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I Have Often Reflected Upon The New Vistas That Reading Has Opened To Me. I Knew Right There In Prison That Reading Had Changed Forever The Course Of My Life. As I See It Today, The Ability To Read Awoke Inside Me Some Long Dormant Craving To Be Mentally Alive.

-Malcolm X

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I Have Often Reflected

Malcolm X

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I Have Often Reflected Upon The New Vistas That Reading Has Opened To Me. I Knew Right There In Prison That Reading Had Changed Forever The Course Of My Life. As I See It Today, The Ability To Read Awoke Inside Me Some Long Dormant Craving To Be Mentally Alive.

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It Would Be The Easiest Thing In The World For The White Man To Destroy All Black Muslims.

Growing Is The Result Of Learning.

Nobody Can Give You Freedom. Nobody Can Give You Equality Or Justice Or Anything. If You're A Man, You Take It.

You're Living At A Time Of Extremism, A Time Of Revolution A Time Where There's Got To Be A Change. People In Power Have Misused It And Now There Has To Be A Change And A Better World Has To Be Built And The Only Way Is Going To Be Built Is With Extreme Methods And I For One Will Join With Anyone, Don't Care What Color You Are As Long As You Want Change This Miserable Condition That Exists On This Earth

When A Person Places The Proper Value On Freedom, There Is Nothing Under The Sun That He Will Not Do To Acquire That Freedom. Whenever You Hear A Man Saying He Wants Freedom, But In The Next Breath He Is Going To Tell You What He Won't Do To Get It, Or What He Doesn't Believe In Doing In Order To Get It, He Doesn't Believe In Freedom. A Man Who Believes In Freedom Will Do Anything Under The Sun To Acquire... Or Preserve His Freedom.

White Is An Attitude.

After Hitler Was Destroyed, There Was The Threat Of Stalin, But It Was Always The World Pressure That Was Upon America That Enabled Black People To Go Forward. It Was Not The Initiative Internally That The Negro Put Forth In America, Nor Was It A Change Of Moral Heart On The Part Of Uncle Sam It Was World Pressure.

Eleanor Roosevelt Could Easily Have Told Negroes The Deceitful Maneuvering Of The United States Government That Was Going On Behind The Scenes. She Never Did It. In My Opinion She Was Just Another White Woman Whose Profession Was To Make It Appear That She Was On The Negro's Side. You Have A Lot Of Whites Who Are In This Category. Therefore, They Have Made Negro Loving A Profession.

Behind The Scenes

The Religion Of Islam Actually Restores One's Human Feelings, Human Rights, Human Incentives, Human, His Talent.

Religion Of Islam

Reform Is For People Who Have Government Connections, Revolution Is For The People!

Don't Be Bitter. Remember Lot's Wife When They Kill Me, And They Surely Will. You Have To Use All Of Your Energy To Do What It Is You Have To Do. [to His Wife Betty Shabazz]

A Cat That's Inside Of Your House That Is Angry And Dissatisfied And Hostile Is More Dangerous To You Than A Full-grown Lion Is On The Outside.

It Is The System Itself That, That Is Incapable Of Producing Freedom For The Twenty-two Million Afro-americans. Just Like A Chicken Can't Lay A Duck Egg, A Chicken Can't Lay A Duck Egg, Because The System Of The Chicken Isn't Constructed In The Way To Produce A Duck Egg. And Just As That Chicken System Can't Produce, Is Not Capable To, Of Producing A Duck Egg, The Political And Economic System Of This Country Is Absolutely Incapable Of Producing Freedom And Justice And Equality And Human Dignity For The Twenty-two Million Afro-americans.

If A Dog Is Biting A Black Man, The Black Man Should Kill The Dog, Whether The Dog Is A Police Dog Or A Hound Dog Or Any Kind Of Dog. If A Dog Is Fixed On A Black Man When That Black Man Is Doing Nothing But Trying To Take Advantage Of What The Government Says Is Supposed To Be His, Then That Black Man Should Kill That Dog Or Any Two-legged Dog Who Sets The Dog On Him.

And Just Because You Have Colleges And Universities Doesn't Mean You Have Education.

There Can Be No Black-white Unity Until There Is First Some Black Unity... We Cannot Think Of Uniting With Others, Until After We Have First United Among Ourselves. We Cannot Think Of Being Acceptable To Others Until We Have First Proven Acceptable To Ourselves.

The White Devil's Time Is Up.

The Greatest Weapon The Colonial Powers Have Used In The Past Against Our People Has Always Been His Ability To Divide And Conquer. If I Take My Hand And Slap You, It Might Sting You Because These Digits Are Separated. But All I Have To Do To Put You Back In Your Place Is Bring Those Digits Together.

When The Muslims Deliver The Indictment Of The American System, It Is Not The White Man Per Se That Is Being Doomed.

One Thing That The White Man Can Never Give The Black Man Is Self Respect. The Black Man In The Ghettos, Have To Start Self Correcting His Own Material Moral, And Spiritual Defects, And Evil. The Black Man Need To Start His Own Program To Get Rid Of Drunkenness, Drug Addiction And Prostitution. The Black Man In America Has To Lift Up His Own Sense Of Values.

My Family Was So Poor We Were Close To Eating The Holes Inside Of Doughnuts.

