Please write your own separate post for this answering the following questions in a robust paragraph.
1.How would you define (the philosophy of) the Black Muslims (or the Nation of Islam) after reading X? What influences do you see?
2.What are the main problems with the mainstream Civil Rights Movement according to both X ? Why?
3. What did he mean by “Ballot or Bullet?”
1. What are the main reasons that Schafley rejects the Equal Rights Amendment?
2. What is particular about this strand of “conservatism” compared to that of
Barry Goldwater’s from last week?
3. Do you believe these two strands are reconcilable? Why or why not? (Note this is an opinion question which I don’t normally ask but I am in this case).
Why is women education vitally important to Friedan’s argument?
“The Ballot or the Bullet”
Malcolm X
Delivered 12 April, 1964 in Detroit (USA)
Mr. Moderator, Reverend Cleage, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, and friends and I see
some enemies. In fact, I think we’d be fooling ourselves if we had an audience this large and
didn’t realize that there were some enemies present. This afternoon we want to talk about the
ballot or the bullet. The ballot or the bullet explains itself. But before we get into it, since this
is the year of the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify some things that refer to me per-
sonally – concerning my own personal position.
I’m still a Muslim. That is, my religion is still Islam. My religion is still Islam. I still credit
Mr. Mohammed for what I know and what I am. He’s the one who opened my eyes. At pre-
sent, I’m the Minister of the newly founded Muslim Mosque, Inc., which has its offices in the
Teresa Hotel, right in the heart of Harlem – that’s the black belt in New York city. And when
we realize that Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister, he’s the – he heads Abyssinian
Baptist Church, but at the same time, he’s more famous for his political struggling. And Dr.
King is a Christian Minister, in Atlanta, Georgia, but he’s become more famous for being
involved in the civil rights struggle. There’s another in New York, Reverend Galamison – I
don’t know if you’ve heard of him out here – he’s a Christian Minister from Brooklyn, but
has become famous for his fight against a segregated school system in Brooklyn. Reverend
Clee, right here, is a Christian Minister, here in Detroit. He’s the head of the “Freedom Now
Party”. All of these are Christian Ministers, but they don’t come to us as Christian Ministers.
They come to us as fighters in some other category. I’m a Muslim minister – the same as they
are Christian Ministers – I’m a Muslim minister. And I don’t believe in fighting today in any
one front, but on all fronts. In fact, I’m a black Nationalist Freedom Fighter.
Islam is my religion, but I believe my religion is my personal business. It governs my perso-
nal life, my personal morals. And my religious philosophy is personal between me and the
God in whom I believe; just as the religious philosophy of these others is between them and
the God in whom they believe. And this is best this way. Were we to come out here discus-
sing religion, we’d have too many differences from the outstart and we could never get toget-
her. So today, though Islam is my religious philosophy, my political, economic, and social
philosophy is Black Nationalism. You and I – as I say, if we bring up religion we’ll have dif-
ferences; we’ll have arguments; and we’ll never be able to get together. But if we keep our
religion at home, keep our religion in the closet, keep our religion between ourselves and our
God, but when we come out here, we have a fight that’s common to all of us against an ene-
my who is common to all of us.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the black man should control
the politics and the politicians in his own community. The time when white people can come
in our community and get us to vote for them so that they can be our political leaders and tell
us what to do and what not to do is long gone. By the same token, the time when that same
white man, knowing that your eyes are too far open, can send another negro into the commu-
nity and get you and me to support him so he can use him to lead us astray – those days are
long gone too. The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that if you and I
are going to live in a Black community – and that’s where we’re going to live, cause as soon
as you move into one of their – soon as you move out of the Black community into their
community, it’s mixed for a period of time, but they’re gone and you’re right there all by
yourself again. We must understand the politics of our community and we must know what
politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until
we become politically mature we will always be mislead, lead astray, or deceived or
maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our
community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we
will have to carry on a program, a political program, of re-education to open our peoples
eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature, and then whenever we
get ready to cast our ballot that ballot, will be cast for a man of the community who has the
good of the community of heart. The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means
that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community. You would ne-
ver found – you can’t open up a black store in a white community. White men won’t even
patronize you. And he’s not wrong. He’s got sense enough to look out for himself. You the
one who don’t have sense enough to look out for yourself.
