
From: The Black Revolution from the End Of White World Supremacy:
Four Speeches By Malcom X edited by Imam Benjamin Karin.
The Black Revolution
MalcomX
Dr. Powell, distinguished guests, brothers and sisters, friends, and even our enemies.
As a follower and minister of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, who is the Messenger of Allah
to the American so-called Negro, I am very happy to accept Dr. Powell's i nvitation to be
here this evening at the Abyssinian Baptist Church and to express or at least to try to
represent The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's views on this most timely topic, the black
revolution.
First, however, there are some questions we have to put to you. Since the black masses
here in America are now in open revolt against the American system of segregation, will
these same black masses turn toward integration or will they turn toward com plete
separation? Will these awakened black masses demand integration into the white society
that enslaved them or will they demand complete separation from that cruel white society
that has enslaved them? Will the exploited and oppressed black masses seek integration
with their white exploiters and white oppressors or will these awakened black masses truly
revolt and separate themselves completely from this wicked race that has enslaved us?
These are just some quick questions that I think will provoke some thoughts in your
minds and my mind. How can the so-called Negroes who call themselves enlightened leaders
expect the poor black sheep to integrate into a society of bloodthirsty white wolves,
white wolves who have already been sucking on our blood for over four hundred years here
in America? Or will these black sheep also revolt against the "false shepherd,"
the handpicked Uncle tom Negro leader, and seek complete separation so that w e can escape
from the den of the wolves rather than be integrated with wolves in this wolves' den? And
since we are in church and most of us here profess to believe in God, there is another
question: When the "good shepherd" comes will he integrate his long-lost sheep
with white wolves? According to the Bible when God comes he won't even let his sheep
integrate with goats. And if his sheep can't be safely integrated with goats they
certainly aren't safe integrated with wolves. The Honorable Elijah Mu hammad teaches us
that no people on earth fit the Bible's symbolic picture about the Lost Sheep more so than
America's twenty million so-called Negroes and there has never in history been a more
vicious and blood-thirsty wolf than the American white man. He teaches us that for four
hundred years America has been nothing but a wolves den for twenty million so-called
Negroes, twenty million second-class citizens, and this black revolution that is
developing against the white wolf today is developing becaus e The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad, a godsent shepherd, has opened the eyes of our people. And the black masses can
now see that we have all been here in this white doghouse long, too long. The black masses
don't want segregation nor de we want integration . What we want is complete separation.
In short, we don't want to be integrated with the white man, we want to be separated from
the white man. And now our religious leader and teacher, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad,
teaches us that this is the only in telligent and lasting solution to the present race
problem. In order to fully understand why the Muslim followers of The Honorable Elijah
Muhammad actually reject hypocritical promises of integration lit must first be understood
by every one that we are a religious group, and as a religious group we can in no way be
equated or compared to the nonreligious civil rights groups. We are Muslims because we
believe in Allah. We are Muslims because we practice the religion of Islam. The Honorable
Elijah Muh ammad teaches us that there is but on God, the creator and sustainer of the
entire universe, the all-wise, all-powerful Supreme Being. The great God whose proper name
is Allah. The Honorable Elijah Muhammad also teaches us that Islam is an Arabic word t hat
means "complete submission to the will of allah or obedience to the God of truth, God
of peace, the God of righteousness, the God whose proper name is Allah." And he
teaches us that the word Muslim is used to describe on who submits to God, one who obeys
God. In other words a Muslim is one who strives to live a life of righteousness. You may
ask what does the religion of Islam have to do with American so-called Negro's changing
attitude toward himself, toward the white man, toward segregation, tow ard integration,
and toward separation, and what part will this religion of Islam play in the current black
revolution that is sweeping the American continent today? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
teaches us that Islam is the religion of naked truth, undre ssed truth, truth that is not
dressed up, and he says that truth is the only thing that will truly set our people free.
Truth will open our eyes and enable us to see the white wolf as he really is. Truth will
stand us on our own feet. Truth will make u s walk for ourselves instead of leaning on
others who mean our people no good. Truth not only shows us who our real enemy is, truth
also gives us the strength and the know-how to separate ourselves from that enemy. Only a
blind man will walk into the op en embrace of his enemy, and only a blind people, a people
who are blind to the truth about their enemies, will seek to embrace or integrate with
that enemy. Why, Jesus himself prophesied. You shall know the truth and it shall make you
free. Beloved br others and sisters, Jesus never said that Abraham Lincoln would make us
free. He never said that the Congress would make us free. He never said that the Senate or
Supreme Court or John Kennedy would make us free. Jesus two thousand years ago looked dow
n the wheel of time and saw your and my plight here today and he knew the tricky high
court, Supreme Court, desegregation decisions would only lull you into a deeper sleep, and
the tricky promises of the hypocritical politicians on civil rights legislatio n would
only be designed to advance you and me from ancient slavery to modern slavery. But Jesus
did prophesy that when Elijah comes in the spirit and power of truth he said that Elijah
would teach you the truth. Elijah would guide you with truth and El ijah would protect you
with truth and make you free indeed. And brothers and sister, that Elijah, the one whom
Jesus has said was to come, has come and is in America today in the person of The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
This Elijah, the one whom they said was to come and who has come, teaches those of who
are Muslims that our white slave masters have always known the truth and they have always
known that truth alone would set us free. Therefore this same American whi te man kept the
truth hidden from our people. He kept us in the darkness of ignorance. He made us
spiritually blind by depriving us of the light of truth. During the four hundred years
that we have spent confined to the darkness of ignorance here in th is land of bondage,
our American enslavers have given us an overdose of their own white-controlled Christian
religion, but have kept all other religions hidden from us, especially the religion of
islam. And for this reason, Almighty God Allah, the God of our forefathers, has raised The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad from the midst of our downtrodden people here in America. And
this same God has missioned The Honorable Elijah Muhammad to spread the naked truth to
America's twenty million so-called Negroes, and the truth alone will make you and me free.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that there is but one God whose proper name
is Allah, and one religion, the religion of Islam, and that this one God will not rest
until he has used his religion to establish one world-a universal, one-world bro therhood.
