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If You're Born In America With A Black Skin, You're Born In Prison, And The Masses Of Black People In America Today Are Beginning To Regard Our Plight Or Predicament In This Society As One Of A Prison Inmate.

-Malcolm X

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If You're Born In

Malcolm X

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If You're Born In America With A Black Skin, You're Born In Prison, And The Masses Of Black People In America Today Are Beginning To Regard Our Plight Or Predicament In This Society As One Of A Prison Inmate.

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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.

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.

Of All Our Studies, History Is Best Qualified To Reward Our Research. And When You See That You've Got Problems, All You Have To Do Is Examine The Historic Method Used All Over The World By Others Who Have Problems Similar To Yours. And Once You See How They Got Theirs Straight, Then You Know How You Can Get Yours Straight.

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

The Death Of Over 120 White People Is A Very Beautiful Thing.

The Number One Thing That Has To Be Done, [black Men] Has To Be Retaught, Be Given - He Has To Be Reeducated And Made To Know That He's A Man, Like Anyone Else, And Then He Can Stand On His Own Two Feet, Like Others Have Done.

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!

I Am A Muslim And . . . My Religion Makes Me Be Against All Forms Of Racism. It Keeps Me From Judging Any Man By The Color Of His Skin. It Teaches Me To Judge Him By His Deeds And His Conscious Behavior. And It Teaches Me To Be For The Rights Of All Human Beings, But Especially The Afro-american Human Being, Because My Religion Is A Natural Religion, And The First Law Of Nature Is Self-preservation.

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

Asking Questions

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.

If Martin Luther King, Roy Wilkins Or Any Of These Compromising Negros Who Say Exactly What The White Man Wants To Hear Is Interviewed Anywhere In The Country You Don't Get Anybody To Offset What They Say. But Whenever A Black Man Stands Up And Says Something That White People Don't Like Then The First Thing That Man Does Is Run Around To Try And Find Somebody To Say Something To Offset What Has Just Been Said. This Is Natural But It Is Done.

When I Am Dead--i Say It That Way Because From The Things I Know, I Do Not Expect To Live Long Enough To Read This Book In Its Finished Form--i Want You To Just Watch And See If I'm Not Right In What I Say: That The White Man, In His Press, Is Going To Identify Me With "hate". He Will Make Use Of Me Dead, As He Has Made Use Of Me Alive, As A Convenient Symbol, Of "hatred"--and That Will Help Him Escape Facing The Truth That All I Have Been Doing Is Holding Up A Mirror To Reflect, To Show, The History Of Unspeakable Crimes That His Race Has Committed Against My Race.

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.

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.

By Explaining The Difference Between Segregation And Separation. Segregation Is That Which Is Forced Upon An Inferior By A Superior. Separation Is Done Voluntarily By Two Equals. If I Have Children And They Live In My House, I Care For Them, They're Dependent Upon Me. And Their Dependence Upon Me Puts Me In A Position To Regulate Their Lives, Control Their Lives, Tell Them Where To Go, Where They Can't Go. That's A Form Of Segregation.

The American Negro Has Been Entirely Brainwashed From Ever Seeing Or Thinking Of Himself, As He Should, As A Part Of The Non-white Peoples Of The World.

Negroes Don't Even Like Snails! What They're Doing Is Proving They're Integrated.

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.

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.

When The Whites Themselves Are Attacked, They Believe In Defending Themselves And Things Of That Sort.

The Main Part Of The Tree Is The Root, And The Root Is Always Beneath The Ground. It Never Is Brought Out Into The Light.

I Don't Think That Anyone Has Been Really Created More By The White Press Than The Civil Right Leaders.

I Look At The Problem Of The Twenty-two Million Afro-americans As Being A Problem That's So Broad In Scope That It's Almost Impossible For Any Organization To See It In Its Entirety.

Its The Hinge That Squeaks That Gets The Grease

The White Press Itself Created Civil Right Leaders.