The white man is too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of
his community. But you will let anyone come in and take control of the economy of your
community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the busines-
ses, under the pre-text that you want to integrate. No, you outta your mind. The political, the
economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we have to become involved in a
program of re-education to educate our people into the importance of knowing that when you
spend your dollar out of the community in which you live, the community in which you
spend your money becomes richer and richer; the community out which you take your money
becomes poorer and poorer. And because these Negroes, who have been mislead, misguided,
are breaking their necks to take their money and spend it with The Man, The Man is
becoming richer and richer, and you’re becoming poorer and poorer. And then what hap-
pens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditi-
ons become run down. And then you have the audacity to complain about poor housing in a
run-down community. Why you run it down yourself when you take your dollar out. And
you and I are in the double-track, because not only do we lose by taking our money somepla-
ce else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we’re trapped be-
cause we haven’t had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our own
community. The man who’s controlling the stores in our community is a man who doesn’t
look like we do. He’s a man who doesn’t even live in the community. So you and I, even
when we try to spend our money in the block where we live or the area where we live, we’re
spending it with a man who, when the sun goes down, takes that basket full of money in an-
other part of the town.
So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-rapped. Anywhere we go we find that we’
re trapped. And every kind of solution that someone comes up with is just another trap. But
the political and economic philosophy of Black Nationalism – the economic philosophy of
Black Nationalism shows our people the importance of setting up these little stores and deve-
loping them and expanding them into larger operations. Woolworth didn’t start out big like
they are today. They started out with a dime store and expanded and expanded and then ex-
panded until today, they’re are all over the country and all over the world, and they get to so-
me of everybody’s money. Now this is what you and I – General Motors is same way. They
didn’t start out like they it is. It started out just a little rat race type operation. And it expand-
ed and it expanded until today where it is right now. And you and I have to make a start and
the best place to start is right in the community where we live. So our people not only have to
be re-educated to the importance of supporting black business, but the black man himself has
to be made aware of the importance of going into business. And once you and I go into busi-
ness, we own and operate at least the businesses in our community. What we will be doing is
developing a situation wherein we will actually be able to create employment for the people
in the community. And once you can create some employment in the community where you
live it will eliminate the necessity of you and me having to act ignorantly and disgracefully,
boycotting and picketing some practice some place else trying to beg him for a job. Anytime
you have to rely upon your enemy for a job – you’re in bad shape. When you have – he is
your enemy. Let me tell you, you wouldn’t be in this country if some enemy hadn’t kidnap-
ped you and brought you here.
On the other hand, some of you think you came here on the Mayflower. So as you can see
brothers and sisters this afternoon, it is not our intention to discuss religion. We’re going to
forget religion. If we bring up religion, we’ll be in an argument, and the best way to keep a-
way from arguments and differences – as I said earlier – put your religion at home – in the clo-
set. Keep it between you and your God. Because if it hasn’t done anything more for you than
it has, you need to forget it anyway. Whether you are a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Nationa-
list, we all have the same problem. They don’t hang you because you’re a Baptist; they hang
you ’cause you’re black. They don’t attack me because I’m a Muslim; they attack me ’cause
I’m black. They attack all of us for the same reason; all of us catch hell from the same ene-
my. We’re all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer political oppression, economic
exploitation, and social degradation – all of them from the same enemy. The government has
failed us; you can’t deny that. Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you wal-
kin’ around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the government has failed us. This is part of
what’s wrong with you do too much singing. Today it’s time to stop singing and start swing-
ing. You can’t sing up on freedom, but you can swing up on some freedom. Cassius Clay can
sing, but singing didn’t help him to become the heavy-weight champion of the world – swi-
nging helped him become the heavy-weight champion. This government has failed us; the
government itself has failed us, and the white liberals who have been posing as our friends
have failed us. And once we see that all these other sources to which we’ve turned have fail-
ed, we stop turning to them and turn to ourselves. We need a self-help program, a do-it-your-
self philosophy, a do-it-right-now philosophy, a it’s-already-too-late philosophy. This is what
you and I need to get with, and the only way we are going to solve our problem is with a self-
help program. Before we can get a self-help program started we have to have a self-help phi-
losophy.
Black nationalism is a self-help philosophy. What’s is so good about it? You can stay right in
the church where you are and still take black nationalism as your philosophy. You can stay in
any kind of civic organization that you belong to and still take black nationalism as your phi-
losophy. You can be an atheist and still take black nationalism as your philosophy. This is a
philosophy that eliminates the necessity for division and argument. ‘Cause if you are black
you should be thinking black, and if you are black and you not thinking black at this late
date, well I’m sorry for you. Once you change your philosophy, you change your thought
pattern. Once you change your thought pattern, you change your attitude. Once you change
your attitude, it changes your behaviour pattern and then you go on into some action. As long
as you gotta sit-down philosophy, you’ll have a sit-down thought pattern, and as long as you
think that old sit-down thought you’ll be in some kind of sit-down action. They’ll have you
sitting in everywhere. It’s not so good to refer to what you’re going to do as a sit-in. That
right there castrates you. Right there it brings you down. What goes with it? Think of the I-
mage of someone sitting. An old woman can sit. An old man can sit. A chump can sit. A co-
ward can sit. Anything can sit. Well you and I been sitting long enough, and it’s time today
for us to start doing some standing, and some fighting to back that up.