Since Integration Is So Slow, And The White Man Knows The Problem Must Be Solved, The Only Thing That He Can Do Tomorrow Is, Is Separate, Because We're Already Separated.

My Sincerity Is My Credentials.

Some Things Are Better Done Than Said.

You Show Me A Capitalist, And I'll Show You A Bloodsucker.

Hatred And Anger Are Powerless When Met With Kindness.

But They Don't Use Law-they Use Law For Their Interests. They Don't Go By Law, International, Federal, Local-nothing! They Go By Whatever Is Expedient To Protect The Interests That Are At Stake.

How Can You Thank A Man For Giving You What's Already Yours? How Then Can You Thank Him For Giving You Only Part Of What's Already Yours?

The White Man Is A Devil. If He Is Not A Devil, Let Him Prove It!

History Is A People's Memory, And Without A Memory, Man Is Demoted To The Lower Animals.

At This Point I Hadn't Yet Gotten Deep Into The Historic Condition That Negroes In This Country Are Confronted With, But At That Point In My Prison Studies I, I Read, I Studied Islam As A Religion More So Than As I Later Come To Know It In Its Connection With The Plight Or Problem Of Negroes In This Country.

Speaking Like This Doesn't Mean That We're Anti-white, But It Does Mean We're Anti-exploitation, We're Anti-degradation, We're Anti-oppression.

They Attack The Victim, And Then The Criminal Who Attacked The Victim Accuses The Victim Of Attacking Him. This Is American Justice. This Is American Democracy And Those Of You Who Are Familiar With It Know That In America Democracy Is Hypocrisy. Now, If I’m Wrong, Put Me In Jail; But If You Can’t Prove That Democracy Is Not Hypocrisy, Then Don’t Put Your Hands On Me.

For The White Man To Ask The Black Man If He Hates Him Is Just Like The Rapist Asking The Raped, Or The Wolf Asking The Sheep, 'do You Hate Me?' The White Man Is In No Moral Position To Accuse Anyone Else Of Hate! Why, When All Of My Ancestors Are Snake-bitten, And I'm Snake-bitten, And I Warn My Children To Avoid Snakes, What Does That Snake Sound Like Accusing Me Of Hate-teaching?

Not A State Within A State, But The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is, Is Saying That The Black Man, Since The White Man, Has Found It Impossible To Bring About Integration, Other Than Toke On A Ta - Other Than On A Token Basis, And Which Proves That The, The Two Of Us, The Ex-slave And The Master, Can't Live In The Same House As Equals.

Why Can't The Black Man Have A God? What's So Wrong When A Black Man Says His God Will Protect Him Form His White Foe? If Jehovah Can Slay Philistines For The Jews, Why Can't Allah Slay Crackers For The So-called Negro?

They [prisons] Are Not Designed To Rehabilitate The - The Inmate, Though The, The Public Propaganda Is That This Is Their Function.

I Know That I Will Not Die Until My Time Comes.

I Myself Would Go For Nonviolence If It Was Consistent, If Everybody Was Going To Be Nonviolent All The Time. I'd Say, Okay, Let's Get With It, We'll All Be Nonviolent. But I Don't Go Along With Any Kind Of Nonviolence Unless Everybody's Going To Be Nonviolent. If They Make The Ku Klux Klan Nonviolent, I'll Be Nonviolent. If They Make The White Citizens Council Nonviolent, I'll Be Nonviolent. But As Long As You've Got Somebody Else Not Being Nonviolent, I Don't Want Anybody Coming To Me Talking Any Nonviolent Talk.

I'll Say Nothing Against Him. At One Time The Whites In The United States Called Him A Racialist, And Extremist, And A Communist. Then The Black Muslims Came Along And The Whites Thanked The Lord For Martin Luther King.

If Not Now Then When, If Not Me Then Who?

[black Nationalism] Is Not Designed To Make The Black Man Reevaluate The White Man--you Know Him Already--but To Make The Black Man Re-evaluate Himself. Don't Change The White Man's Mind; You Can't Change His Mind. And That Whole Thing About Appealing To The Moral Conscience Of America--america's Conscience Is Bankrupt.

How Can Anyone Be Against Love?

I Used The Word 'negro' And I Was Firmly Corrected

An English Writer Telephoned Me From London, Asking Questions. One Was, ‘what’s Your Alma Mater?’ I Told Him, ‘books.

Asking Questions

That Is A Lie. I'm Not For Wanton Violence, I'm For Justice.

It's Got To Be The Ballot Or The Bullet. The Ballot Or The Bullet. If You're Afraid To Use An Expression Like That, You Should Get Back In The Cotton Patch, You Should Get Back In The Alley.

The Government Is Responsible For What Is Happening To Black People In America.

We May Disagree On Methods [with Martin Luther King], But We Don't Have To Argue All Day On Methods.

For 12 Long Years I Lived Within The Narrow-minded Confines Of The 'straightjacket World' Created By My Strong Belief That Elijah Muhammad Was A Messenger Direct From God Himself, And My Faith In What I Now See To Be A Pseudo-religious Philosophy That He Preaches.... I Shall Never Rest Until I Have Undone The Harm I Did To So Many Well-meaning, Innocent Negroes Who Through My Own Evangelistic Zeal Now Believe In Him Even More Fanatically And More Blindly Than I Did.

