peace and righteousness here on this earth. Knowing that God is about
to establish His righteous government, Mr. Muhammad is trying to clean
up our morals and qualify us to enter into this new righteous nation of
God.
The American so-called Negroes must recognize each other as brothers
and sisters ... stop carrying guns and knives to harm each other, stop
drinking whiskey, taking dope, reefers, and even cigarettes. No more
gambling! Save your money. Stop fornication, adultery and prostitution.
Elevate the black woman; respect her and protect her. Let us rid
ourselves of immoral habits and God will be with us to protect and
guide us.
Then, we must form a platform that will be good for all of our own
people, as well as for others. As black people we must unite. We must
recognize and give intelligent active support to our political leaders
who fight for us unselfishly, sincerely, and fearlessly.
But, to prove their sincerity and their right for the support of
the black masses, these leaders must first display fearlessness,
intelligence, and unity among themselves. They must stop their public
bickering with each other. They must stop attacking each other in front
of the white man, and for the benefit of the white man.
If the black leaders must have differences of opinion, learn to go into
the closet with each other, but when you come from behind closed doors,
show a united front in the face of the one who is a common enemy to all
of us.
Mr. Muhammad has invited all of the leaders here today for that
purpose. He wants our people united, but unity will never exist among
the black masses as long as our leaders are not united.
We want to get behind leaders who will fight for us ... leaders who are
not afraid to demand freedom, justice, and equality. We do not want
leaders who are hand picked for us by the white man. We don’t want any
more Uncle Toms. We don’t want any more leaders who are puppets or
parrots for the white man.
We want brave leaders as our spokesmen, who are not afraid to state our
case, who can intelligently demand what we need, what we want, and what
is rightfully ours. We don’t want leaders who are beggars, who feel
they must compromise with the enemy. And we don’t want leaders who are
selfish or greedy ... who will sell us out for a few pieces of silver.
A big election is coming up this year. What kind of leaders do we want
in office? Which ones will the black masses get behind? Mr. Muhammad
has thousands of followers, and millions of sympathizers. He will place
his weight behind any fearless black leaders who will stand up and help
the so-called American Negroes get complete and immediate freedom.
If these black leaders are afraid that to be identified with us they
will irk the white man, or lose the white man’s favor or his support,
then they can no longer expect the support of the black masses.
They call us racial extremists. They call Jomo Kenyatta also a racial
extremist and Tom Mboya a moderate. It is only the white man’s fear of
men like Kenyatta that makes him listen to men like Mboya. If it were
not for the extremists, the white man would ignore the moderates. To be
called a “moderate” in this awakening dark world today, that is crying
for freedom, is to receive the “kiss of death” as spokesmen or leaders
of the masses ... for the masses are ready to burst the shackles of
slavery whether the “moderates” will stand up or not.
We have many black leaders who are unafraid, especially when they
know the black masses stand behind them. Many of them are qualified
to represent us not only in this United States government, but could
also represent us in this government if we are given 100 per cent
citizenship and the opportunity for FIRST-CLASS participation ... or
else we can get behind these same leaders in setting up an independent
government of our own.
We, the black masses, don’t want these leaders who seek our support
coming to us representing a certain political party. They must come to
us today as black leaders representing the welfare of black people.
We won’t follow any leader today who comes on the basis of political
party. Both parties (Democrat and Republican) are controlled by the
same people who have abused our rights, and who have deceived us with
false promises every time an election rolls around.
Mr. Muhammad grieves over the disunity that exists even among the
intellectuals and professional so-called Negroes. It is these
“educated” so-called Negroes who should be leading us out of this maze
of misery and want. They possess the academic know-how, great amounts
of technical skills ... but they can’t use it for the benefit of their
own kind simply because they themselves are also disunited. If these
intellectuals and professional so-called Negroes would unite, not only
Harlem would benefit, but it will benefit our people all over the world.
Mr. Muhammad says disunity is our number one stumbling block, and
this disunity exists only because we lack knowledge of SELF (our own
kind). So-called Negro “intellectuals” seem to think integration is the
answer. But, is it? “Integrate” means to become as one unit. How can
these “intellectuals” expect the white man to accept us into his social
unit, political unit, or economic unit when we are not yet in unity (as
a unit) among our own kind?