When we look like – at other parts of this earth upon which we live, we find that black,
brown, red, and yellow people in Africa and Asia are getting their independence. They’re not
getting it by singing “We Shall Overcome.” No, they’re getting it through nationalism. It is
nationalism that brought about the independence of the people in Asia. Every nation in Asia
gained its independence through the philosophy of nationalism. Every nation on the African
continent that has gotten its independence brought it about through the philosophy of natio-
nalism. And it will take black nationalism – that to bring about the freedom of 22 million Af-
ro-Americans here in this country where we have suffered colonialism for the past 400 years.
America is just as much a colonial power as England ever was. America is just as much a co-
lonial power as France ever was. In fact, America is more so a colonial power than they be-
cause she’s a hypocritical colonial power behind it. What do you call second-class citizen-
ship? Why, that’s colonization. Second class citizenship is nothing but 20th century slavery.
How you gonna tell me you’re a second class citizen. They don’t have second0class citizen-
ship in any other government on this earth. They just have slaves and people who are free.
Well, this country is a hypocrite. They try and make you think they set you free by calling
you a second-class citizen. No, you’re nothing but a 20th century slave. Just as it took natio-
nalism to remove colonialism from Asia and Africa, it’ll take black nationalism today to re-
move colonialism from the backs and the minds of 22 million Afro-Americans here in this
country.
And 1964 looks like it might be the year of the ballot or the bullet. Why does it look like it
might be the year of the ballot or the bullet? Because Negroes have listened to the trickery,
and the lies, and the false promises of the white man now for too long. And they’re fed up.
They’ve become disenchanted. They’ve become disillusioned. They’ve become dissatisfied,
and all of this has built up frustrations in the black community that makes the black commu-
nity throughout America today more explosive than all of the atomic bombs the Russians can
ever invent. Whenever you got a racial powder keg sitting in your lap, you’re in more trouble
than if you had an atomic powder keg sitting in your lap. When a racial powder keg goes off,
it doesn’t care who it knocks out the way. Understand this, it’s dangerous. And in 1964 this
seems to be the year, because what can the white man use now to fool us after he put down
that march on Washington? And you see all through that now. He tricked you, had you marc-
hing down to Washington. Yes, had you marching back and forth between the feet of a dead
man named Lincoln and another dead man named George Washington singing “We Shall O-
vercome”. He made a chump out of you. He made a fool out of you. He made you think you
were going somewhere and you end up going nowhere but between Lincoln and Washington.
So today, our people are disillusioned. They’ve become disenchanted. They’ve become dis-
satisfied, and in their frustrations they want action. And in 1964 you’ll see this young black
man, this new generation asking for the ballot or the bullet. That old Uncle Tom action is
outdated. The young generation don’t want to hear anything about the odds are against us.
What do we care about odds?
When this country here was first being founded there were 13 colonies. The whites were
colonized. They were fed up with this taxation without representation, so some of them stood
up and said “liberty or death.” Though I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michi-
gan, the white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mis-
take of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot, and George Washington, wasn’t nothing
non-violent about old Pat or George Washington. Liberty or death was what brought about
the freedom of whites in this country from the English. They didn’t care about the odds. Why
they faced the wrath of the entire British Empire. And in those days they used to say that the
British Empire was so vast and so powerful when the sun – the sun would never set on them.
This is how big it was, yet these 13 little, scrawny states, tired of taxation without representa-
tion, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire “liber-
ty or death”. And here you have 22 million Afro-American 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 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. No. This is a new generation. If they’re gonna draft these young black men and send
them over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese – if you’re not afraid of
those odds, you shouldn’t be afraid of these odds.
Why is America, why does this loom to be such an explosive political year? Because this is
the year of politics. This is the year when all of the white politicians are going to come into
the Negro community. You never see them until election time. You can’t find them until e-
lection time. They’re going to come in with false promises, and as they make these false pro-
mises they’re gonna feed our frustrations and this will only serve to make matters worse. I’m
no politician. I’m not even a student of politics. I’m not a Republican, nor a Democrat, nor an
American, and got sense enough to know it. I’m one of the 22 million black victims of the
Democrats, one of the 22 million black victims of the Republicans, and one of the 22 million
black victims of Americanism. And when I speak, I don’t speak as a Democrat, or a Republi-
can, *nor an American*. I speak as a victim of America’s so-called democracy. You and I
have never seen democracy; all we’ve seen is hypocrisy. When we open our eyes today and
look around America, we see America not through the eyes of someone who has enjoyed the
fruits of Americanism, we see America through the eyes of someone who has been the victim
of Americanism. We don’t see any American dream; we’ve experienced only the American
nightmare. We haven’t benefited from America’s democracy; we’ve only suffered from A-
merica’s hypocrisy. And the generation that’s coming up now can see it and are not afraid to
say it. If you go to jail, so what? If you black, you were born in jail. If you 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.