But in order to set up his righteous world God must first bring down this wicked white
world. The black revolution against the injustices of the white world is all part of God's
divine plan. God must destroy the world of slavery and evil in o rder to establish a world
based upon freedom, justice, and equality. The followers of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
religiously believe that we are living at the end of this wicked world, the world of
colonialism, the world of slavery, the end of the Western world, the white world or the
Christian world, or the end of the wicked white man's Western world of Christianity.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the symbolic stories in all religious
scriptures paint a prophetic picture of today. He says that the Egyptian House of Bondage
was only a prophetic picture of America. Mighty Babylon was only a prophetic picture of
America. the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah painted only a prophetic picture of
America. No one here in this church tonight can deny that America is the mightiest
government on earth today, the mightiest, the richest, and the wickedest. And no one in
this church tonight dare deny that America's wealth and power stemmed form 310 years of
slave labor contributed from the American so-called Negro.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that these same so-called American Negroes
are God's long-lost people who are symbolically described in the Bible as the Lost Sheep
or the Lost Tribe of Israel. We who are Muslims believe in God, we believe in his
scriptures, we believe in prophecy. Nowhere in the scriptures did god ever integrate his
enslaved people with their slave masters. God always separates his oppressed people form
their oppressor and then destroys the oppressor. God has never deviated from his divine
pattern in the past and The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that God will not deviate from
that divine pattern today. Just as God destroyed the enslavers in the past, God is going
to destroy this wicked white enslaver of our people here in America.
God wants us to separate ourselves from this wicked white race here in AMerica because
this American House of Bondage is number one on God's list for divine destruction today. I
repeat: This American House of Bondage is number one on God's list for di vine destruction
today. He warns us to remember Noah never taught integration, Noah taught separation;
Moses never taught integration, Moses taught separation. The innocent must always be given
a chance to separate themselves form the guilty before the g uilty are executed. No one is
more innocent that the poor, blind American so-called Negro who has been led astray by
blind Negro leaders, and no one on earth is more guilty that the blue-eyed white man who
has used his control and influence over the Negro leader to lead the rest of our people
astray.
Beloved brothers and sisters here, a beautiful here at the Abyssinian Baptist Church
in Harlem, because of America's evil deeds against the so-called Negroes, like Egypt and
Babylon before her, America herself now stands before the bar of justice. Ame rica herself
is now facing her day of judgement, and she can't escape because God Himself is the judge.
If America can't atone for the crimes she has committed against the twenty million
so-called Negroes, if she can't undo the evils that she has brutall y and mercilessly
heaped upon our people these past four hundred years, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says
that America has signed her own doom. And you, our people, would be foolish to accept her
deceitful offers of integration at this late date into her doomed society.
Can America escape? Can America atone? And if so how can she atone for these crimes?
In my conclusion I must point out that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says a desegregated
theater, a desegregated lunch counter won't solve our problem. Better jobs w on't even
solve our problems. An integrated cup of coffee isn't sufficient pay for four hundred
years of slave labor. He also says that a better job, a better job in the white man's
factory, or a better job in the white man's business, or a better job i n the white man's
industry or economy is, at best, only a temporary solution. He says that they only lasting
and permanent solution is complete separation on some land that we can call our own.
Therefore, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that this pro blem can be solved and solved
forever just by sending our people back to our own homeland or back to our own people, but
that this government should provide the transportation plus everything else we need to get
started again in our own country. This gov ernment should give us everything we need in
the form of machinery, material, and finance-enough to last for twenty to twenty-five
years until we can become an independent people and an independent nation in our own land.
He says that if the American gov ernment is afraid to send us back to our own country and
to our own people, then America should set aside some separated territory right here in
the Western hemisphere where the two races can live apart from each other, since we
certainly don't get along peacefully while we are together.
The Honorable Elijah Muhammad says that the size of the territory can be judged
according to our population. If a seventh of the population of this country is black, then
give us a seventh of the territory, a seventh part of the county. And that is n ot asking
too much because we already worked for the man for four hundred years.
He says it must not be in the desert, but where there is plenty of rain and much
mineral wealth. We want fertile, productive land on which we can farm and provide our own
people with food, clothing, and shelter. He says that this government should su pply us on
that territory with the machinery and other tools needed to dig into the earth. Give us
everything we need for twenty to twenty-five years until we can produce and supply our own
needs.
And in my conclusion I repeat: We want no part of integration with this wicked race of
devils. But he also says we should not be expected to leave America empty-handed. After
four hundred years of slave labor, we have some back pay coming. A bill t hat is owed to
us and must be collected. If the government of America truly repents of its sins against
our people and atones by giving us our true share of the land and the wealth, then America
can save herself. But if America waits for God to step in and force her to make a just
settlement, God will take this entire continent away from the white man. And the Bible
says that God can then give the kingdom to whomsoever he pleases. I thank you.