We, the Muslims, are for “Brotherhood,” but not for integration! What
is the difference? Brotherhood is based on love, which automatically
produces voluntary acts of “sincere benevolence.” But integration
produces hypocrisy. It forces the white man to pose as a “liberal,” to
be pretensive and false. Thus, “benevolent” acts which are “forced by
integration laws” are producing white hypocrites, and reducing chances
of creating a “mutual-working-agreement” between the two races.
Your thirst for integration makes the white man think you want only to
marry his daughter. We (Muslims) who follow Mr. Muhammad don’t think
God ever intended for black men to marry white women. Mr. Muhammad and
his followers are violently opposed to intermarriage.
This is conveniently and purposely misinterpreted by our enemies to
mean that we are anti-white, anti-Christian, and anti-American (simply
because we refuse to chase after the white man’s women!). Let the white
man keep his women, and let us keep ours.
Some Negroes who love race-mixing, and want white women, are angry at
Mr. Muhammad because he teaches against race-mixing ... so they slip
around and make the white man think we are anti-white. (I’m surprised
that the white man is dumb enough to believe these Uncle Toms, who
stoop so low, like JUDAS, to be stool pigeons against their own kind.)
We have oceans of dark people on this earth: in Africa, Asia, and even
here in America. Our women are the most beautiful, like a bouquet of
flowers. Why should we chase white women?
In this “changing” world today, what would we do married to a white
woman? Her people don’t want you in their neighborhood around them,
and our fast awakening people don’t want you to bring her back into
our neighborhood any more to live around us. Thus, you both become a
“misfit” ... unwelcomed and unwanted in either society ... where can
you go?
Because we Muslims look at this as it is and face reality does not mean
we are anti-white. We don’t want his white mother, his white sister,
nor his white daughter. We want only an equal chance on this earth,
but to have an equal chance we must have the same thing the white man
himself needed before he could get this nation started ... WE MUST HAVE
SOME LAND OF OUR OWN!
Why do we want some land of our own? Because land is essential to
freedom. How else can 20 million black people who now constitute a
nation in our own right, a NATION WITHIN A NATION, expect to survive
forever in a land where we are the last ones hired and the first ones
fired ... simply because we have no land of our own?
For over 400 years we have been very faithful to our American slave
masters. Now God is warning them through Mr. Muhammad that they should
be nice enough to give us some land so we can separate ourselves from
them and get started for ourselves.
This is no more than what the white man should do. It is in complete
accord with the Christian religion. Their bible says that when a slave
is set free, his slave master should give him something to help him get
started on his own ... never send him away empty-handed.
If the Hebrews in the bible numbered only 600,000 in the land of their
bondage, and God was concerned with giving them freedom in a land of
their own, a land “flowing with milk and honey” ... then what about 20
million so-called Negroes here in America, who have the “freedom” only
to look for a job?
Can you not see that our former “leaders” have been fighting for the
wrong thing ... the wrong kind of freedom? Mr. Muhammad says we must
have some land where we can work hard for ourselves, make ourselves
equal, and live in dignity. Then and only then we won’t have to beg the
white man for the crumbs that fall occasionally from his table. No one
respects or appreciates a beggar.
Since we say Lincoln freed us, let us avail ourselves of that freedom
by uniting together and doing something for our own kind. But, we must
have some of this earth. We have been in America over 400 years. We
have been so-called “free” 100 years, and yet he still calls us “the
white man’s burden.”
We Muslims don’t want to be a burden on America any longer. God has
given Mr. Muhammad a divine message, program, and solution. WE MUST
HAVE SOME LAND! The white man should be glad to give his loyal “slaves”
some land so we can get out of his way and go for ourselves.
We will then set up our own farms, factories, business, and schools ...
and show him how much we appreciate the education he has given us, by
using it to become self-sustaining ... economically and otherwise.