Don’t call Governor Wallace a Dixie governor; Romney is a Dixie governor. 22 million
black victims of Americanism are waking up and they’re gaining a new political conscious-
ness, becoming politically mature. And as they develop this political maturity, they’re able to
see the recent trends in these political elections. They see that the whites are so evenly divid-
ed that every time they vote the race is so close they have to go back and count the votes all
over again. And that means that any block, any minority that has a block of votes that stick
together is in a strategic position. Either way you go, that’s who gets it. You’re in a position
to determine who will go to the White House, and who will stay in the doghouse. You’ re the
one who has that power. You can keep Johnson in Washington DC, or you can send him
back to his Texas cotton patch. You’re the one who sent Kennedy to Washington. You’ re the
one who put the present Democratic Administration in Washington DC. The whites were e-
venly divided. It was the fact that you threw 80% of your votes behind the Democrats that
put the Democrats in the White House. When you see this, you can see that the Negro vote is
the key factor. And despite the fact that you are in a position to be the determining factor,
what do you get out of it? The Democrats have been in Washington DC only because of the
Negro vote. They’ve been down there four years, and there all other legislations they wanted
to bring up they brought it up and gotten it out of the way, and now they bring up you. And
now, they bring up you. You put them first, and they put you last ’cause you’re a chump, a
political chump. In Washington DC, in the House of Representatives there are 257 who are
Democrats; only 177 are Republican. In the Senate there are 67 Democrats; only 33 are Re-
publicans. The Party that you backed controls two-thirds of the House of Representatives and
the Senate, and still they can’t keep their promise to you, ’cause you’re a chump. Anytime
you throw your weight behind the political party that controls two-thirds of the government,
and that Party can’t keep the promise that it made to you during election time, and you’re
dumb enough to walk around continuing to identify yourself with that Party, you’re not only
a chump, but you’re a traitor to your race.
And what kind of alibi do they come up with? They try and pass the buck to the Dixiecrats.
Now back during the days when you were blind, deaf, and dumb, ignorant, politically imma-
ture, naturally you went along with that. But today as your eyes come open, and you develop
political maturity, you’re able to see and think for yourself, and you can see that a Dixiecrat
is nothing but a Democrat in disguise.
You look at the structure of the government that controls this country; it’s controlled by 16
senatorial committees and 20 congressional committees. Of the 16 senatorial committees that
run the government, 10 of them are in the hands of Southern segregationists. Of the 20 cong-
ressional committees that run the government, 12 of them are in the hands of Southern segre-
gationists. And they’re going to tell you and me that the South lost the war. You, today, are in
the hands of a government of segregationists, racists, white supremacists who belong to the
Democratic party, but disguise themselves as Dixiecrats. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Demo-
crat. Whoever runs the Democrats is also the father of the Dixiecrats, and the father of all of
them is sitting in the White House. I say and I say it again: You got a President who’s noth-
ing but a Southern segregationist from the state of Texas. They’ll lynch you in Texas as
quickly as they’ll lynch you in Mississippi. Only in Texas they lynch you with a Texas ac-
cent; in Mississippi they lynch you with a Mississippi accent. And the first thing the cracker
does when he comes in power, he takes all the Negro leaders and invites them for coffee to
show that he’s alright. And those Uncle Toms can’t pass up the coffee. They come away
from the coffee table telling you and me that this man is alright ’cause he’s from the South,
and since he’s from the South he can deal with the South. Look at the logic that they’ re us-
ing. What about Eastland? He’s from the South. Make him the President. He can – if Johnson
is a good man from the ’cause he’s from Texas, and being from Texas will enable him to deal
with the South, Eastland can deal with the South better than Johnson. Oh, I say you’ ve been
misled. You been had. You been took.
I was in Washington a couple weeks ago while the Senators were filibustering, and I noticed
in the back of the Senate a huge map, and on this map it showed the distribution of Negroes
in America, and surprisingly the same Senators that were involved in the filibuster were from
the states where there were the most Negroes. Why were they filibustering the civil rights le-
gislation? Because the civil rights legislation is supposed to guarantee voting rights to Negro-
es in those states, and those senators from those states know that if the Negroes in those sta-
tes can vote, those senators are down the drain. The Representatives of those states go down
the drain. And in the Constitution of this country it has a stipulation wherein, whenever the
rights, the voting rights, of people in a certain district are violated, then the Representative
who’s from that particular district, according to the Constitution, is supposed to be expelled
from the Congress. Now, if this particular aspect of the Constitution was enforced, why you
wouldn’t have a cracker in Washington DC. But what would happen when you expel the Di-
xiecrat, you’re expelling the Democrat. When you destroy the power of the Dixiecrat, you’re
destroying the power of the Democratic Party. So how in the world can the Democratic Party
in the South actually side with you in sincerity, when all of its power is based in the South?
