SPEECH 1: April 8, 1964
Friends and enemies, tonight I hope that we can have a little fireside chat with as few sparks as possible
tossed around. Especially because of the very explosive condition that the world is in today. Sometimes,
when a person’s house is on fire and someone comes in yelling fire, instead of the person who is
awakened by the yell being thankful, he makes the mistake of charging the one who awakened him with
having set the fire. I hope that this little conversation tonight about the black revolution won’t cause
many of you to accuse us of igniting it when you find it at your doorstep.
I’m still a Muslim, but I’m also a nationalist, meaning that my political philosophy is black nationalism,
my economic philosophy is black nationalism, my social philosophy is black nationalism. And when I
say that this nationalism is that which is designed to encourage our people, the black people, to gain
complete control over the politics and the politicians of our own people.
Our economic philosophy is that we should gain economic control over the economy of our own
community, the businesses and the other things, which create employment so that we can provide jobs
for our own people instead of having to picket and boycott and beg someone else for a job.
And, in short, our social philosophy means that we feel that it is time to get together among our own
kind and eliminate the evils that are destroying the moral fiber of our society, like drug addiction,
drunkenness, adultery that leads to an abundance of bastard children, welfare problems. We believe that
we should lift the level or the standard of our own society to a higher level wherein we will be satisfied
and then not inclined toward pushing ourselves into other societies where we are not wanted.
1964 will be America’s hottest year; a year of much racial violence and much racial bloodshed. But it
won’t be blood that’s going to flow only on one side. The new generation of black people that have
grown up in this country during recent years are already forming the opinion, and it’s just opinion, that
if there is to be bleeding, it should be reciprocal-bleeding on both sides. . . .
So today, when the black man starts reaching out for what America says are his rights, the black man
feels that he is within his rights—when he becomes the victim of brutality by those who are depriving
him of his rights—to do whatever [is] necessary to protect himself. . . .
There are 22,000,000 African-Americans who are ready to fight for independence right here. When I
say fight for independence right here, I don’t mean any non-violent fight, or turn-the-other-cheek fight.
Those days are gone. Those days are over. If George Washington didn’t get independence for this
country non-violently, and if Patrick Henry didn’t come up with a non-violent statement, and you
taught me to look upon them as patriots and heroes, then it’s time for you to realize that I have studied
your books well. . . .
Our people are becoming more politically mature. . . . The Negro can see that he holds the balance of
power in this country politically. It is he who puts in office the one who gets in office. Yet when the
Negro helps that person get in office the Negro gets nothing in return. . . . No, something is wrong. And
when these black people wake up and find out for real the trickery and the treachery that has been
heaped upon us you are going to have revolution. And when I say revolution I don’t mean that stuff
they were talking about last year about “We Shall Overcome.”
And the only way without bloodshed that this [revolution] can be brought about is that the black man
has to be given full use of the ballot in every one of the 50 states. But if the black man doesn’t get the
ballot, then you are going to be faced with another man who forgets the ballot and starts using the
bullet. . . . So you have a people today who not only know what they want, but also know what they are
supposed to have. And they themselves are clearing the way for another generation that is coming up
that not only will know what it wants and know what it should have, but also will be ready and willing
to do whatever is necessary to see what they should have materializes immediately. Thank you.
SPEECH 2: June 4, 1965
Our earth is the home of revolution. In every corner of every continent men charged with hope contend
with ancient ways in the pursuit of justice. They reach for the newest of weapons to realize the oldest of
dreams, that each may walk in freedom and pride, stretching his talents, enjoying the fruits of the earth.
Our enemies may occasionally seize the day of change, but it is the banner of our revolution they take.
And our own future is linked to this process of swift and turbulent change in many lands in the world.
But nothing in any country touches us more profoundly, and nothing is more freighted with meaning for
our own destiny than the revolution of the Negro American.
In far too many ways American Negroes have been another nation: deprived of freedom, crippled by
hatred, the doors of opportunity closed to hope.
In our time, change has come to this Nation, too. The American Negro, acting with impressive restraint,
has peacefully protested and marched, entered the courtrooms and the seats of government, demanding
a justice that has long been denied. The voice of the Negro was the call to action. But it is a tribute to
America that, once aroused, the courts and the Congress, the President and most of the people, have
been the allies of progress.
Thus we have seen the high court of the country declare that discrimination based on race was
repugnant to the Constitution, and therefore void. We have seen in 1957, and 1960, and again in 1964,
the first civil rights legislation in this Nation in almost an entire century. And now very soon we will
have… a new law guaranteeing every American the right to vote.
The voting rights bill will be the latest, and among the most important, in a long series of victories. But
this victory--as Winston Churchill said of another triumph for freedom--"is not the end. It is not even
the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."
That beginning is freedom; and the barriers to that freedom are tumbling down. Freedom is the right to
share, share fully and equally, in American society--to vote, to hold a job, to enter a public place, to go
to school. It is the right to be treated in every part of our national life as a person equal in dignity and
promise to all others.
But freedom is not enough. You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: Now you are free to
go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please. You do not take a person
who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race
and then say, "you are free to compete with all the others," and still justly believe that you have been
completely fair.
Thus it is not enough just to open the gates of opportunity. All our citizens must have the ability to walk
through those gates. This is the next and the more profound stage of the battle for civil rights. We seek
not just freedom but opportunity. We seek not just legal equity but human ability, not just equality as a
right and a theory but equality as a fact and equality as a result.
For the task is to give 20 million Negroes the same chance as every other American to learn and grow,
to work and share in society, to develop their abilities--physical, mental and spiritual, and to pursue
their individual happiness.
To this end equal opportunity is essential, but not enough, not enough. Men and women of all races are
born with the same range of abilities. But ability is not just the product of birth. Ability is stretched or
stunted by the family that you live with, and the neighborhood you live in--by the school you go to and
the poverty or the richness of your surroundings. It is the product of a hundred unseen forces playing
upon the little infant, the child, and finally the man.
SPEECH 1- APRIL 8, 1964 QUESTIONS:
1. What is the main thesis of this speech? Support your statement with 2 pieces
of evidence
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2. Explain the fire analogy in Paragraph 1
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3. Explain the purpose of mentioning American Independence in Paragraph 7
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4. Why might White-America have responded negatively to this? Evidence?
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5. Why might White Americans have nothing to worry about? Evidence?
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SPEECH 2- June 4, 1965 QUESTIONS:
1. What is the main thesis of this speech? Support your statement with 2-3
pieces of evidence
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2. In a paragraph outline the similarities between Speech 1 & Speech 2.
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