Malcolm X on the Power of Black Collectivism
Table of Contents
The following is an excerpt from El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz (Malcolm X)’s speech “The Ballot or The Bullet” delivered on April 12, 1964 at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan.
Image: Malcolm X holds a fist full of U.S. currency collected at a “Freedom Rally” sponsored by the Nation of Islam at Uline Arena
Date: June 25, 1961
Photographer: Richard Saunders
Location: Washington, D.C.
(Source: Getty Images)
In this speech, the minister and human rights activist submits a charge to the ‘Black’ people of the United States of America with his blueprint on their future political and economic survival.
While his lecture on Black Nationalism is most relevant to the time he spoke these words, much of his theory on how to achieve and maintain a successful community remains applicable in a 21st century world that is still not conducive to ‘Black’ collective progress.
Malcolm's Philosophy on Pro-Black Politics
Malcolm opens with a discussion on the necessity of ‘Black’ political representation in communities where ‘Black’ people represent a majority of the population.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that the Black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community.
I’ve heard the question asked many times:
What will it take for things to change for Black people in America?
Some turn to religion.
They pray that God will intervene in the affairs of men.
Some look to the political stage for answers.
The idea is that if we can put someone in office who cares enough, maybe…just maybe, a change is going to come.
During the 1960’s, this was a popular belief. Black Americans were tired of living as second-class citizens in the land of their birth. But that was not all there was to the African-American Dream. To some degree or another, the prospect of an American education, the enchantment of an American lifestyle, and a guarantee to the sacraments of American citizenship, were,
altogether, an additional impetus for the American Civil Rights Movement.
The termination of the slave era was largely characterized as the consummation of a stubborn and indomitably White abolitionism. It would seem that even Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) had, at one point, bent the knee, when he declared, ‘it was not ’till…a number of Quakers resolved to form themselves into an alliance, and to seek its overthrow’…’that any stand was taken against the slave-trade.’ Before Douglass was, apparently, an unbroken White cord to the mic of Black liberation. ‘There soon sprung up a Clarkson and a Wilberforce,’ he adds, missing, for a regrettable moment, the unspoken masses, whose actions spoke louder.
And now, over 100 years after Douglass said ‘To be a man is above being an American,’ the cry of freedom was raised once more.
Malcolm’s speech marked nearly ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court came to a landmark decision in Oliver Brown, et al. v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas et al.
There was still more work to be done. As civil rights leaders persisted in their demands, the list of grievances only multiplied with each passing day.
Earlier that year, Black Americans saw a prohibition of poll taxes through the ratification of the 24th amendment. But this was not actually enforced at the state level until two years later. And it was not for another three months that America would see the passage of a law prohibiting discrimination in public accommodations and in places of employment.
A certain reality began to set in.
Change was sure to come, but change was running late.
In the meantime, certain fundamental questions remained:
What will we do to survive?
How can we save ourselves in a nation built on the oppression of an entire race?
For Malcolm, Black Nationalism was the answer.
And for Malcolm, it was not a question of how, but when.
The – The time – 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 community and get you and me to support him so he can use him to lead us astray – those days are long gone too.
Malcolm was a firm believer in that old idiom, “there is no time like the present.”
However, there are a few key things that we must understand to make sense of what Malcolm is saying when he refers to “Black Nationalism” and a “Black community.” In order to have “nation” – alism, you must first build a nation. And you cannot have a comm – “unity” without unity. Therefore, the first step towards the prospect of a “Black Nationalism,” as put forth by Malcolm X, is for Black people in the United States to live together and to work together as if they are a nation to themselves.
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 – 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 misled, led astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart.
Malcolm X presented another version of this speech at Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio nine days earlier on April 3, 1964.
Malcolm emphasized that for the Black community, political action in the present should be motivated by a need to address political inaction in the past. In order for this to work, Black people need to be educated on their political situation and the decisions that contributed to it.
The Black Nationalists, those whose philosophy is Black Nationalism, in bringing about this new interpretation of the entire meaning of civil rights, look upon it as meaning...equality of opportunity. Well, we’re justified in seeking civil rights, if it means equality of opportunity, because all we’re doing there is trying to collect for our investment.