There Were Always More Negroes In The Field Than There Was Negroes In The House. The Negro In The Field Caught Hell. He Ate Leftovers. In The House They Ate High Up On The Hog. The Negro In The Field Didn't Get Nothing But What Was Left Of The Insides Of The Hog. They Call 'em "chitt'lin'" Nowadays. In Those Days They Called Them What They Were: Guts. That's What You Were -- A Gut-eater. And Some Of You All Still Gut-eaters.

I Might Say This, That The Problem Of The, The Solution For The Afro-american Is Two-fold - Long-range And Short-range.

Culture Is An Indispensable Weapon In The Freedom Struggle.

... The Young People Are The Ones Who Most Quickly Identify With The Struggle And The Necessity To Eliminate The Evil Conditions That Exist.

Moses Tried To Separate His People From Pharaoh, And When He Tried, The Magicians Tried To Fool The People Into Staying With The Pharaoh, And We Look Upon These Other Organizations That Are Trying To Get Negroes To Integrate With This Doomed White Man As Nothing But Modern-day Magicians, And The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Is A Modern-day Moses Trying To Separate Us From The Modern-day Pharaoh.

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.

A New World Order Is In The Making, And It Is Up To Us To Prepare Ourselves That We May Take Our Rightful Place In It.

White Individuals That Have Been Going To Jail. Segregation Still Exists; Discrimination Still Exists. A Few Isolated White People Whose Individual Acts Are Designed To Eliminate This, That Or, Or The Next Thing But, Yet, It Is Never Eliminated Is In No Way Impressive To Me.

The Prison Systems In This Country Actually Are Exploitative And They Are Not In Any Way Rehabilitative.

The Black Man In America's Position Is Parallel With That Of The Jews, Especially When The Jews Were In Bondage Under Pharaoh. And At No Time Did Moses In The Bible Ever Try And Integrate The Hebrews Into The Egyptian Society Or Accept Any Hypocritical Offers Made By The Slave Master Of That Day.

Racism Is A Human Problem And A Crime That Is Absolutely So Ghastly That A Person Who Is Fighting Racism Is Well Within His Rights To Fight Against It By Any Means Necessary Until It Is Eliminated.

I Think, Again, That That Does The Whole Problem A, A Disservice. It's Not A Case Of Our Wanting To Mix Socially With Whites. And When You - And The Whites Are Right In The South When They Say That Getting A Cup Of Coffee In A Restaurant Is Not Going To Solve - Is All Right.

...the Collective White Man Had Acted Like A Devil In Virtually Every Contact He Had With The World's Collective Non-white Man.

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.

Just Because A Cat Has Kittens In The Oven, That Doesn't Make Them Biscuits.

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

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'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.

Either You Are A Citizen Or You Are Not A Citizen At All. If You Are Citizen, You Are Free; If Youre Not A Citizen You Are A Slave.

Can You Accuse Me, If A Man Is Putting A Rope Around My Neck, Of Being Violent, When I Violently Struggle Against This Lyncher To Try And Keep Him From Putting A Rope Around My Innocent Neck? Why, You'd Be Insane To Cause Me - To Call Me Violent.

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

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.

I Will Be Happy To Give My Life To See Some Of These White Devils Die.

The Black People Of America Have Been Victims Of Violence At The Hands Of The White Men For Four Hundred Years, And Following The Ignorant Negro Preachers, We Have Thought That It Was Godlike To Turn The Other Cheek To The Brute That Was Brutalizing Us.

The Problem Of The Negro Is So Criminal That Many Individuals And Organizations Are Going To Have To Sacrifice What They Call Their Organizational Principles If Someone Comes Up With A Solution That Will Really Solve The Problem.

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

I Was An Atheist, I Was Open-minded, And I Began To Read In That Direction, In The Direction Of Islam, And Everything That I Read About It Appealed To Me.

Time Is On The Side Of The Oppressed Today, It's Against The Oppressor. Truth Is On The Side Of The Oppressed Today, It's Against The Oppressor. You Don't Need Anything Else.