These Northern Democrats are in cahoots with the Southern Democrats. They’re playing a
giant con game, a political con game. You know how it goes. One of them comes to you and
makes believe he’s for you, and he’s in cahoots with the other one that’s not for you. Why?
Because neither one of them is for you, but they got to make you go with one of them or the
other. So this is a con game. And this is what they’ve been doing with you and me all these
years. First thing Johnson got off the plane when he become President, he asked “Where’s
Dicky?” You know who “Dicky” is? Dicky is old Southern cracker Richard Russell. Look
here, yes. Lyndon Johnson’s best friend is the one who is the head, who’s heading the forces
that are filibustering civil rights legislation. You tell me how in the hell is he going to be
Johnson’s best friend? How can Johnson be his friend, and your friend too? No, that man is
too tricky. Especially if his friend is still old Dicky. Whenever the Negroes keep the Demo-
crats in power, they’re keeping the Dixiecrats in power. Is this true? A vote for a Democrat is
nothing but a vote for a Dixiecrat. I know you don’t like me saying that, but I, I’m not the
kind of person who come here to say what you like. I’m going to tell you the truth, whether
you like it or not.
Up here, in the North you have the same thing. The Democratic party don’t do it. They don’t
do it that way. They got a think that they call gerrymandering. They maneuver you out of po-
wer. Even though you vote, they fix it so you’re voting for nobody; they’ve got you going
and coming. In the South, they’re outright political wolves. In the North, they’re political fo-
xes. A fox and a wolf are both canine, both belong to the dog family. Now you take your
choice. You going to choose a Northern dog or a Southern dog? Because either dog you cho-
ose I guarantee you you’ll still be in the dog house. This is why I say it’s the ballot or the
bullet. It’s liberty or it’s death. It’s freedom for everybody or freedom for nobody. America
today finds herself in a unique situation. Historically, revolutions are bloody. Oh, yes, they
are. They haven’t never had a blood-less revolution, or a non-violent revolution. That doesn’t
happen even in Hollywood. You don’t have a revolution in which you love your enemy, and
you don’t have a revolution in which you are begging the system of exploitation to integrate
you into it. Revolutions overturn systems. Revolutions destroy systems. A revolution is bloo-
dy, but America is in a unique position. She’s the only country in history in a position actual-
ly to become involved in a blood-less revolution. The Russian revolution was bloody, Chine-
se revolution was bloody, French revolution was bloody, Cuban revolution was bloody, and
there was nothing more bloody then the American Revolution. But today this country can be-
come involved in a revolution that won’t take bloodshed. All she’s got to do is give the black
man in this country everything that’s due him, everything.
I hope that the white man can see this, ’cause if he doesn’t see it you’re finished. If you don’t
see it you’re going to become involved in some action in which you don’t have a chance.
And we don’t care anything about your atomic bomb; it’s useless because other countries ha-
ve atomic bombs. When two or three different countries have atomic bombs, nobody can use
them, so it means that the white man today is without a weapon. If you want some action,
you gotta come on down to Earth. And there’s more black people on Earth than there are whi-
te people on Earth.
I only got a couple more minutes. The white man can never win another war on the ground.
His days of war, victory, his reign, his days of ground victory are over. Can I prove it? Yes.
Take all the action that’s going on this earth right now that he’s involved in – tell me where
he’s winning. Nowhere. Why some rice farmers, some rice eaters ran him out of Korea. Yes,
they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes, and a rifle, and a bowl of
rice took him and his tanks and his napalm, and all that other action he’s supposed to have
and ran him across the Yalu. Why? ‘Cause the day that he can win on the ground has passed.
Up in French Indo-China those little peasants, rice growers took on the might of the French
army and ran all the Frenchmen – you remember Dien Bien Phu. No.
The same thing happened in Algeria, in Africa, they didn’t have anything but a rifle. The
French had all these highly mechanized instruments of warfare, but they put some guerilla
action on, and a white man can’t fight a guerilla warfare. Guerilla action takes heart, takes
nerve, and he doesn’t have that. He’s brave when he’s got tanks. He’s brave when he’s got
planes. He’s brave when he’s got bombs. He’s brave when he’s got a whole lot of company
along with him, but you take that little man from Africa and Asia, turn him loose in the
woods with a blade – that’s all he needs, all he needs is a blade – and when the sun goes down
and it’s dark, it’s even-steven.