Our mothers and fathers invested sweat and blood. Three hundred and ten years we worked in this country without a dime in return – I mean without a dime in return. You let the White man walk around here talking about how rich this country is, but you never stop to think how it got rich so quick. It got rich because YOU made it rich.
You take the people who are in this audience right now. They’re poor. We’re all poor as individuals. Our weekly salary individually amounts to hardly anything. But if you take the salary of everyone in here collectively, it’ll fill up a whole lot of baskets. It’s a lot of wealth. If you can collect the wages of just these people right here for a year, you’ll be rich – richer than rich!
When you look at it like that, think how rich Uncle Sam had to become, not with this handful, but millions of Black people. Your and my mother and father, who didn’t work an eight-hour shift, but worked from "can’t see” in the morning until “can’t see” at night, and worked for nothing, making the White man rich, making Uncle Sam rich.
This is our investment.
This is our contribution, our blood.
‘It took nationalism to remove colonialism from Asia and Africa.
It will take BN [Black Nationalism] to remove colonialism from the backs (and the mind[s]) of 22M [million] Afro Americans here in America.’
Again, Malcolm touches on the importance of pro-Black politics in our collective prosperity.
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism means that the Black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more. The Black man in the Black community has to be re-educated into the science of politics so he will know what politics is supposed to bring him in return.
Don’t be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don’t throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.
‘I’m no politician – not even [a] student of politics
Neither Demo[crat] nor Rep[ublican]
Not even American
[I’m] one of 22M Black victims of Dem[ocratism], Rep[ublicanism], [and] Americanism.
…
[I] haven’t benefited from America’s democracy;
[I] have only suffered from America’s hypocrisy’
‘Negro vote, key factor – yet nothing in return…
Dems control 2/3 of House and Senate
Get Negro support, yet Negroes get nothing
Negroes put Dems first, Dems put Negroes last’
Voting, says Malcolm, should not be done for the sake of voting.
We need a plan.
In his Detroit speech, Malcolm laid out the details of this plan as follows.
We will have to carry on a program, a political program, of re-education to open our people’s eyes, make us become more politically conscious, politically mature, and then we will – whenever we get ready to cast our ballot, that ballot will be – will be cast for a man of the community who has the good of the community at heart.
Here, we see that the plan is to choose a person who meets two specific criteria:
- They MUST be a member of the community.
- They MUST represent the interests of the community.
Once we do this, we are on our way to true freedom.
Then, we can say like Malcolm:
The political philosophy of Black Nationalism is…being taught everywhere.
Black people are fed up with the dillydallying, pussyfooting, compromising approach that we’ve been using toward getting our freedom.
We want freedom now, but we’re not going to get it saying “We Shall Overcome.”
We’ve got to fight until we overcome.
Malcolm's Philosophy on Pro-Black Economics
Malcolm made it clear that politics plays a major role in the process of maintaining a prosperous community.
He goes on to say that ‘Black’ people should learn financial literacy and apply it to empower themselves, not just on an individual basis, but collectively.
The economic philosophy of Black Nationalism only means that we should own and operate and control the economy of our community.
Malcolm continues with a discussion on the difference between the economy of majority-Black communities and communities in which Black people are in the minority.
You would never – You can’t open up a Black store in a White community. [The] White man 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 – The White man is too intelligent to let someone else come and gain control of the economy of his community. But you will let anybody come in and take control of the economy of your community, control the housing, control the education, control the jobs, control the businesses, under the pretext that you want to integrate. No, you’re out of your mind!
...
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 happens? The community in which you live becomes a slum. It becomes a ghetto. The conditions become run down. And then you have the audacity to – 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 a double-trap, because not only do we lose by taking our money someplace else and spending it, when we try and spend it in our own community we’re trapped because we haven’t had sense enough to set up stores and control the businesses of our 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 and 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 another part of the town.
So we’re trapped, trapped, double-trapped, triple-trapped. 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 developing them and expanding them into larger operations.
As an example of what a collective effort can accomplish, Malcolm draws upon establishments familiar to the Black community – places where Black people were known to spend their hard-earned money.
Woolworth [a retail giant similar to Wal-Mart that ceased operations in 1997] didn’t start out big like they are today. They started out with a dime store and expanded and expanded and then expanded until today, they’re are all over the country and all over the world, and they’re getting some of everybody’s money!