If You Are Not Willing To Pay The Price For Freedom, You Don't Deserve Freedom.

We Would Do The Same Thing That America Did When The Jap[an] - When, When Pearl Harbor Was Attacked. America Defended Itself. They Said Praise The Lord, But They Passed The Ammunition.

Any Way, Any Form Necessary To Defend Himself; Negro Should Reserve The Right To Do That Just The Same As Others Have The Right To Do It.

A Revolution Is Bloody. Revolution Is Hostile. Revolution Knows No Compromise. Revolution Overturns And Destroys Everything That Gets In Its Way. And You, Sitting Around Here Like A Knot On The Wall, Saying, “i’m Going To Love These Folks No Matter How Much They Hate Me.” No, You Need A Revolution. Whoever Heard Of A Revolution Where They Lock Arms, As Reverend Cleage Was Pointing Out Beautifully, Singing “we Shall Overcome”? Just Tell Me. You Don’t Do That In A Revolution. You Don’t Do Any Singing; You’re Too Busy Swinging.

Once Negro Community Recognize It As Such, They Can Adopt The Same Measures Against The Community That Harbors The Criminals Who Are Responsible For This Activity.

A Man Who Believes In Freedom Will Do Anything Under The Sun To Acquire, Or Preserve His Freedom.

The Only Persons Who Really Changed History Are Those Who Changed Men's Thinking About Themselves.

A Wise Man Can Play The Part Of A Clown, But A Clown Can't Play The Part Of A Wise Man.

I Believe In The Brotherhood Of Man, All Men, But I Don't Believe In Brotherhood With Anybody Who Doesn't Want Brotherhood With Me. I Believe In Treating People Right, But I'm Not Going To Waste My Time Trying To Treat Somebody Right Who Doesn't Know How To Return The Treatment.

I Feel Like A Man Who Has Been Asleep Somewhat And Under Someone Else's Control. I Feel That What I'm Thinking And Saying Is Now For Myself. Before It Was For And By The Guidance Of Elijah Muhammad. Now I Think With My Own Mind, Sir!

The Black Man In America Is The Same As The Jews Were In Bondage Under Pharaoh. We Are Strangers In A Land That Is Not Ours. We Are Rejected By This Type Of Modern Pharaoh Or Pharohnic Society.

And What Makes The Whites Who Have These Middle-class Values Have Those Values? Where Did They Get It? They Didn't Have These Same Values Four Hundred Years, Five Hundred Years Ago.

Its The Hinge That Squeaks That Gets The Grease

I'm Not A Republican, Nor A Democrat, Nor An American, And Got Sense Enough To Know It.

I Believe It's A Crime For Anyone Who Is Being Brutalized To Continue To Accept That Brutality Without Doing Something To Defend Himself.

On The Iberian Peninsula In The Spanish-portuguese Area, Southern France That High State Of A Culture Existed There Because Of Africans Known As Moors Had Come There And Brought It There.

Just Take The Negro Child. Take The White Child. The White Child, Although It Has Not Committed Any Of The Per - As A Person Has Not Committed Any Of The Deeds That Has Produced The Plight That The Negro Finds Himself In, Is He Guiltless? The Only Way You Can Determine That Is, Take The Negro Child Who's Only Four-years-old. Can He Escape, Though He's Only Four Years Old, Can He Escape The Stigma Of Discrimination And Segregation? He's Only Four-years-old.

In Stating That The Idea Of A Separate State Is Not Practical, I'm Also Stating That The Idea Of Integration, Forced Integration, As They've Been Making An Effort To Do In This Country For The Past Years, Is Also Just As Impractical.

There Was No Racism; There Was No Problem [in Mecca].

If The So-called 'christianity' Now Being Practiced In America Displays The Best That World Christianity Has Left To Offer - No One In His Right Mind Should Need Any Much Greater Proof That Very Close At Hand Is The End Of Christianity.

I Think Teaching A Man To Hate Himself Is Much More Criminal Than Teaching A Man To Hate Someone Else.

Any Time A Negro Community Lives Under Fear That Its Churches Are Going To Be Bombed, Then They Have To Realize They're Living In A War Zone.

22 Million African-americans - That's What We Are - Africans Who Are In America.

My Father Didn't Know His Real Name. My Father Got His Name From His Grandfather And He Got His Name From His Grandfather And He Got It From The Slave Master.

If The Government Can't Get The Black Man Justice, Then It's Time For The Black Man To Get Some Justice For Himself.

I Was Going Through The Hardest Thing, Also The Greatest Thing, For Any Human Being To Do; To Accept That Which Is Already Within You, And Around You.

History Rewards All Research. And History Fails To Record One Single Instance In Which The White Man - As A People - Did Good. They Have Always Been Devils; They Always Will Be Devils, And They Are About To Be Destroyed. The Final Proof That They Are Devils Lies In The Fact That They Are About To Destroy Themselves. Only A Devil - And A Stupid Devil At That - Would Destroy Himself!

In This Country, These Negro Leaders Have Negroes Sittin' - Sitting Down, Thinking That That - There's Dignity Towards Sitting In.

Most Of [ The Negro Leaders] Who - Who, Whose Existence Or Whose Position Of Leadership Depends Upon The - On The Subsidy Or Crumbs For - The Crumbs From The White Man's Table, Will Only Say What That White Man Wants To Hear. When They Get Behind The Door They Talk A Different Language.