We want some land where we can create unity, harmony and brotherhood
... and live together in peace. Since America now sees that this false
show of integration and intermarriage will not work, she should make
immediate steps to set aside a few of these states for us, and put us
there to ourselves.
If America will repent and do this, God will overlook some of our
wicked deeds (as in the days of Nineveh) ... but if America refuses to
give Mr. Muhammad what God instructed him to ask for ... then, like the
biblical houses of Egypt and Babylon (slave empires of the bible), God
will erase the American government and the entire race that it favors
and represents, from this planet ... and God will then give the whole
earth back to the original owners, the black man!
4. MALCOLM X’s
“UNIVERSITY SPEECH”
_The following is Malcolm X’s “university speech,” a long lecture he
used in the hope of converting students--particularly Negroes--on
various university campuses during 1961-1962. It is of some interest
that this speech was given at Atlanta University, the great citadel of
Negro learning in the Deep South, and Dr. Lonnie Cross, chairman of
the department of mathematics, not only joined the movement but became
assistant to Jeremiah X, minister of the Atlanta Temple._
_This lecture contains a unique passage. It will be recalled that in
his Harvard speech Malcolm chastised Moslems from the East who had
migrated to America but failed to gather converts. In this speech he
goes further; in a stinging passage Malcolm flatly accuses Moslems from
the East of attempting to turn “our slave masters” (the American white
man) into good Moslems. He accuses orthodox Moslems of “passing us by”
and attempting to proselytize the foes of the Negro rather than the
Negro himself._
_This is without doubt the strongest position any Muslim has ever
taken against the orthodox Moslem movement and further underscores
my contention that the Black Muslims are not really concerned about
orthodox Islam. They need the façade of world-wide Islam, of course,
but the Black Muslim movement is a home-grown operation with home-grown
aims and ideas. Nowhere is that more clearly stated than in this
“university speech.”_
Islam, the natural religion of black mankind, is sweeping through and
resurrecting black America like a “flaming fire,” under the Divine
Guidance of Messenger Elijah Muhammad.
Fools try to ignore facts, but wise men must face facts to remain wise.
Fools refuse to change from their silly ways and beliefs, but the
mental powers of the wise man encourage mental flexibility and enable
him to keep an OPEN MIND. This gives him the ability to re-adjust
himself whenever it becomes necessary for a CHANGE.
As fast as added “light” increases the wise man’s ability to
understand, he changes his “course” or his “pace” according to the
newly revealed facts before him.
Fools, however, just blunder on, blindly, heedless of the ever-changing
conditions on the road over which they must travel ... thus, the BLIND
DRIVERS and their “cars” usually end up in the DITCH.
In the past, the “religious roads” leading through black America
presented smooth sailing for the “Old Touring Cars” (Churches) of
Christianity. They met few obstacles and had little opposition or
competition. The “drivers” (preachers) had it easy. Their “course” was
never challenged. They ruled supreme on the religious roads of black
America.
However, today time is making a great CHANGE. The religious roads of
black America have suddenly become blocked by a ROCKY BARRIER, and all
the black and white preachers combined are incapable of removing it.
The firm, down-to-earth, thought-provoking teachings of the religion of
Islam are now obstructing this path over which it was once easy sailing
for these preachers of white man’s Christianity.
Islam poses both a challenge and a threat because Islam is the
“resurrecting power.” Thousands of so-called Negroes are beginning for
the first time to think for themselves, since turning away from the
segregated Christian church, and are rejoining the ranks of their black
brothers and sisters of the East. Their age-old faith is the religion
of Islam, the religion of our foreparents, the true religion of black
mankind.
The Spiritual Leader and Teacher of the many thousands of “New
Believers” here in black America is Messenger Elijah Muhammad.
Before we heard the teachings of Messenger Muhammad, we (American
so-called Negroes) were in the grave of ignorance. We had been taught
by our Christian slave master, as well as by our own ignorant religious
leaders, that God had cursed us black and sentenced us to a lifetime of
servitude to the Christian white race.
The same slave master’s Christian religion promised us that we
(Negroes) would sprout wings after death and fly up into the sky where
God would have a place especially prepared for us.