So it’s the ballot or the bullet. Today our people can see that we’re faced with a government
conspiracy. This government has failed us. The senators who are filibustering concerning
your and my rights, that’s the government. Don’t say it’s Southern senators. This is the go-
vernment; this is a government filibuster. It’s not a segregationist filibuster. It’s a govern-
ment filibuster. Any kind of activity that takes place on the floor of the Congress or the Sena-
te, it’s the government. Any kind of dilly-dallying, that’s the government. Any kind of pussy-
footing, that’s the government. Any kind of act that’s designed to delay or deprive you and
me right now of getting full rights, that’s the government that’s responsible. And any time
you find the government involved in a conspiracy to violate the citizenship or the civil rights
of a people, then you are wasting your time going to that government expecting redress. Ins-
tead, you have to take that government to the World Court and accuse it of genocide and all
of the other crimes that it is guilty of today.
So those of us whose political, and economic, and social philosophy is black nationalism ha-
ve become involved in the civil rights struggle. We have injected ourselves into the civil
rights struggle, and we intend to expand it from the level of civil rights to the level of human
rights. As long as you’re fighting on the level of civil rights, you’re under Uncle Sam’s juris-
diction. You’re going to his court expecting him to correct the problem. He created the prob-
lem. He’s the criminal. You don’t take your case to the criminal; you take your criminal to
court. When the government of South Africa began to trample upon the human rights of the
people of South Africa, they were taken to the U.N. When the government of Portugal began
to trample upon the rights of our brothers and sisters in Angola, it was taken before the U.N.
Why even the white man took the Hungarian question to the U.N. And just this week Chief
Justice Goldberg was crying over 3 million Jews in Russia about their human rights, charging
Russia with violating the U.N. charter because of its mistreatment of the human rights of
Jews in Russia.
Now you tell me how can the plight of everybody on this earth reach the halls of the United
Nations, and you have 22 million Afro-Americans whose choices are being bound, whose
little girls are being murdered, whose leaders are being shot down in broad daylight. Now
you tell me why the leaders of this struggle have never taken it before the United Nations. So
our next move is to take the entire civil rights struggle problems into the United Nations, and
let the world see that Uncle Sam is guilty of violating the human rights of 22 million Afro-
Americans.
Uncle Sam still has the audacity or the nerve to stand up and represent himself as the leader
of the free world. Not only is he a crook, he’s a hypocrite. Here he is standing up in front of
other people, Uncle Sam, with the blood of your and mine mothers and fathers on his hands,
with the blood dripping down his jaws like a bloody-jawed wolf, and still got the nerve to
point his finger at other countries. You can’t even get civil rights legislation. And this man
has got the nerve to stand up and talk about South Africa, or talk about Nazi Germany, or talk
about Deutschland. Why? No more days like those. So, I say in my conclusion the only way
we’re going to solve it – we’ve got to unite in unity and harmony, and black nationalism is the
key. How we gonna overcome the tendency to be at each others throats that always exists in
our neighbourhoods? And the reason this tendency exists, the strategy of the white man has
always been divide and conquer. He keeps us divided in order to conquer us. He tells you I’m
for separation and you for integration to keep us fighting with each other. No, I’m not for
separation and you’re not for integration. What you and I is for is freedom. Only you think
that integration would get you freedom, I think separation would get me freedom. We both
got the same objective, we just got different ways of getting at it.
So I studied this man, Billy Graham, who preaches white nationalism, that’s what he preac-
hes. I say that’s what he preaches. The whole church structure in this country is white natio-
nalism. You go inside a white church that’s what they preaching is white nationalism. They
got Jesus white, Mary white, God white, everybody white – that’s white nationalism. So what
he does the way he circumvents the jealousy and envy that he ordinarily would incur among
the heads of the church, wherever he go into an area where the church already is you going
into trouble, ’cause they got that thing what you call it – syndicated, they got a syndicate – just
like the rest of the Racketeers have. I’m going to say what’s on my mind ’cause the churches
are, the preachers already proved to you that they got a syndicate.
And when you’re out in the rackets, whenever you’re getting in another man’s territory, you
know, they gang up on you. And that’s the same way with you ran into the same thing. So
how Billy Graham gets around that, instead of going into somebody else’s territory, like he
going to start up a new church, he doesn’t try to start a church. He just goes in preaching Ch-
rist. And he says everybody who believes in Him, wherever you go wherever you find him.
So this helps all the churches and since it helps all the churches they don’t mind fight him.
Well, we gonna do the same thing, only our gospel s black nationalism; his gospel is white
nationalism; our gospel is black nationalism. And the gospel of black nationalism, as I told
you, means you should control you own, the politics of your community, the economy of
your community, and all of the society in which you live should be under your control. And
once you feel that this philosophy will solve your problem, go join any church where that’s
preached. Don’t join a church where white nationalism is preached. Now you can go to a
Negro church and be exposed to white nationalism ’cause you are when you walk in a Negro
church and a white Mary and some white angels – that Negro church is preaching white na-
tionalism. But when you go to a church and you see the pastor of that church with a philosop-
hy 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.