If Violence Is Wrong In America, Violence Is Wrong Abroad. If It Is Wrong To Be Violent Defending Black Women And Black Children And Black Babies And Black Men, Then It Is Wrong For America To Draft Us And Make Us Violent Abroad In Defense Of Her. And If It Is Right For America To Draft Us, And Teach Us How To Be Violent In Defense Of Her, Then It Is Right For You And Me To Do Whatever Is Necessary To Defend Our Own People Right Here In This Country.

Many Of Them Who Belong To These Countries That Were Former Colonial Powers Have Racist Attitudes, But Their Racist Attitude Is Never Displayed To The Degree That The America's Attitude Of Racism Is Displayed. Never.

Essien Udom Is A Nigerian. At Present He's A Professor At Ibadan University.

Truth Is On The Side Of The Oppressed Today, It's Against The Oppressor.

If You Have No Critics You'll Likely Have No Success.

Congratulations

When You Are Equal With Another Person, The Problem Of Integration Doesn't Even Arise.

Anytime There's A Fire In A Negro Community And It's Burning Out Of Control, You Send Any One Of Them, Send Whitney Young In To Put It Out.

Internal Differences Within The Nation Of Islam Forced Me Out Of It. I Did Not Leave Of My Own Free Will. But Now That It Has Happened, I Intend To Make The Most Of It. Now That I Have More Independence Of Action, I Intend To Use A More Flexible Approach Toward Working With Others To Get A Solution To This Problem.

As Long As A White Man Does It, It's Alright, A Black Man Is Supposed To Have No Feelings. But When A Black Man Strikes Back He's An Extremist, He's Supposed To Sit Passively And Have No Feelings, Be Nonviolent, And Love His Enemy No Matter What Kind Of Attack, Verbal Or Otherwise, He's Supposed To Take It. But If He Stands Up In Any Way And Tries To Defend Himself, Then He's An Extremist.

Those Type Of Whites Who Are Always Going To Jail With Negroes Are The Ones Who Tell Negroes To Be Loving And Be Kind And Be Patient And Be Nonviolent And Turn The Other Cheek.

When You Expand The Civil-rights Struggle To The Level Of Human Rights, You Can Then Take The Case Of The Black Man In This Country Before The Nations In The Un. You Can Take It Before The General Assembly. You Can Take Uncle Sam Before A World Court. But The Only Level You Can Do It On Is The Level Of Human Rights. Civil Rights Keeps You Under His Restrictions, Under His Jurisdiction. Civil Rights Keeps You In His Pocket.

As Long As The Factories Are In The Hands Of The Whites, The Housing Is In The Hands Of The Whites, The School System Is In The Hands Of The Whites, You Have A Situation Where The Blacks Are Constantly Begging The Whites Can They Use This Or Can They Use That. That's Not Any Kind Of Equality Of Opportunity, Nor Does It Lend Toward One's Dignity.

The Real Names Of Our People Were Destroyed During Slavery. The Last Name Of My Forefathers Was Taken From Them When They Were Brought To America And Made Slaves, And Then The Name Of The Slave Master Was Given, Which We Refuse, We Reject That Name Today And Refuse It. I Never Acknowledge It Whatsoever.

One Of The Things That Made The Black Muslim Movement Grow Was Its Emphasis Upon Things African. This Was The Secret To The Growth Of The Black Muslim Movement. African Blood, African Origin, African Culture, African Ties. And You'd Be Surprised - We Discovered That Deep Within The Subconscious Of The Black Man In This Country, He Is Still More African Than He Is American.

I Think That The Negro Should Reserve The Right To Execute.

I Have Often Reflected Upon The New Vistas That Reading Has Opened To Me. I Knew Right There In Prison That Reading Had Changed Forever The Course Of My Life. As I See It Today, The Ability To Read Awoke Inside Me Some Long Dormant Craving To Be Mentally Alive.

I Don't Have Any Hate. I've Got Some Sense. I'm Not Going To Let Anybody Who Hates Me Tell Me To Love Him. I'm Not That Way-out.

Anytime You Live In A Society Supposedly Based Upon Law And It Doesn't Enforce Its Own Laws Because The Color Of A Man's Skin Happens To Be Wrong, Then I Say Those People Are Justified To Resort To Any Means Necessary To Bring About Justice When The Government Can't Give Them Justice.

Only The Mistakes Were Mine.

Revolutions Are Never Peaceful.

It Has Been Nine Years Since The Supreme Court Decision Outlawing Segregated Schools, Yet Less Than Ten Per Cent Of The Negro Students In The South Are In Integrated Schools. That Isn't Integration, That's Tokenism!

If A White Man Puts His Arm Around Me Voluntarily, That's Brotherhood. But If You - If You Hold A Gun On Him And Make Him Embrace Me And Pretend To Be Friendly Or Brotherly Toward Me, Then That's Not Brotherhood, That's Hypocrisy. And What America Is Trying To Do Is Pass Laws To Force Whites To Pretend That They Want Negroes Into Their Schools Or Into - In Their Places Of Employment.

