325. Let the world know how bloody his hands are. Let the world know the hypocrisy that's

326. practiced over here. Let it be the ballot or the bullet. Let him know that it must be the

327. ballot or the bullet.

328. When you take your case to Washington, D.C., you're taking it to the criminal who's

329. responsible; it's like running from the wolf to the fox. They're all in cahoots together.

330. They all work political chicanery and make you look like a chump before the eyes of

331. the world. Here you are walking around in America, getting ready to be drafted and

332. sent abroad, like a tin soldier, and when you get over there, people ask you what are

333. you fighting for, and you have to stick your tongue in your cheek. No, take Uncle Sam

334. to court, take him before the world.

335. By ballot I only mean freedom. Don't you know -- I disagree with Lomax on this issue

336. -- that the ballot is more important than the dollar? Can I prove it? Yes. Look in the

337. UN. There are poor nations in the UN; yet those poor nations can get together with

338. their voting power and keep the rich nations from making a move. They have one

339. nation -- one vote, everyone has an equal vote. And when those brothers from Asia,

340. and Africa and the darker parts of this earth get together, their voting power is

341. sufficient to hold Sam in check. Or Russia in check. Or some other section of the earth

342. in check. So, the ballot is most important.

343. Right now, in this country, if you and I, 22 million African-Americans -- that's what

344. we are -- Africans who are in America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but

345. Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans

346. don't

347. catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills

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348. for Africans. An African can go anywhere he wants right now. All you've got to do is

349. tie your head up. That's right, go anywhere you want. Just stop being a Negro. Change

350. your name to Hoogagagooba. That'll show you how silly the white man is. You're

351. dealing with a silly man. A friend of mine who's very dark put a turban on his head

352. and went into a restaurant in Atlanta before they called themselves desegregated. He

353. went into a white restaurant, he sat down, they served him, and he said, "What would

354. happen if a Negro came in here? And there he's sitting, black as night, but because he

355. had his head wrapped up the waitress looked back at him and says, "Why, there

356. wouldn't no nigger dare come in here."

357. So, you're dealing with a man whose bias and prejudice are making him lose his mind,

358. his intelligence, every day. He's frightened. He looks around and sees what's taking

359. place on this earth, and he sees that the pendulum of time is swinging in your

360. direction. The dark people are waking up. They're losing their fear of the white man.

361. No place where he's fighting right now is he winning. Everywhere he's fighting, he's

362. fighting someone your and my complexion. And they're beating him. He can't win any

363. more. He's won his last battle. He failed to win the Korean War. He couldn't win it. He

364. had to sign a truce. That's a loss.

365. Any time Uncle Sam, with all his machinery for warfare, is held to a draw by some

366. rice eaters, he's lost the battle. He had to sign a truce. America's not supposed to sign a

367. truce. She's supposed to be bad. But she's not bad any more. She's bad as long as she

368. can use her hydrogen bomb, but she can't use hers for fear Russia might use hers.

369. Russia can't use hers, for fear that Sam might use his. So, both of them are weapon-

370. less. They can't use the weapon because each's weapon nullifies the other's. So the

371. only place where action can take place is on the ground. And the white man can't win

372. another war fighting on the ground. Those days are over The black man knows it, the

373. brown man knows it, the red man knows it, and the yellow man knows it. So they

374. engage him in guerrilla warfare. That's not his style. You've got to have heart to be a

375. guerrilla warrior, and he hasn't got any heart. I'm telling you now.

376. I just want to give you a little briefing on guerrilla warfare because, before you know

377. it, before you know it. It takes heart to be a guerrilla warrior because you're on your

378. own. In conventional warfare you have tanks and a whole lot of other people with you

379. to back you up -- planes over your head and all that kind of stuff. But a guerrilla is on

380. his own. All you have is a rifle, some sneakers and a bowl of rice, and that's all you

381. need -- and a lot of heart. The Japanese on some of those islands in the Pacific, when

382. the American soldiers landed, one Japanese sometimes could hold the whole army off.

383. He'd just wait until the sun went down, and when the sun went down they were all

384. equal. He would take his little blade and slip from bush to bush, and from American to

385. American. The white soldiers couldn't cope with that. Whenever you see a white

386. soldier that fought in the Pacific, he has the shakes, he has a nervous condition,

387. because they scared him to death.