To Me, The Thing That Is Worse Than Death Is Betrayal. You See, I Could Conceive Death, But I Could Not Conceive Betrayal.

I Asked Inmate In New York, Warden Fay At That Time If, If It Didn't Make A Better Inmate Out Of The Negroes Who Accepted It And He Said, "yes." So I Asked Him Then What Was It About It That He Considered To Be So Danger, And He, Dangerous, And He Pointed Out That It Was The Cohesiveness That It Produced Among The Inmates. They Stuck Together.

What You Did To One, You Did To All. So They Couldn't Have That Type Of Religion Being Taught In The Prison.

Ralph Bunche, Who Is An Internationally Recognized And Respected Diplomat, Can't Stay In A Hotel In Georgia, Which Means That No Matter What The Accomplishment, The Intellectual, The Academic, Or Professional Level Of A Negro Is, Collectively He Stands Condemned.

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.

How Could There Be Any Difference Between The Messenger And Me? I Am His Slave, His Servant, His Son. He Is The Leader, The Only Spokesman For The Black Muslims.

The White Man Knows What A Revolution Is. He Knows That The Black Revolution Is Worldwide In Scope And In Nature. The Black Revolution Is Sweeping Asia, Is Sweeping Africa, Is Rearing Its Head In Latin America. The Cuban Revolution - That's A Revolution. They Overturned The System. Revolution Is In Asia, Revolution Is In Africa, And The White Man Is Screaming Because He Sees Revolution In Latin America. How Do You Think He'll React To You When You Learn What A Real Revolution Is?

There Were Tens Of Thousands Of Pilgrims, From All Over The World. They Were Of All Colors, From Blue-eyed Blonds To Black-skinned Africans. But We Were All Participating In The Same Ritual, Displaying A Spirit Of Unity And Brotherhood That My Experiences In America Had Led Me To Believe Never Could Exist Between The White And Non-white.

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

The Media's The Most Powerful Entity On Earth. They Have The Power To Make The Innocent Guilty And To Make The Guilty Innocent, And That's Power. Because They Control The Minds Of The Masses.

We Must Control The Politics And The Politicians Of Our Community. They Must No Longer Take Orders From Outside Forces. We Will Organize, And Sweep Out Of Office All Negro Politicians Who Are Puppets For The Outside Forces.

Solve The Race Problem Here, And Once You Solve The Race Problem Here, You Don't Have To Send These Billions Of Dollars Abroad.

Revolution Is Always Based On Land. Revolution Is Never Based On Begging Somebody For An Integrated Cup Of Coffee.

[at A Young Age] I Had Learned Enough About Women To Know Not To Pressure Them When They're Thinking Something Out; They'll Tell You When They're Ready.

Even As A Muslim Minister In The Muslim Movement, I Have Always Said That I Would Work With Any Organization.

Here I Am, Back In Mecca. I Am Still Traveling, Trying To Broaden My Mind, For I've Seen Too Much Of The Damage Narrow-mindedness Can Make Of Things, And When I Return Home To America, I Will Devote What Energies I Have To Repairing The Damage.

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 You Have To Pass A Law To Make A Man Let Me Have A House, Or You Have To Pass A Law To Make A Man Let Me Go To School, Or You Have To Pass A Law To Make A Man Let Me Walk Down The Street, You Have To Enforce That Law And You'd Have To Be Living Actually In A Police State. It Would Take A Police State In This Country.

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.

Power Never Takes A Back Step Only In The Face Of More Power.

I Think That The Best Thing That A Person Can Be Is Sincere.

The American Negro Never Can Be Blamed For His Racial Animosities - He Is Only Reacting To Four Hundred Years Of The Conscious Racism Of The American Whites.

Our People Have Made The Mistake Of Confusing The Methods With The Objectives. As Long As We Agree On Objectives, We Should Never Fall Out With Each Other Just Because We Believe In Different Methods, Or Tactics, Or Strategy. We Have To Keep In Mind At All Times That We Are Not Fighting For Separation. We Are Fighting For Recognition As Free Humans In This Society.