We Won't Organize Any Black Man To Be A Democrat Or A Republican Because Both Of Them Have Sold Us Out. Both Of Them Have Sold Us Out; Both Parties Have Sold Us Out. Both Parties Are Racist, And The Democratic Party Is More Racist Than The Republican Party.

It Has Always Been My Belief That I, Too, Will Die By Violence. I Have Done All That I Can To Be Prepared.

American Civil Rights Leader, Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos Or Community? Lynching Is A Murder. For The Past Four Hundred Years Our People Have Been Lynched Physically, But Now It's Done Politically. We're Lynched Politically, We're Lynched Economically, We're Lynched Socially, We're Lynched In Every Way That You Can Imagine.

Everybody Has A God And Believes That His God Will Deliver Him And Protect Him From His Enemies!

I Believe In Recognizing Every Human Being As A Human Being--neither White, Black, Brown, Or Red; And When You Are Dealing With Humanity As A Family There's No Question Of Integration Or Intermarriage. It's Just One Human Being Marrying Another Human Being Or One Human Being Living Around And With Another Human Being.

When The Snakes Out In That Field Begin To Realize That If One Of Their Members Get Out Of Line, It's Going To Be Detrimental To All Of Them, They'll Keep That, Perhaps They'll Then Take The Necessary Steps To Keep Their Fellow Snakes Away From My Chickens Or Away From My Children If The Responsibility Is Placed Upon Them.

That Value System Has Been Handed Right Down In European Society. And Today When You Find Negroes, If They Even Look Like They're Adopting These So-called Middle-class Values, Standards, It's Not That They Are Taking Something From The White Man, But They Are Probably Identifying Again With The Level Or Standard That These Same Whites Have Gotten From Them Back During That Period.

America Preaches Integration And Practices Segregation.

I Don't Think You Can Having An Opportunity To Ride Either On The Front Or The Back Or In The Middle Of Someone Else's Bus Doesn't Dignify You.

I Find It Difficult [to Believe] That... Christians Accuse [black Muslims] Of Teaching Racial Supremacy Or... Hatred, Because Their Own History And... Teachings Are Filled With It.

Why Should [uncle Sam] Send 20 Billion Dollars Down There [south America], Which Is Going To Go Down The Drain Every Time You Have A Racial In - Incident In This Country?

I Live Like A Man Who's Dead Already! I Have No Fear Whatsoever Of Anybody Or Anything

Those Who Would Hunt A Man Need To Remember That A Jungle Also Contains Those Who Hunt The Hunters.

You Can Cuss Out Colonialism, Imperialism, And All Other Kinds Of Ism, But It's Hard For You To Cuss That Dollarism. When They Drop Those Dollars On You, Your Soul Goes.

If The White Man Can Come Here Uneducated And As An Immigrant, And Within 10 Or 15 Years Set Up An Industry That Provides Job Opportunities And Educational Opportunities For Black People, Then If The Black Man, The Black Leadership, Who Has Access To All Of This Money And Has All Of These Degrees Today, Can't Use His Talent And His Know-how To Set Up Business Opportunities, Job Opportunities, Housing Opportunities For The Black People The Same As The White Leaders Have Done For White People, Then These Black Leaders Need To Get Off The Boat.

It Takes Heart To Be A Guerrilla Warrior Because You’re On Your Own. In Conventional Warfare You Have Tanks And A Whole Lot Of Other People With You To Back You Up - Planes Over Your Head And All That Kind Of Stuff. But A Guerrilla Is On His Own. All You Have Is A Rifle, Some Sneakers And A Bowl Of Rice, And That’s All You Need - And A Lot Of Heart.

Thoughtful White People Know They Are Inferior To Black People.

Brothers And Sisters, Friends And Enemies: I Just Can't Believe Everyone In Here Is A Friend, And I Don't Want To Leave Anybody Out.

I Learned Early That Crying Out In Protest Could Accomplish Things. My Older Brothers And Sister Had Started To School When, Sometimes, They Would Come In And Ask For A Buttered Biscuit Or Something And My Mother, Impatiently, Would Tell Them No. But I Would Cry Out And Make A Fuss Until I Got What I Wanted. I Remember Well How My Mother Asked Me Why I Couldn't Be A Nice Boy Like Wilfred; But I Would Think To Myself That Wilfred, For Being So Nice And Quiet, Often Stayed Hungry. So Early In Life, I Had Learned That If You Want Something, You Had Better Make Some Noise.

The White Man Is Not Inherently Evil, But America's Racist Society Influences Him To Act Evilly. The Society Has Produced And Nourishes A Psychology Which Brings Out The Lowest, Most Base Part Of Human Beings.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Says Number One, [negro] Must Know - Have A Knowledge Of Himself. And This Gives Him Confidence In Himself. He - He Has Been Brainwashed By The Educational System That Exists Here In America To The Point Where He Feels He Was A Savage In The Jungle When He Was - Before He Was Brought Here. And This Destroys His Morale.

The Goal - Is The Dignity Of The Black Man In America. He Wants Respect As The Human Being. He Wants Recognition As A Human Being.

You'd Have Civil War. You'd Have A Race War In This Country.

In The Past, Yes, I Have Made Sweeping Indictments Of All White People. I Never Will Be Guilty Of That Again - As I Know Now That Some White People Are Truly Sincere, That Some Truly Are Capable Of Being Brotherly Toward A Black Man. The True Islam Has Shown Me That A Blanket Indictment Of All White People Is As Wrong As When Whites Made Blanket Indictments Against Blacks.