388. The same thing happened to the French up in French Indochina. People who just a few

389. years previously were rice farmers got together and ran the heavily-mechanized

390. French army out of Indochina. You don't need it -- modern warfare today won't work.

391. This is the day of the guerrilla. They did the same thing in Algeria. Algerians, who

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392. were nothing but Bedouins, took a rine and sneaked off to the hills, and de Gaulle and

393. all of his highfalutin' war machinery couldn't defeat those guerrillas. Nowhere on this

394. earth does the white man win in a guerrilla warfare. It's not his speed. Just as guerrilla

395. warfare is prevailing in Asia and in parts of Africa and in parts of Latin America,

396. you've got to be mighty naive, or you've got to play the black man cheap, if you don't

397. think some day he's going to wake up and find that it's got to be the ballot or the

398. bullet.

399. l would like to say, in closing, a few things concerning the Muslim Mosque, Inc.,

400. which we established recently in New York City. It's true we're Muslims and our

401. religion is Islam, but we don't mix our religion with our politics and our economics

402. and our social and civil activities -- not any more We keep our religion in our mosque.

403. After our religious services are over, then as Muslims we become involved in political

404. action, economic action and social and civic action. We become involved with

405. anybody, any where, any time and in any manner that's designed to eliminate the evils,

406. the political, economic and social evils that are afflicting the people of our

407. community.

408. The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control

409. the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more. The black man in the

410. black community has to be re-educated into the science of politics so he will know

411. what politics is supposed to bring him in return. Don't be throwing out any ballots. A

412. ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that

413. target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.

414. The political philosophy of black nationalism is being taught in the Christian church.

415. It's being taught in the NAACP. It's being taught in CORE meetings. It's being taught

416. in SNCC Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee meetings. It's being taught in

417. Muslim meetings. It's being taught where nothing but atheists and agnostics come

418. together. It's being taught everywhere. Black people are fed up with the dillydallying,

419. pussyfooting, compromising approach that we've been using toward getting our

420. freedom. We want freedom now, but we're not going to get it saying "We Shall

421. Overcome." We've got to fight until we overcome.

422. The economic philosophy of black nationalism is pure and simple. It only means that

423. we should control the economy of our community. Why should white people be

424. running all the stores in our community? Why should white people be running the

425. banks of our community? Why should the economy of our community be in the hands

426. of the white man? Why? If a black man can't move his store into a white community,

427. you tell me why a white man should move his store into a black community. The

428. philosophy of black nationalism involves a re-education program in the black

429. community in regards to economics. Our people have to be made to see that any time

430. you take your dollar out of your community and spend it in a community where you

431. don't live, the community where you live will get poorer and poorer, and the

432. community where you spend your money will get richer and richer.

433. Then you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or a slum area. And where

434. you and I are concerned, not only do we lose it when we spend it out of the

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435. community, but the white man has got all our stores in the community tied up; so that

436. though we spend it in the community, at sundown the man who runs the store takes it

437. over across town somewhere. He's got us in a vise. So the economic philosophy of

438. black nationalism means in every church, in every civic organization, in every

439. fraternal order, it's time now for our people to be come conscious of the importance of

440. controlling the economy of our community. If we own the stores, if we operate the

441. businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own community, then we're

442. developing to the position where we are creating employment for our own kind. Once

443. you gain control of the economy of your own community, then you don't have to

444. picket and boycott and beg some cracker downtown for a job in his business.

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

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

447. destroying the moral fiber of our community. We our selves have to lift the level of

448. our community, the standard of our community to a higher level, make our own

449. society beautiful so that we will be satisfied in our own social circles and won't be

450. running around here trying to knock our way into a social circle where we're not

451. wanted. So I say, in spreading a gospel such as black nationalism, it is not designed to

452. make the black man re-evaluate the white man -- you know him already -- but to make

453. the black man re-evaluate himself. Don't change the white man's mind -- you can't

454. change his mind, and that whole thing about appealing to the moral conscience of

455. America -- America's conscience is bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long time ago.

456. Uncle Sam has no conscience.

457. They don't know what morals are. They don't try and eliminate an evil because it's

458. evil, or because it's illegal, or because it's immoral; they eliminate it only when it

459. threatens their existence. So you're wasting your time appealing to the moral

460. conscience of a bankrupt man like Uncle Sam. If he had a conscience, he'd straighten

461. this thing out with no more pressure being put upon him. So it is not necessary to

462. change the white man's mind. We have to change our own mind. You can't change his

463. mind about us. We've got to change our own minds about each other. We have to see

464. each other with new eyes. We have to see each other as brothers and sisters. We have

465. to come together with warmth so we can develop unity and harmony that's necessary

466. to get this problem solved ourselves. How can we do this? How can we avoid

467. jealousy? How can we avoid the suspicion and the divisions that exist in the

468. community? I'll tell you how.