Since we poor “cursed” slaves were not to get anything on earth while
we were alive, we soon learned to expect it only after death, “up in
the sky.” Thus, this earth, and all its vast riches which we ourselves
originally owned, was left to the deceitful maneuverings of the white
race, for them to build a heaven for themselves and their own kind “in
THIS life.”
Such religious teachings were purposely designed to make us (so-called
Negroes) feel inferior to the white Christian slave master. Soon he was
successful in making us fear him, obey him, and worship him ... instead
of the true Supreme Being, the God of our own foreparents, Almighty
God, ALLAH.
Messenger Muhammad has taught us how we eventually became like the
beggar Lazarus of the bible (Luke 16:20): Our condition became very
sore. We sat here amid the rubbish of the Western World, at the feet of
the rich, white Christians ... begging for the crumbs (civil rights and
token integration) to fall from their table. But from this very same
slave master whom our foreparents had made rich, by giving freely of
their slave labor for nearly 400 years (Gen. 15:13), we received only
the hardest and dirtiest jobs at the lowest wages; the poorest houses
in the ghettos at the highest rent; the poorest food and clothing at
the highest prices. Our schools were like shacks, and were staffed by
teachers who knew and could teach only that which the slave master
dictated to them.
Messenger Muhammad has taught us how we (so-called Negroes) were
kidnaped from the East by the white Christian slave master, brought
to America in chains, and robbed of our own God, His religion, our
language, culture, names, flag, and even our own nationality. After
robbing us of all that we originally could proudly call our own, then
the slave master taught us to call ourselves “Negroes.” He told us that
we were to be called “Negroes” because he found us along the banks of
the Niger River.
Messenger Muhammad asks us today: “Since when does one’s nationality
originate from a river?” This same slave master taught us that “negro”
means “black” in Spanish. Messenger Muhammad again asks us why, then,
do not the dark, Spanish-speaking people in Spain, South and Central
America accept it (Negro) as their nationality too? Messenger Muhammad
says that we too should get our NATIONality from the NATION that our
foreparents originated (as do all other recognized peoples).
The bible speaks of how we were purposely cut off from our own kind
after being robbed of our identity by the cruel Christian slave master
(Ezekiel 37:11; Psalms 137:1-9, 83:4). The slave master then took our
names, language, and religion from us so we would have to accept his,
obey him, and worship him (Dan. 1:6-7).
Messenger Muhammad has given us many scriptures to prove his teachings
to us are true and in accord with the prophecies of the bible. He says
it is we (so-called Negroes) in America who were robbed and made deaf,
dumb, and blind to the knowledge of our own God and of our own selves;
so that today we are like DRY BONES IN THE VALLEY (spiritually dead,
and in a mental grave of ignorance).
We are now able to speak only the slave master’s tongue, and are still
being called the same “slave names” given to our fathers during slavery
by the slave master ... names such as Jones, Smith, Powell, King,
Bunche, Diggs, Dawson, etc. These are all SLAVE NAMES, names of the
very same slave master who has shown characteristics of his beast-like
nature in his treatment of us. The original names of our foreparents
were cut off from them, kept secret from us by the “beast” (Rev. 15:2),
and therefore today we do not know what our real names should be. We
have really been robbed!
All other people have their own religion, which teaches them of a God
with whom they themselves can associate. A God who at least looks like
one of their own kind. But, we (so-called Negroes), after 400 years of
masterful brainwashing by the slave master, picture our “god” with the
same blond hair, pale skin, and cold blue eyes of our murderous slave
master.
His Christian religion teaches us that black is a curse; thus, we
who accepted the slave master’s religion found ourselves loving and
respecting everything and everyone except black, and could picture God
as being anything else but BLACK. In fact, many so-called Negroes would
rather believe that God is INVISIBLE, a “colorless spirit,” than to
admit even the possibility of his being black. Yet Daniel saw Him with
kinky hair (like lamb’s wool) in the seventh chapter of Daniel, ninth
verse. How grossly deceived we have been!