Negroes Just Can't Judge Each Other According To Color, Because We Are All Colors, All Complexions.

Instead Of Working For White Man And Helping Him Hold Up A Government That Continues To Suppress Us Socially And, And Exploit Us Economically And Oppress Us Politically, Let Us Go And Enter Our Own Territory And Use Our Own Talents To Uplift Ourselves By Our Own Bootstraps. And Then He Will Recognize Us For What We Are.

Only A Fool Would Let His Enemy Teach His Children.

Since The Main Problem That American, The Afro- Americans Have Is A Lack Of Cultural Identity. It Is Necessary To Teach [people] That They Had Some Type Of Identity, Culture, Civilization Before They Were Brought Here.

Why Am I As I Am? To Understand That Of Any Person, His Whole Life, From Birth Must Be Reviewed. All Of Our Experiences Fuse Into Our Personality. Everything That Ever Happened To Us Is An Ingredient.

I Just Don't Believe That When People Are Being Unjustly Oppressed That They Should Let Someone Else Set Rules For Them By Which They Can Come Out From Under That Oppression.

What The White Man In America Needs To Realize Is There's A New Thinking Among Black People Today Which Makes Them Not Willing To Sit Around And Wait For Five Years To Get This Problem Solved, Much Less A Hundred Years.

I Have Never Seen White People Who Would Sit, Who Would, Who Would Approach A Solution To Their Own Problems Nonviolently Or Passively. It's Only When They Are So-called "fighting For The Rights Of Negroes" That They Nonviolently, Passively, And Lovingly, You Know, Approach The Situation.

Education Is Our Passport To The Future.

First Day Of School

In All Our Deeds, The Proper Value And Respect For Time Determines Success Or Failure.

Whereas The Only Real Solution To The Race Problem In This Country Is A Solution That Involves Individual Self Improvement And Collective Self Improvement In, Whereas Our Own, Wherein Our Own People Are Concerned.

When You Go To A Church And You See The Pastor Of That Church With A Philosophy And A Program That's Designed To Bring Black People Together And Elevate Black People, Join That Church. Join That Church. If You See Where The Naacp Is Preaching And Practicing That Which Is Designed To Make Black Nationalism Materialize, Join The Naacp. Join Any Kind Of Organization, Civic, Religious, Fraternal, Political, Or Otherwise That's Based On Lifting The Black Man Up And Making Him Master Of His Own Community.

America Has Allowed White People To Kill And Brutalize Those They Don't Like.

Most Of The Negro Leaders Who Get The Support Of The Power Structure End Up Being Against [reverend] Galamison.

True Islam Taught Me That It Takes All Of The Religious, Political, Economic, Psychological, And Racial Ingredients, Or Characteristics, To Make The Human Family And The Human Society Complete.

If You're Not Careful, The Newspapers Will Have You Hating The People Who Are Being Oppressed, And Loving The People Who Are Doing The Oppressing.

It's Hard For Anyone Intelligent To Be Nonviolent. Everything In The Universe Does Something When You Start Playing With His Life, Except The American Negro. He Lays Down And Says, 'beat Me, Daddy.'

Muhammad Teaches Us The Knowledge Of Our Own Selves, And Of Our Own People. He Cleans Us Up-morally, Mentally And Spiritually

Always That "if" Was There, Which Meant That The One Who Was Doomed Could Avoid The Doom If He Would Change His Way Of Behaving.

Better Jobs And Housing Are Only Temporary Solutions. They Are Aspects Of Tokenism And Don't Go To The Heart Of The Problem.

You Catch Any White Man Off Guard In Here Right Now, You Catch Him Off Guard And Ask Him What He Is, He Doesn't Say He's An American. He Either Tells You He's Irish, Or He's Italian, Or He's German, If You Catch Him Off Guard And He Doesn't Know What You're Up To. And Even Though He Was Born Here, He'll Tell You He's Italian. Well, If He's Italian, You And I Are African Even Though We Were Born Here.

You Have The Upper Class Negroes Who Are The Modern Day Uncle Toms Or The 20th Century Uncle Toms. They Don't Wear A Handkerchief Anymore. They Wear Top Hats. They're Called Doctor, They're Called - Reverend, But They're Still - They Play The Same Role Today That Uncle Tom Played On The Plantation.

There Seems In Most Countries To Be Either One Extreme Or The Other. Truly A Paradise Could Exist Wherever Material Progress And Spiritual Values Could Be Properly Balanced.

I Am Not An American; I Am One Of Twenty-two Million Black People Who Are Victims Of Americanism.

I Think It's Possible For Me To Approach The Whole Problem With A Broader Scope.when You Look At Something Through An, An Organizational Eye, Whether It's A, A Religious Organization, Political Organization, Or A Civic Organization, If You Look At It Only Through The Eye Of That Organization, You See What The Organization Wants You To See. But You Lose Your Ability To Be Objective.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is Teaching The Black Man, You're A Human Man.all You Have To Do Is Dignify Yourself. You Don't Have To Wait For Any White Man To Recognize You. Recognize Yourself. Love Each Other. Practice Harmony And Brotherhood Among Your Own Kind.