It’ll be the ballot or it’ll be the bullet. It’ll be liberty or it’ll be death. And if you’re not ready
to pay that price don’t use the word freedom in your vocabulary.
One more thing: I was on a program in Illinois recently with Senator Paul Douglas, a so-cal-
led liberal, so-called Democrat, so-called white man, at which time he told me that our Afri-
can brothers were not interested in us in Africa. He said the Africans are not interested in the
American Negro. I knew he was lying, but during the next two or three weeks it’s my intenti-
on and plan to make a tour of our African homeland. And I hope that when I come back, I’ll
be able to come back and let you know how our African brothers and sisters feel toward us.
And I know before I go there that they love us. We’re one; we’re the same; the same man
who has colonized them all these years, colonized you and me too all these years. And all we
have to do now is wake up and work in unity and harmony and the battle will be over. I want
to thank the Freedom Now Party and the goal. I want to thank Milton and Richard Henley for
inviting me here this afternoon, and also Reverend Cleage. And I want them to know that a-
nything that I can ever do, at any time, to work with anybody in any kind of program that is
sincerely designed to eliminate the political, the economic, and the social evils that confront
all of our people, in Detroit and elsewhere, all they got to do is give me a telephone call and
I’ll be on the next jet right on into the city.
Betty Friedan, “The Problem That Has No Name,” 1963.
Betty Friedan’s 1963 book The Feminine Mystique, from which this
excerpt is taken, changed the lives of many American women by
bringing their restlessness and unhappiness to public attention. It
is widely seen as one of the major contributors to the
development of second wave feminism in the 1960s and 1970s.
The problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds
of American women. It was a strange stirring, a sense of
dissatisfaction, a yearning that women suffered in the middle of the
twentieth century in the United States. Each suburban wife struggled
with it alone. As she made the beds, shopped for groceries, matched
slipcover material, ate peanut butter sandwiches with her children,
chauffeured Cub Scouts and Brownies, lay beside her husband at
night‐‐she was afraid to ask even of herself the silent question‐‐”Is this
all?”
For over fifteen years there was no word of this yearning in the
millions of words written about women, for women, in all the
columns, books and articles by experts telling women their role was
to seek fulfillment as wives and mothers. Over and over women
heard in voices of tradition and of Freudian sophistication that they
could desire no greater destiny than to glory in their own femininity.
Experts told them how to catch a man and keep him, how to
breastfeed children and handle their toilet training, how to cope with
sibling rivalry and adolescent rebellion; how to buy a dishwasher,
bake bread, cook gourmet snails, and build a swimming pool with
their own hands; how to dress, look, and act more feminine and make
marriage more exciting; how to keep their husbands from dying
young and their sons from growing into delinquents. They were
taught to pity the neurotic, unfeminine, unhappy women who
wanted to be poets or physicists or presidents. They learned that truly
feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political
rights—the independence and the opportunities that the old‐
fashioned feminists fought for. …
By the end of the nineteen‐fifties, the average marriage age of
women in America dropped to 20, and was still dropping, into the
teens. Fourteen million girls were engaged by 17. The proportion of
women attending college in comparison with men dropped from 47
per cent in 1920 to 35 per cent in 1958. A century earlier, women had
fought for higher education; now girls went to college to get a
husband. By the mid‐fifties, 60 per cent dropped out of college to
marry, or because they were afraid too much education would be a
marriage bar. Colleges built dormitories for “married students,” but
the students were almost always the husbands.
Then American girls began getting married in high school. And
the women’s magazines, deploring the unhappy statistics about these
young marriages, urged that courses on marriage, and marriage
counselors, be installed in the high schools. Girls started going steady
at twelve and thirteen, in junior high. Manufacturers put out
brassieres with false bosoms of foam rubber for little girls of ten. And
on advertisement for a child’s dress, sizes 3‐6x, in the New York
Times in the fall of 1960, said: “She Too Can Join the Man‐Trap Set.”
By the end of the fifties, the United States birthrate was overtaking
India’s. …
In a New York hospital, a woman had a nervous breakdown
when she found she could not breastfeed her baby. In other hospitals,
women dying of cancer refused a drug which research had proved
might save their lives: its side effects were said to be unfeminine. “If I
have only one life, let me live it as a blonde,” a larger‐than‐life‐ sized
picture of a pretty, vacuous woman proclaimed from newspaper,
magazine, and drugstore ads. And across America, three out of every
ten women dyed their hair blonde. They ate a chalk called Metrecal,
instead of food, to shrink to the size of the thin young models.