469. I have watched how Billy Graham comes into a city, spreading what he calls the

470. gospel of Christ, which is only white nationalism. That's what he is. Billy Graham is a

471. white nationalist; I'm a black nationalist. But since it's the natural tendency for leaders

472. to be jealous and look upon a powerful figure like Graham with suspicion and envy,

473. how is it possible for him to come into a city and get all the cooperation of the church

474. leaders? Don't think because they're church leaders that they don't have weaknesses

475. that make them envious and jealous -- no, everybody's got it. It's not an accident that

476. when they want to choose a cardinal, as Pope I over there in Rome, they get in a closet

477. so you can't hear them cussing and fighting and carrying on.

478. Billy Graham comes in preaching the gospel of Christ. He evangelizes the gospel. He

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479. stirs everybody up, but he never tries to start a church. If he came in trying to start a

480. church, all the churches would be against him. So, he just comes in talking about

481. Christ and tells everybody who gets Christ to go to any church where Christ is; and in

482. this way the church cooperates with him. So we're going to take a page from his book.

483. Our gospel is black nationalism. We're not trying to threaten the existence of any

484. organization, but we're spreading the gospel of black nationalism. Anywhere there's a

485. church that is also preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism, join that

486. church. If the NAACP is preaching and practicing the gospel of black nationalism,

487. join the NAACP. If CORE is spreading and practicing the gospel of black

488. nationalism, join CORE. Join any organization that has a gospel that's for the uplift of

489. the black man. And when you get into it and see them pussyfooting or compromising,

490. pull out of it because that's not black nationalism. We'll find another one.

491. And in this manner, the organizations will increase in number and in quantity and in

492. quality, and by August, it is then our intention to have a black nationalist convention

493. which will consist of delegates from all over the country who are interested in the

494. political, economic and social philosophy of black nationalism. After these delegates

495. convene, we will hold a seminar; we will hold discussions; we will listen to everyone.

496. We want to hear new ideas and new solutions and new answers. And at that time, if

497. we see fit then to form a black nationalist party, we'll form a black nationalist party. If

498. it's necessary to form a black nationalist army, we'll form a black nationalist army. It'll

499. be the ballot or the bullet. It'll be liberty or it'll be death.

500. It's time for you and me to stop sitting in this country, letting some cracker senators,

501. Northern crackers and Southern crackers, sit there in Washington, D.C., and come to a

502. conclusion in their mind that you and I are supposed to have civil rights. There's no

503. white man going to tell me anything about my rights. Brothers and sisters, always

504. remember, if it doesn't take senators and congressmen and presidential proclamations

505. to give freedom to the white man, it is not necessary for legislation or proclamation or

506. Supreme Court decisions to give freedom to the black man. You let that white man

507. know, if this is a country of freedom, let it be a country of freedom; and if it's not a

508. country of freedom, change it.

509. We will work with anybody, anywhere, at any time, who is genuinely interested in

510. tackling the problem head-on, nonviolently as long as the enemy is nonviolent, but

511. violent when the enemy gets violent. We'll work with you on the voter-registration

512. drive, we'll work with you on rent strikes, we'll work with you on school boycotts; I

513. don't believe in any kind of integration; I'm not even worried about it, because I know

514. you're not going to get it anyway; you're not going to get it because you're afraid to

515. die; you've got to be ready to die if you try and force yourself on the white man,

516. because he'll get just as violent as those crackers in Mississippi, right here in

517. Cleveland. But we will still work with you on the school boycotts be cause we're

518. against a segregated school system. A segregated school system produces children

519. who, when they graduate, graduate with crippled minds. But this does not mean that a

520. school is segregated because it's all black. A segregated school means a school that is

521. controlled by people who have no real interest in it whatsoever.

522. Let me explain what I mean. A segregated district or community is a community in

Side | 37

523. which people live, but outsiders control the politics and the economy of that

524. community. They never refer to the white section as a segregated community. It's the

525. all-Negro section that's a segregated community. Why? The white man controls his

526. own school, his own bank, his own economy, his own politics, his own everything, his

527. own community; but he also controls yours. When you're under someone else's

528. control, you're segregated. They'll always give you the lowest or the worst that there is

529. to offer, but it doesn't mean you're segregated just because you have your own. You've

530. got to control your own. Just like the white man has control of his, you need to control

531. yours.