Anytime You Find Someone More Successful Than You Are, Especially When You're Both Engaged In The Same Business - You Know They're Doing Something That You Aren't.

I'm With An Old Family" Was The Euphemism Used To Dignify The Professions Of White Folks' Cooks And Maids Who Talked So Affectedly Among Their Own Kind In Roxbury [massachusetts] That You Couldn't Even Understand Them.

If You're Not Ready To Die For It, Put The Word 'freedom' Out Of Your Vocabulary.

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.

I've Never Seen A Sincere White Man, Not When It Comes To Helping Black People. Usually Things Like This Are Done By White People To Benefit Themselves. The White Man's Primary Interest Is Not To Elevate The Thinking Of Black People, Or To Waken Black People, Or White People Either. The White Man Is Interested In The Black Man Only To The Extent That The Black Man Is Of Use To Him. The White Man's Interest Is To Make Money, To Exploit.

I Admire A Man Who Fights A Battle Against Opposition, And If There Wasn't Something About [reverend] Galamison That The People, I Notice That The Power Structure Is Against Galamison.

If The Various Groups In America Had Been Less Selfish And Had Permitted Different Representatives From The Groups To Travel Into Foreign Countries, And Broaden Their Own Scope, And Come Back And Educate The Movements They Represented, Not Only Would This Have Made The Groups To Which They Belonged More Enlightened And More Worldly In The International Sense, But It Also Would Have Given The Independent African States Abroad A Better Understanding Of The Groups In The United States, And What They Stand For, What They Represent.

If You Stick A Knife Nine Inches Into My Back And Pull It Out Three Inches, That Is Not Progress.

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

This Religion (islam) Recognizes All Men As Brothers. It Accepts All Human Beings As Equals Before God, And As Equal Members In The Human Family Of Mankind.

By Any Means Necessary.

Learn To See, Listen, And Think For Yourself.

Think For Yourself

I Remember One Thing That Marred This Time For Me; The Movie "gone With The Wind." When It Played In Mason [mi], I Was The Only Negro In The Theater, And When Butterfly Mcqueen Went Into Her Act, I Felt Like Crawling Under The Rug.

Martin Luther King Has Made The Negro In America Unnatural.

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.

In America You Have The Mouse Now Trying To Sit Down On The Elephant, Thinking That He's Going Somewhere. And It's - And It's Absurd.

Our Success In America Will Involve Two Circles: Black Nationalism And Islam–it Will Take Bn [black Nationalism] To Make Our People Conscious Of Doing For Self & Then Islam Will Provide The Spiritual Guidance. Bn [black Nationalism] Will Link Us To Africa And Islam Will Link Us Spiritually To Africa, Arabia & Asia.

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.

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.

They're Not Leading Our People Toward Any Kind Of Independence, But They're Using Their Positions And Their Education And Their Talent To Exploit Our People Worse Than The Slave Master Did During Slavery.

When The People Who Are In Power Want To Use Again, Create An Image, To Justify Something That's Bad, They Use The Press. And They'll Use The Press To Create A Humanitarian Image, For A Devil, Or A Devil Image For A Humanitarian. They'll Take A Person Who's A Victim Of The Crime, And Make It Appear He's The Criminal, And They'll Take The Criminal And Make It Appear That He's The Victim Of The Crime.

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.

White People Whom I Have Met, Who Have Accepted Islam, They Don't Regard Themselves As White But As Human Beings.

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.

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

If The Black Man Is Allowed To Separate And Go Into Some Land Of His Own Where He Can Solve His Own Problems, There Won't Be Any Explosion, And The Negroes Who Want To Stay With The White Man, Let Them Stay With The White Man - But Those Who Want To Leave, Let Them Go To The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Don't Be In A Hurry To Condemn Because He Doesn't Do What You Do Or Think As You Think Or As Fast. There Was A Time When You Didn't Know What You Know Today.