Department‐store buyers reported that American women, since 1939,
had become three and four sizes smaller. “Women are out to fit the
clothes, instead of vice‐versa,” one buyer said. …
The suburban housewife—she was the dream image of the young
American women and the envy, it was said, of women all over the
world. The American housewife—freed by science and labor‐saving
appliances from the drudgery, the dangers of childbirth and the
illnesses of her grandmother. She was healthy, beautiful, educated,
concerned only about her husband, her children, her home. She had
found true feminine fulfillment. As a housewife and mother, she was
respected as a full and equal partner to man in his world. She was free
to choose automobiles, clothes, appliances, supermarkets; she had
everything that women ever dreamed of.
In the fifteen years after World War II, this mystique of feminine
fulfillment became the cherished and self‐perpetuating core of
contemporary American culture. … For over fifteen years, the words
written for women, and the words women used when they talked to
each other, while their husbands sat on the other side of the room and
talked shop or politics or septic tanks, were about problems with their
children, or how to keep their husbands happy, or improve their
children’s school, or cook chicken or make slipcovers. Nobody argued
whether women were inferior or superior to men; they were simply
different. Words like “emancipation” and “career” sounded strange
and embarrassing; no one had used them for years. …
If a woman had a problem in the 1950’s and 1960’s, she knew that
something must be wrong with her marriage, or with herself. Other
women were satisfied with their lives, she thought. What kind of a
woman was she if she did not feel this mysterious fulfillment waxing
the kitchen floor? She was so ashamed to admit her dissatisfaction
that she never knew how many other women shared it. If she tried to
tell her husband, he didn’t understand what she was talking about.
She did not really understand it herself.
For over fifteen years women in America found it harder to talk
about the problem than about sex. Even the psychoanalysts had no
name for it. When a woman went to a psychiatrist for help, as many
women did, she would say, “I’m so ashamed,” or “I must be
hopelessly neurotic.” “I don’t know what’s wrong with women
today,” a suburban psychiatrist said uneasily. “I only know
something is wrong because most of my patients happen to be
women. And their problem isn’t sexual.” Most women with this
problem did not go to see a psychoanalyst, however. “There’s nothing
wrong really,” they kept telling themselves, “There isn’t any
problem.”
But on an April morning in 1959, I heard a mother of four, having
coffee with four other mothers in a suburban development fifteen
miles from New York, say in a tone of quiet desperation, “the
problem.” And the others knew, without words, that she was not
talking about a problem with her husband, or her children, or her
home. Suddenly they realized they all shared the same problem, the
problem that has no name. They began, hesitantly, to talk about it.
Later, after they had picked up their children at nursery school and
taken them home to nap, two of the women cried, in sheer relief, just
to know they were not alone. …
Just what was this problem that has no name? What were the
words women used when they tried to express it? Sometimes a
woman would say “I feel empty somehow . . . incomplete.” Or she
would say, “I feel as if I don’t exist.” Sometimes she blotted out the
feeling with a tranquilizer. Sometimes she thought the problem was
with her husband or her children, or that what she really needed was
to redecorate her house, or move to a better neighborhood, or have an
affair, or another baby. Sometimes, she went to a doctor with
symptoms she could hardly describe: “A tired feeling. . . I get so
angry with the children it scares me . . . I feel like crying without any
reason.” A Cleveland doctor called it “the housewife’s syndrome.” …
It is easy to see the concrete details that trap the suburban
housewife, the continual demands on her time. But the chains that
bind her in her trap are chains in her own mind and spirit. They are
chains made up of mistaken ideas and misinterpreted facts, of
incomplete truths and unreal choices. They are not easily seen and not
easily shaken off.
How can any woman see the whole truth within the bounds of
her own life? How can she believe that voice inside herself, when it
denies the conventional, accepted truths by which she has been
living? And yet the women I have talked to, who are finally listening
to that inner voice, seem in some incredible way to be groping
through to a truth that has defied the experts. …
I began to see in a strange new light the American return to early
marriage and the large families that are causing the population
explosion; the recent movement to natural childbirth and
breastfeeding; suburban conformity, and the new neuroses, character
pathologies and sexual problems being reported by the doctors. I
began to see new dimensions to old problems that have long been
taken for granted among women: menstrual difficulties, sexual
frigidity, promiscuity, pregnancy fears, childbirth depression, the
high incidence of emotional breakdown and suicide among women in
their twenties and thirties, the menopause crises, the so‐called
passivity and immaturity of American men, the discrepancy between
women’s tested intellectual abilities in childhood and their adult
achievement, the changing incidence of adult sexual orgasm in
American women, and persistent problems in psychotherapy and in
women’s education.
If I am right, the problem that has no name stirring in the minds
of so many American women today is not a matter of loss of
femininity or too much education, or the demands of domesticity. It is
far more important than anyone recognizes. It is the key to these other
new and old problems which have been torturing women and their
husbands and children, and puzzling their doctors and educators for
years. It may well be the key to our future as a nation and a culture.
We can no longer ignore that voice within women that says: “I want
something more than my husband and my children and my home.”
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