532. You know the best way to get rid of segregation? The white man is more afraid of

533. separation than he is of integration. Segregation means that he puts you away from

534. him, but not far enough for you to be out of his jurisdiction; separation means you're

535. gone. And the white man will integrate faster than he'll let you separate. So we will

536. work with you against the segregated school system because it's criminal, because it is

537. absolutely destructive, in every way imaginable, to the minds of the children who

538. have to be exposed to that type of crippling education.

539. Last but not least, I must say this concerning the great controversy over rifles and

540. shotguns. The only thing that I've ever said is that in areas where the government has

541. proven itself either unwilling or unable to defend the lives and the property of

542. Negroes, it's time for Negroes to defend themselves. Article number two of the

543. constitutional amendments provides you and me the right to own a rifle or a shotgun.

544. It is constitutionally legal to own a shotgun or a rifle. This doesn't mean you're going

545. to get a rifle and form battalions and go out looking for white folks, although you'd be

546. within your rights -- I mean, you'd be justified; but that would be illegal and we don't

547. do anything illegal. If the white man doesn't want the black man buying rifles and

548. shotguns, then let the government do its job.

549. That's all. And don't let the white man come to you and ask you what you think about

550. what Malcolm says -- why, you old Uncle Tom. He would never ask you if he thought

551. you were going to say, "Amen!" No, he is making a Tom out of you." So, this doesn't

552. mean forming rifle clubs and going out looking for people, but it is time, in 1964, if

553. you are a man, to let that man know. If he's not going to do his job in running the

554. government and providing you and me with the protection that our taxes are supposed

555. to be for, since he spends all those billions for his defense budget, he certainly can't

556. begrudge you and me spending $12 or $15 for a single-shot, or double-action. I hope

557. you understand. Don't go out shooting people, but any time -- brothers and sisters, and

558. especially the men in this audience; some of you wearing Congressional Medals of

559. Honor, with shoulders this wide, chests this big, muscles that big -- any time you and I

560. sit around and read where they bomb a church and murder in cold blood, not some

561. grownups, but four little girls while they were praying to the same God the white man

562. taught them to pray to, and you and I see the government go down and can't find who

563. did it.

564. Why, this man -- he can find Eichmann hiding down in Argentina somewhere. Let two

565. or three American soldiers, who are minding somebody else's business way over in

566. South Vietnam, get killed, and he'll send battleships, sticking his nose in their

Side | 38

567. business. He wanted to send troops down to Cuba and make them have what he calls

568. free elections -- this old cracker who doesn't have free elections in his own country.

569. No, if you never see me another time in your life, if I die in the morning, I'll die

570. saying one thing: the ballot or the bullet, the ballot or the bullet.

571. If a Negro in 1964 has to sit around and wait for some cracker senator to filibuster

572. when it comes to the rights of black people, why, you and I should hang our heads in

573. shame. You talk about a march on Washington in 1963, you haven't seen anything.

574. There's some more going down in '64.

575. And this time they're not going like they went last year. They're not going singing ''We

576. Shall Overcome." They're not going with white friends. They're not going with

577. placards already painted for them. They're not going with round-trip tickets. They're

578. going with one way tickets. And if they don't want that non-nonviolent army going

579. down there, tell them to bring the filibuster to a halt.

580. The black nationalists aren't going to wait. Lyndon B. Johnson is the head of the

581. Democratic Party. If he's for civil rights, let him go into the Senate next week and

582. declare himself. Let him go in there right now and declare himself. Let him go in there

583. and denounce the Southern branch of his party. Let him go in there right now and take

584. a moral stand -- right now, not later. Tell him, don't wait until election time. If he

585. waits too long, brothers and sisters, he will be responsible for letting a condition

586. develop in this country which will create a climate that will bring seeds up out of the

587. ground with vegetation on the end of them looking like something these people never

588. dreamed of. In 1964, it's the ballot or the bullet.

589. Thank you.

Side | 39

Bilag 3 – Figur 6.1

Murray, Charles: Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1. udg. Basic Books, Inc., Publishers,

1984. P. 86, figur 6.1

Bilag 4 – Figur 7.1

Murray, Charles: Losing Ground: American Social Policy, 1. udg. Basic Books, Inc., Publishers,

1984. P. 97, figur 7.1