I Am Not A Republican, Nor A Democrat, Nor An American, And Got Sense Enough To Know It. I Am One Of The 22 Million Black Victims Of The Democrats, And One Of The 22 Million Black Victims Of The Republicans, And One Of The 22 Million Black Victims Of Americanism... You And I Have Never Seen Democracy; All We've Seen Is Hypocracy... If You Go To Jail, So What? If You're Black, You Were Born In Jail. If You're Black, You Were Born In Jail, In The North As Well As The South. Stop Talking About The South. Long As You South Of The Canadian Border, You're South.

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

You're Not Supposed To Be So Blind With Patriotism That You Can't Face Reality. Wrong Is Wrong, No Matter Who Says It.

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.

These Negroes Who Go For Integration And Intermarriage Are Linking Up With The Very People Who Lynched Their Fathers, Raped Their Mothers, And Put Their Kid Sisters In The Kitchen To Scrub Floors.

One Of The Main Things That I Read About It That Appealed To Me Was In Islam A Man Is Honored As A Human Being And Not Measured By The Color Of His Skin.

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

First, What Is A Revolution? Sometimes I'm Inclined To Believe That Many Of Our People Are Using This Word "revolution" Loosely, Without Taking Careful Consideration [of] What This Word Actually Means, And What Its Historic Characteristics Are. When You Study The Historic Nature Of Revolutions, The Motive Of A Revolution, The Objective Of A Revolution, And The Result Of A Revolution, And The Methods Used In A Revolution, You May Change Words. You May Devise Another Program. You May Change Your Goal And You May Change Your Mind.

I Might Add, The Whites Who Came Here Only Say 50 Years Ago As Immigrants Have Come Into This Country, They Have Set Up Businesses. They've Developed These Businesses Into An Industry.

What You And I Need To Do Is Learn To Forget Our Differences. When We Come Together, We Don't Come Together As Baptists Or Methodists. You Don't Catch Hell 'cause You're A Baptist, And You Don't Catch Hell 'cause You're A Methodist... You Don't Catch Hell Because You're A Democrat Or A Republican. You Don't Catch Hell Because You're A Mason Or An Elk. And You Sure Don't Catch Hell 'cause You're An American; 'cause If You Was An American, You Wouldn't Catch No Hell. You Catch Hell 'cause You're A Black Man. You Catch Hell, All Of Us Catch Hell, For The Same Reason.

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.

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.

Because The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Makes Black People Brave Enough, Men Enough To Defend Ourselves No Matter What The Odds Are, The White Man Runs Around Here With A Doctrine That Mr. Muhammad Is Advocating The Violence When He Is Actually Telling Negroes To Defend Themselves Against Violent People.

Any Time The Negro Becomes Involved In Mature Political Action, Then The Resistance Of The Politicians Who Benefit From The Exploited Political System As It Now Stands Will Be Forced To Put, Exercise More Violent Action To Deprive The Negro Of His Mature Political Action.

Each Of Us Should Make The Most Of Our Lives. We Should Give Life Our Best-let Us Use Our Lives More Wisely To Chase Our Dreams, Find Our True Purpose, And Be As Happy And Successful As Possible.

Education Is The Passport To The Future, For Tomorrow Belongs To Those Who Prepare For It Today.

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.

If You Stick A Knife Nine Inches Into My Back And Pull It Out Three Inches, That Is Not Progress. Even If You Pull It All The Way Out, That Is Not Progress. Progress Is Healing The Wound, And America Hasn't Even Begun To Pull Out The Knife.

There Has To Be Something Wrong When A Man Or A Woman Leaves His Own People And Marries Somebody Of Another Kind.

No, I’m Not An American. I’m One Of The 22 Million Black People Who Are The Victims Of Americanism. One Of The … Victims Of Democracy, Nothing But Disguised Hypocrisy. So, I’m Not Standing Here Speaking To You As An American, Or A Patriot, Or A Flag-saluter, Or A Flag-waver - No, Not I. I’m Speaking As A Victim Of This American System. And I See America Through The Eyes Of The Victim. I Don’t See Any American Dream; I See An American Nightmare.