Now this is what you and I – General Motors [is] the same way. They didn’t start out like it is. It started out just a little rat race type operation. And it expanded and it expanded until today it’s where it is right now.
If we can build these corporations to the point where they are now, imagine what we can do if we build together!
But where do we begin?
You and I have to make a start and the best place to start is right in the community where we live.
Malcolm's Philosophy on Pro-Black Education
Malcolm appeals to reason.
Why should White people be running all the stores in our community?
Why should White people be running the banks of our community?
Why should the economy of our community bein the hands of the White man?
Why?
If a Black man can’t move his store into a White community, you tell me why a White man should move his store into a Black community.
For Black people to survive in a capitalist system, they must understand the need to support each other financially. To this end, Malcolm identifies cooperative economics as the foundation of a prosperous community.
The philosophy of Black Nationalism involves a re-education program in the Black community in regards to economics.
Our people have to be made to see that any time you take your dollar out of your community and spend it in a community where you don’t live, the community where you live will get poorer and poorer, and the community where you spend your money will get richer and richer.
Then you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or a slum area. And where you and I are concerned, not only do we lose it when we spend it out of the community, but the White man has got all our stores in the community tied up; so that though we spend it in the community, at sundown the man who runs the store takes it over across town somewhere. He’s got us in a vise.
Education is key.
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 business, 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.
Once we create these opportunities where we live, says Malcolm, this will ‘eliminate the necessity of you and me having to act ignorantly and disgracefully,’ engaging in unlawful activities and begging for jobs where we are not wanted.
‘My Gospel – [is] BN [Black Nationalism]
Join any organ[ization] where this is being preached & practiced
[A] Freedom Now League [is the] goal’
Malcolm’s program of radical organization was a departure from Dr. King’s philosophy of “civil disobedience,” then being played out all over the mainstream media.
Other faith leaders joined King on his marches and encouraged their congregants to do the same.
But Malcolm was wary of rousing the youth to view public disturbances as a panacea for every ill. Rather, he pushed for the cultivation of more long-term solutions to social issues.
In every church, in every civic organization, in every fraternal order, it’s time now for our people to become conscious of the importance of controlling the economy of our community.
If we own the stores, if we operate the businesses, if we try and establish some industry in our own community, then we’re developing to the position where we are creating employment for our own kind.
Once you gain control of the economy of your own community, then you don’t have to picket and boycott and beg some [White person] downtown for a job in his business.
Malcolm explains that economics and education go hand in hand.
He further makes a point that advocating for Black people in America to operate on pro-Black principles is not the same as promoting segregation.
A segregated district or community is a community in which people live, but outsiders control the politics and the economy of that community. They never refer to the White section as a segregated community. It’s the all-Negro section that’s a segregated community.
Why?
The White man controls his own school, his own bank, his own economy, his own politics, his own everything, his own community; but he also controls yours. When you’re under someone else’s control, you’re segregated. They’ll always give you the lowest or the worst that there is to offer, but it doesn’t mean you’re segregated just because you have your own.
You’ve got to control your own. Just like the White man has control of his, you need to control yours.
Malcolm submits that the Black community is already disenfranchised – with political and economic control in the hands of others. A program which prioritizes Black empowerment is one which will bring true equality to America by allowing for Black Americans to escape their current, substandard situation and to live out their truest potential.
Frederick Douglass, a slave, seized freedom by his own hands. For twenty years, he worked to build America. It took him another eight to admit that…he was still building America…
But I have no nation.
From Malcolm’s view, Black people have worked long enough and Black people have fought hard enough on behalf of the United States government and the people who dominate its powerful industries. Now, Black people need a nation that will work for them – a nation that will work to build up their communities. Black people need a nation that will defend their interests – a nation that is so serious that it will take a bullet for the cause.
And if Black people are not worth the bullet, then America and its partisan politics are not worth the ballot.
For Black people in the United States and for Black people abroad, progress and power go hand in hand. To achieve this power will take a forceful combination of proactive politics, reconstructive education, and sustainable economics. But if we commit to this goal, we will achieve it and we will achieve it by any means necessary.
This article was originally published by the author on May 21, 2018, then re-published with more content on March 12, 2020. It has again been updated and re-posted here.
Omri Coke
Omri is a history and science buff with a passion for research.
Through his research, he hopes to inspire others like himself on their own path of self-education and self-development.