We Black Men Have A Hard Enough Time In Our Own Struggle For Justice, And Already Have Enough Enemies As It Is, To Make The Drastic Mistake Of Attacking Each Other And Adding More Weight To An Already Unbearable Load.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Says That The Black Man In America, For The Past 400 Years, Has Been Like A Boy In The White Man's House, Begging The White Man For A Job, For Food, Clothing And Shelter. And Then After The White Man Provides Him With All Of These Things, He Turns Around And Get - Has The Nerve To Get Angry At The White Man When The White Man Tries To Control His Life.

The Negro Was Taught To Speak The White Man's Tongue, Worship The White God, And Accept The White Man As His Superior.

Nobody Should Teach The Black Man In America To Turn The Other Cheek, Unless Someone Is Teaching The White Man In America To Turn The Other Cheek.

Not A Physical Migration, But A Cultural, Psychological, Philosophical Migration Back To Africa, Which Means The Restoring Our Common Bond Will Give Us The Spiritual Strength And The Incentive To Strengthen Our Political And Social And Economic Position Right Here In America, And To Fight For The Things That Are Ours By Right Here On This Continent.

I Believe In Human Rights For Everyone, And None Of Us Is Qualified To Judge Each Other And That None Of Us Should Therefore Have That Authority.

The 22 Million Or 30 Million, Whatever The Case May Be, Afro-americans In The United States Were Still Africans.

Adam Clayton Powell's Entire Political Career Has To Be Looked At In The Entire Context Of The American History And The History Of, And The Position Of The Afro- American Or Negro In American History. [he] Has Done A Remarkable Job In Fighting For Rights Of Black People In This Country. On The Other Hand, He Probably Hasn't Done As Much As He Could Or As Much As He Should Because He Is The Most Independent Negro Politician In This Country.

A Man Without Any History Is Like A Tree Without Roots

How Can A Negro Say America Is His Nation? He Was Brought Here In Chains; He Was Put In Slavery An Worked Like A Mule For Three Hundred Years; He Was Separated From His Land, His Culture, His God, His Language!

Just Like Pharaoh Couldn't Get A Solution To His Problem Until He Talked To Moses, Or Nebuchadnezzar Or Belshazzar Couldn't Get A Solution To His Problem Until He Talked To Daniel, The White Man In America Today Will Never Understand The Race Problem Or Come Anywhere Near Getting A Solution To The Race Problem Until He Talks To The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

If This Government Can Send 20 Billion Dollars To Latin America To Some Peasants Who Have Never Fought For This Country Or Worked For This Country Or Have - Or - And Is Sending Hundreds Of Millions Of Dollars To Africa And Asia To Try And Buy Friendship Of People Who Will Never Be Friendly Toward Them, Then They Should Be Even More Quick To Spend Some - Whatever Amount Of Money Is Necessary To Get Inside Of Their House Straight, Before It's Too Late.

Only Those Who Have Already Experienced A Revolution Within Themselves Can Reach Out Effectively To Help Others.

Jews Who Have Been Guilty Of Exploiting The Black People In America, Economically, Civically, And Otherwise, Hide Behind - Hide Their Guilt By Accusing The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Of Being Anti-semitic, Simply Because He Teaches Our People To Go Into Business For Ourselves And Take Over The Economic Leadership In Our Own Community.

Nonviolence Is His, Is His Method. Well, My Objective Is The Same As [martin Luther] King's.

A Hundred Years Ago The American White Men Used To Put On A White Sheet And Use A Bloodhound Against Negroes. Today They Have Taken Off The White Sheet And Put On Police Uniforms And Traded In The Bloodhounds For Police Dogs, And They're Still Doing The Same Thing.

I Admire The, The Stand Of China And The Stand Of Mao Tse- Tung, But I Can't Admire With Respect The Stand Of, Of Nehru In India. I Just Can't Do It.

I'm Sorry To Say That The Subject I Most Disliked Was Mathematics. I Have Thought About It. I Think The Reason Was That Mathematics Leaves No Room For Argument. If You Made A Mistake, That Was All There Was To It.

It Is Only After The Deepest Darkness That The Greatest Light Can Come; It Is Only After Extreme Grief That The Greatest Joy Can Come.

I Think There Are Plenty Of Good People In America, But There Are Also Plenty Of Bad People In America And The Bad Ones Are The Ones Who Seem To Have All The Power And Be In These Positions To Block Things That You And I Need.

I Mean A Real Police State Just To Get A Token Recognition Of A Law. It Take, It Took, I Think, 15,000 Troops And 6 Million Dollars To Put One Negro In The University Of Mississippi. That's A Police Action, Police State Action.

I Myself Have Never Been Concerned With Whether We Are Considered Known Or Unknown. It's No Problem Of Ours.

When You Have Your Own Bus, Then You Have Dignity. When You Have Your Own School, You Have Dignity. When You Have Your Own Country, You Have Dignity.when You Have Something Of Your Own, You Have Dignity. But Whenever You Are Begging For A Chance To Participate In That Which Belongs To Someone Else, Or Use That Which Belongs To Someone Else, On An Equal Basis With The Owner, That's Not Dignity. That's Ignorance.