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

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.

We're All In The Same Boat And We All Are Going To Catch The Same Hell From The Same Man.

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.

The Other Slaves In The Field Never Let That House Slave Knew - Know What They Were Really Thinking. If The House Slave Said, Well One Of These Days All Of Us Will Live In The Plantation, They Said, Uh Huh. They Went Along With Him. But If You Came Up To Them And Said, Let's Go, They Would Be Gone Just Like That.and In, In America You Have The Same Situation.you Have The Vast Masses Who Are Still Slaves.

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.

I Believe That It Would Be Almost Impossible To Find Anywhere In America A Black Man Who Has Lived Further Down In The Mud Of Human Society Than I Have; Or A Black Man Who Has Been Any More Ignorant Than I Have; Or A Black Man Who Has Suffered More Anguish During His Life Than I Have. But It Is Only After The Deepest Darkness That The Greatest Joy Can Come; It Is Only After Slavery And Prison That The Sweetest Appreciation Of Freedom Can Come.

Stumbling Isn't Falling.

No Religion Will Ever Make Me Forget The Condition Of Our People In This Country...no God, No Religion, No Nothing Will Make Me Forget It Until It Stops, Until It's Elimitnated. I Want To Make That Point Clear.

Foreign Diplomats Could Have Modeled Their Conduct On The Way The Negro Postmen, Pullman Porters, And Dining Car Waiters Of Roxbury [massachusetts] Acted, Striding Around As If They Were Wearing Top Hats And Cutaways.

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.

In My Opinion, Mature Political Action Is The Type Of Action That That Involves A Program Of Re-education And Information That Will Enable The Black People In The Black Community To See The Fruits That They Should Be Receiving From The Politicians Who Are Over Them And, Thereby, They Are Then Able To Determine Whether Or Not The Politician Is Really Fulfilling His Function.

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

Congratulations

Today's Uncle Tom Doesn't Wear A Handkerchief On His Head. This Modern, Twentieth-century Uncle Thomas Now Often Wears A Top Hat. He's Usually Well-dressed And Well-educated. He's Often The Personification Of Culture And Refinement. The Twentieth-century Uncle Thomas Sometimes Speaks With A Yale Or Harvard Accent. Sometimes He Is Known As Professor, Doctor, Judge, And Reverend, Even Right Reverend Doctor. This Twentieth-century Uncle Thomas Is A Professional Negro -by That I Mean His Profession Is Being A Negro For The White Man.

You Don't Disarm Any White Community By Confining Yourself To Any Particular Method. If You Want Freedom, Then You Should Get Freedom Like Patrick Henry Said, By Whatever Method Is Necessary.

My Alma Mater Was Books, A Good Library... I Could Spend The Rest Of My Life Reading, Just Satisfying My Curiosity.

Most Of Those Negroes Have Been Given Those Jobs By The White Political Machine, And They Serve No Other Function Other Than To, As Window Dressing.

No President Ever Had More Power Than [franklin Delano] Roosevelt.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt

Since The White People Collectively Have Practiced The Worst Form Of Hatred Against Negroes In America And They Know That They Are Guilty Of It, Now When The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Comes Along And Begins To List The Historic Deed - The Historic Attitude, The Historic Behavior Of The White Man In This Country Toward The Black People In This Country, Again, The White People Are So Guilty And They Can't Stop Doing These Things To Make Mr. Muhammad Appear To Be Wrong, So They Hide Their Wrong By Saying "he Is Teaching Hatred."

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

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

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

I Don't Care How Nice One Is To You, The Thing You Must Always Remember Is That Almost Never Does He Really See You As He Sees Himself, As He Sees His Own Kind.

Betty's A Good Muslim Woman And Wife. I Don't Imagine Many Other Women Might Put Up With The Way I Am. Awakening This Brainwashed Black Man And Telling This Arrogant, Devilish White Man The Truth About Himself, Betty Understands, Is A Full-time Job

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.'