Messenger Muhammad says that the teachers and religious leaders of
our own kind here in America were as blind to the REAL TRUTH as we;
therefore, they themselves were not even qualified to lead us beyond
that which the slave master had falsely taught them. HOW CAN THE BLIND
LEAD THE BLIND? Thus, we remained in the DITCH (the GRAVE of spiritual
ignorance, mental bondage) which was dug for us to fall into by our
white Christian slave master.
Not only did our own preachers and educators here fail to give us the
truth, our darker brothers who were born in the East came here from the
East and neglected to convert us back to the original religion (ISLAM)
of our foreparents. Many of our brothers from the East even failed to
recognize us as their long-lost brothers (“lost sheep”) who had been
kidnaped from the Nation of Islam 400 years ago, and made to dwell here
in this strange land, among these wicked people who are not of our own
kind (Gen. 15:13), nor of our own choice.
Our brothers from the East passed us by, and instead, tried to lecture
on Islam to our slave master, thinking, so foolishly, that they would
be able to turn the slave master into a righteous Muslim ... knowing
all the time that the same slave master was the very one who had
kidnaped, robbed, enslaved, and lynched (murdered) their long-lost
brothers. Yes, our brothers from the East came here and seemed to be
apologists for Islam, instead of rightly spreading it, or defending it
from the sly insults of the unbelieving slave master.
Messenger Muhammad teaches us that Almighty God, ALLAH, is all-powerful
and independent. ALLAH needs no one to apologize for Him. Islam, His
True Religion, is not a religion of compromise. Islam is truth itself,
and this truth has long been kept a secret from us.
For 400 years, we (so-called Negroes) were deprived of Islam (life)
by our white slave master, who in turn indoctrinated (brainwashed)
us with his false religion of Christianity ... and like the biblical
Lazarus, we soon became so dead mentally and spiritually, that our
attitude (disposition) became offensive (stank) in the nostrils of
the intelligent and civilized world. Our kind in the East failed
to recognize us as their long-lost brothers (the lost sheep). Our
people in the East forgot us completely, and we, too, soon forgot our
blood-ties with them.
But Almighty God ALLAH forgets not. As He promised in the Old Testament
(Mal. 4:5) that He would send ELIJAH to the “lost sheep” (the so-called
Negroes of America) in the “last days” (of the white man’s world), to
teach us the truth that would free us from our white slave master, and
turn our hearts and minds back toward our own kind (our fathers in the
East). And, in the last days of this wicked world, the hearts of our
people in the East would be turned once again toward us (Isaiah 43:5).
We who have been raised by ELIJAH from the “grave” that was dug for
us by the slave master, bear witness that this same ELIJAH, who was
predicted to come, has been raised from our midst today and is even now
with us here in America in the person of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
He is the “first begotten” from this grave of ignorance, from the midst
of we (so-called Negroes) who have long been a mentally dead people. He
is the “First Fruit” raised from us who slept, and he has been raised
from this grave by Almighty God, ALLAH Himself.
Examine his works among us, for his works are sufficient testimony to
his identity. Only a fool, or an envious person, would fail to see the
greatness of this man after examining his work. We who have been raised
from the grave by him bear witness of his work.
In a short time, Messenger Muhammad is accomplishing what our educators
and religious leaders here failed to do for 100 years, and what our
brothers from the East neglected to do. Messenger Muhammad has brought
our minds out of the sky (where the ignorant preachers had sent it),
and has made us better able to face the reality of living. He has
restored life (truth) to our long-lost dead people. Who else other than
Almighty God, ALLAH, could have given Messenger Muhammad the power to
do what all others have failed to do?
“And Allah sent down WATER from above, and therewith gives life to the
dead earth after its death. Surely there is a SIGN in this for a people
who listen.” (Quran 16:65.)
Praise be to ALLAH! Who would have believed it? An ex-slave, a man
like Moses (Deut. 18:18), to whom ALLAH has given sufficient power to
stand up and speak the truth so boldly here in the land of our bondage,
facing not only the wrath of the wicked slave master (modern Pharaoh),
but also the wrath of his own kind, who are ignorant of the truth. They
are too blind to see what is good for them. There are those also who
are jealous and envious of his Wisdom and his Divine Mission.