Only In This Form Of Separation The Black Man Is Exploited. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Says That We Should Be Separate, All Right, But In This Separate State Or Separate Existence, The Black Man Should Be Given The Opportunity And The Incentive To Do For Himself What The White Man Has Done For Himself.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Teaches Us To Get Away From The Devil As Soon And As Fast As We Can.

More So Than Any Other City On The African Continent, The People Of Cairo Look Like The American Negroes In The Sense That We Have All Complexions, We Range In America From The Darkest Black To The Lightest Light, And Here In Cairo It Is The Same Thing; Throughout Egypt, It Is The Same Thing. All Of The Complexions Are Blended Together Here In A Truly Harmonious Society.

I For One Believe That If You Give People A Thorough Understanding Of What Confronts Them And The Basic Causes That Produce It, They'll Create Their Own Program, And When The People Create A Program, You Get Action.

Thorough Understanding

Instead Of The Negro Leaders Having The Black Man Begging For A Chance To - To Dine In White Restaurants, The Negro Leader Should Be Showing The Black Man How To Do Something To Strengthen His Own Economy.

When I Said [ I Would Work With Any Organization] I Would Make The, The Reservation That I Would Work With Any Organization As Long As It Didn't Make Us Compromise Our Religious Principles.

The Thing That You Have To Understand About Those Of Us In The Black Muslim Movement Was That All Of Us Believed 100 Percent In The Divinity Of Elijah Muhammad. We Believed In Him. We Actually Believed That God, In Detroit By The Way, That God Had Taught Him And All Of That. I Always Believed That He Believed In Himself. And I Was Shocked When I Found Out That He Himself Didn't Believe It.

When I Was In Prison, I Read An Article - Don't Be Shocked When I Say I Was In Prison. You're Still In Prison. That's What America Means: Prison.

We Didn't Land On Plymouth Rock, Plymouth Rock Landed On Us".

New York White Youth Were Killing Victims; That Was A 'sociological' Problem. But When Black Youth Killed Somebody, The Power Structure Was Looking To Hang Somebody.

Who Taught You To Hate The Color Of Your Skin? Who Taught You To Hate The Texture Of Your Hair? Who Taught You To Hate The Shape Of Your Nose And The Shape Of Your Lips? Who Taught You To Hate Yourself From The Top Of Your Head To The Soles Of Your Feet?

The Black Nation Of Egypt Is The Only Country That Has A Science Named After Its Culture: Egyptology

The Separating Of A Section Of America For Afro- Americans Is Similar To Expecting A Heaven In The Sky Somewhere After You Die.

America Is Such A Paradoxical Society, Hypocritically Paradoxical, That If You Don't Have Some Humor, You'll Crack Up.

I Believe That A Psychological, Cultural, And Philosophical Migration Back To Africa Will Solve Our Problem.

[jf] Kennedy Was A Deceitful Man. He Was A Cold-blooded Politician Whose Purpose Was To Get Elected.

Learn The Language That They Understand, And When They Come Upon Our Doorstep To Talk We Can Talk, And They Will Get The Point. There Will Be A Dialog, There Will Be Some Communication, And I Am Quite Certain That Then There Will Be Some Understanding.

I'm A Field Negro. The Masses Are The Field Negroes. When They See This Man's House On Fire, You Don't Hear These Little Negroes Talking About 'our Government Is In Trouble'. They Say, 'the Government Is In Trouble.'

That's Where Dr. [martin Luther] King Is Mixed Up. His Goals Should Be The Solution Of The Problem Of The Black Man In America.

The Short-range Involves The Long-range. Immediate Steps Have To Be Taken To Reeducate Our People Into The, A More Real View Of Political, Economic, And Social Conditions In This Country, And Our Ability In, In A Self- Improvement Program To Gain Control Politically Over Every Community In Which We Predominate, And Also Over The Economy Of That Same Community As Here In Harlem. Instead Of All The Stores In Harlem Being Owned By White People, They Should Be Owned And Operated By Black People.

So Over You Is The Greatest Enemy A Man Can Have — And That Is Fear. I Know Some Of You Are Afraid To Listen To The Truth — You Have Been Raised On Fear And Lies. But I Am Going To Preach To You The Truth Until You Are Free Of That Fear...

This Is Why Integration Will Not Work. It Assumes That The Two Races, Black And White, Are Equal And Can Be Made To Live As One. This Is Not True.

Black And White

Human Rights Are Something You Were Born With. Human Rights Are Your God-given Rights. Human Rights Are The Rights That Are Recognized By All Nations Of This Earth.

We Don't Go For Segregation. We Go For Separation. Separation Is When You Have Your Own. You Control Your Own Economy; You Control Your Own Politics; You Control Your Own Society; You Control Your Own Everything.

The Junkie Can Never Start To Cure Himself Until He Recognizes His True Condition.

I Think The Only Way One Can Really Determine Whether Extremism In The Defense Of Liberty Is Justified, Is Not To Approach It As An American Or A European Or An African Or An Asian, But As A Human Being. If We Look Upon It As Different Types, Immediately We Begin To Think In Terms Of Extremism Being Good For One And Bad For Another, Or Bad For One And Good For Another. But If We Look Upon It, If We Look Upon Ourselves As Human Beings, I Doubt That Anyone Will Deny That Extremism In Defense Of Liberty, The Liberty Of Any Human Being, Is No Vice.

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