Here You Have 22 Million Afro-americans, Black People Today, Catching More Hell Than Patrick Henry Ever Saw. And I'm Here To Tell You, In Case You Don't Know It, That You Got A New - You Got A New Generation Of Black People In This Country, Who Don't Care Anything Whatsoever About Odds. They Don't Want To Hear You Old Uncle Tom Handkerchief Heads Talking About The Odds.

Now The White Man's Time Is Over. Tokenism Will Not Help Him, And It Will Doom Us. Complete Separation Will Save Us - And Who Knows, It Might Make God Decide To Give The White Devil A Few More Years.

I Looked On The Television The Other Night And Saw Them Beating A Negro Unmercifully In Mississippi. And This Is The Result Of A Brainwashing Technique, A Certain Power Structure In The American Government Has Paid These Negro Integrationist Leaders To Perpetuate Among Our People. But It's Not A Good Thing, And It Will Never Solve Our Problem.

We Assert That In Those Areas Where The Government Is Either Unable Or Unwilling To Protect The Lives And Property Of Our People, That Our Peopie Are Within Our Rights To Protect Themselves By Whatever Means Necessary.

If You Don't Stand For Something You Will Fall For Anything.

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

No, We Are Not Anti-white. But We Don't Have Time For The White Man. The White Man Is On Top Already, The White Man Is The Boss Already ... He Has First-class Citizenship Already. So You Are Wasting Your Time Talking To The White Man. We Are Working On Our Own People.

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.

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.

It Is Not A Case Of Our People...wanting Either Separation Or Integration. The Use Of These Words Actually Clouds The Real Picture. The 22 Million Afro-americans Don't Seek Either Separation Or Integration. They Seek Recognition And Respect As Human Beings.

A Man Without Any History Is Like A Tree Without Roots

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

Every Morning When I Wake Up, Now, I Regard It As Having Another Borrowed Day.

I Was With Essien Udom In Nigeria.

The Same Thing That Uncle Tom Did On The Plantation Before [abe] Lincoln Issued The So-called Emancipation Proclamation.i Have No Thinking On The Matter. But He's Teaching The Black People To Suffer Peacefully, Patiently, Until The White Man Makes Up His Mind That You're A Human Being The Same As He.

We Believe In One God. We Believe Muhammad Is The Apostle Of God.

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.

One Day, May We All Meet Together In The Light Of Understanding.

The Zionist Argument To Justify Israel's Present Occupation Of Arab Palestine Has No Intelligent Or Legal Basis In History.

America Is Subsidizing What Is Left Of The Prestige And Strength Of The Once Mighty Britain. The Sun Has Set Forever On That Monocled, Pith-helmeted Resident Colonialist, Sipping Tea With His Delicate Lady In The Non-white Colonies Being Systematically Robbed Of Every Valuable Resource. Britain's Superfluous Royalty And Nobility Now Exist By Charging Tourists To Inspect The Once Baronial Castles, And By Selling Memoirs, Perfumes, Autographs, Titles, And Even Themselves.

The Greatest Miracle Christianity Has Achieved In America Is That The Black Man In White Christian Hands Has Not Grown Violent. It Is A Miracle That Twenty-two Million Black People Have Not Risen Up Against Their Oppressors In Which They Would Have Been Justified By All Moral Criteria And Even By The Democratic Traditions.

I Don't Believe In Any Form Of Unjustified Extremism! But When A Man Is Exercising Extremism -- A Human Being Is Exercising Extremism -- In Defense Of Liberty For Human Beings It's No Vice, And When One Is Moderate In The Pursuit Of Justice For Human Beings I Say He Is A Sinner.

In Order For A Man To Really Understand Himself He Must Be Part Of A Nation; He Must Have Some Land Of His Own, A God Of His Own, A Language Of His Own. Most Of All He Must Have Love And Devotion For His Own Kind.

They Tell Us We Are All Citizens, That We Were Born In This Country. Well, A Cat Can Have Kittens In The Oven, But That Doesn't Make Them Biscuits!

I Am And Always Will Be A Muslim. My Religion Is Islam.

If You Have A Dog, I Must Have A Dog. If You Have A Rifle, I Must Have A Rifle. If You Have A Club, I Must Have A Club. This Is Equality.

If The Ballot Doesn't Work, We'll Try Something Else. But Let Us Try The Ballot.

We Have To Keep In Mind At All Times That We Are Not Fighting For Integration, Nor Are We Fighting For Separation. We Are Fighting For Recognition As Free Humans In This Society.

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.

You Spend So Much Time Barking Up The Civil-rights Tree, You Don't Even Know There's A Human-rights Tree On The Same Floor.

You Can't Separate Peace From Freedom Because No One Can Be At Peace Unless He Has His Freedom.

The Economic Philosophy Of Black Nationalism Only Means That Our People Need To Be Re-educated Into The Importance Of Controlling The Economy Of The Community In Which We Live, Which Means That We Won't Have To Constantly Be Involved In Picketing And Boycotting Other People In Other Communities In Order To Get Jobs.

To Me, Political Action Involves Making The Politician Who Represents Us Know That He Either Produces Or He Is Out, And He's Out One Way Or Another.

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

I Don't Even Call It Violence When It's In Self Defense; I Call It Intelligence.

I Go For Mao Tse-tung Much More Than, Than Nehru Because I Think That Nehru Brought His Country Up In A Beggar's Role.

I Could See From This, That Perhaps If White Americans Could Accept The Oneness Of God, Then Perhaps, Too, They Could Accept In Reality The Oneness Of Man - And Cease To Measure, And Hinder, And Harm Others In Terms Of Their "differences" In Color.

The Black People In This Country Are Taught That Their Religion And The Best Religion Is The Religion Of Islam, And When One Accepts The Religion Of Islam, He's Known As A Muslim.

Religion Of Islam

All Of The Civil Rights Problems During The Past Years Have Created A Situation Where America Right Now Is Moving Toward A Police State. You Can't Have Anything Otherwise. So That's Your Supposition.

The Price Of Freedom Is Death.

Price Of Freedom

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.

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 I Did See A White Man Who Was Willing To Go To Jail Or Throw Himself In Front Of A Car In Behalf Of The So-called "negro Cause," The Test That I'd Put To Him, I'd Ask Him, "do You Think Negro, When Negroes Are Being Attacked They Should Defend Themselves Even At The Risk Of Having To Kill The One Who's Attacking Them?" If That White Man Told Me, "yes," I'd Shake His Hand.

Liberty Or Death Was What Brought About The Freedom Of Whites In This Country From The English.

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

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.

The Honorable Elijah Muhammad Says That The Way To Solve This Problem Is For The White Man To Give Us Some Territory Of Our Own. And Then Our People - We Have Technical Know-how, We Have Agricultural Know-how. We Have Been Working For The White Man In His Business. In Every Phase Of His Government We Work.

Who Taught You To Hate Yourself?

Hating Yourself

It Is The Attitude Of The American White Man That Is Making Him Stand Condemned Today Before The Eyes Of The Entire Dark World And Even Before The Eyes Of The Europeans. It Is His Attitude, His Haughty, Holier-than-thou Attitude.

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.

I Am A Muslim And . . . My Religion Makes Me Be Against All Forms Of Racism. It Keeps Me From Judging Any Man By The Color Of His Skin. It Teaches Me To Judge Him By His Deeds .

The Government Has Departments To Deal With The Special Interest Groups That Make Themselves Heard And Felt. A Department Of Agriculture Cares For The Farmers' Needs. There Is A Department Of Health, Education And Welfare. There Is A Department Of The Interior - In Which The Indians Are Included. Is The Farmer, The Doctor, The Indian, The Greatest Problem In America Today? No - It Is The Black Man! There Ought To Be A Pentagon-sized Washington Department Dealing With Every Segment Of The Black Man's Problems.

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