Malcolm X Speech in Los Angeles (May 5, 1962)

(applause)

In the name of Allah,
the beneficent, the merciful

to whom all praise is due,

whom we forever thank for giving us
the honorable Elijah Mohammad

as our leader, teacher, and guide.

And I specifically, ladies and gentleman,
and brothers and sisters,

open up like that because I
am a representative

of the honorable Elijah Mohammad.

And were it not for him,
you and wouldn't be here today.

In order for you and me to devise
some kind of method or strategy

to offset some of the events
or the repetition of the events

that have taken place here
in Los Angeles recently,

we have to go to the root.
We have to go to the cause.

Dealing with the condition
itself is not enough.

- We have to get to the cause of it all.
- (crowd concurs)

Or the root of it all.

And it is because of our effort
toward getting straight to the root

that people oft times think
we're dealing in hate.

But first I would like to congratulate
and give praise to the Negro,

so-called negro leaders
and so-called negro organizations

and, excuse me if I say so-called, it's hard
for me to just outright say Negro

- when I know what that word Negro really means.
- (thunderous applause)

The person whom you have
come to know as Ronald Stokes,

we know him as Brother Ron –

one of the most religious persons
to display the highest form of morals

of any black person
anywhere on this Earth.

And as one of the previous speakers
pointed out, who knew him,

everyone who knew him had to give
him credit for being a good man.

A clean man, an intelligent man,
and an innocent man

when he was murdered.

The Negro, so-called Negro, organizations
and leaders should be given

great credit for their failure or refusal
to let the white man divide them

and use them, one against the other,
during this crisis.

(thunderous applause)

As Reverend [Walkard] Wilson pointed out,
I think it was eight years ago today

that the Supreme Court handed down
the desegregation decision.

And despite the fact that eight years
have gone past, that decision

- hasn't been implemented yet.
- (applause from audience)

I don't have that much faith.

I don't have that much confidence.

I don't have that much patience.

And I don't have that much ignorance to--

(thunderous applause)

If the Supreme Court, which is
the highest lawmaking body

in the country, can pass a decision that -
can't get even eight percent compliance

within eight years, because
it's for black people,

then my patience has run out.

(applause)

When Black people who are being
oppressed become impatient,

they say that's emotional.

(murmuring)

Please, when black people who are being
deprived of their citizenship...

not only of their civil rights,
but their human rights,

become impatient, become fed up,
don't wanna wait any longer,

then they say that's emotional.

(laughter and applause)

The Negro, so-called Negro, leaders
and organizations should be praised.

They should be congratulated.

They should be complimented

because out of all of them combined,
the white man has not yet found

one who will play the role of Uncle Tom.

(thunderous applause)

But yet he has found no Tom, no puppet,
no parrot, who is still dumb enough

in 1962 to represent the injustices
that he is inflicting against our people.

(applause)

We don't care what your religion is.

We don't care what
organization you belong to.

We don't care how far
in school you went or didn't go.

We don't care what kind of job you have.

We have to give you credit
for shocking the white man

by not letting him divide you
and use you one against the other.

(applause)

In the past, the greatest weapon
the White man has had

has been his ability
to divide and conquer.

As Jackie Robinson pointed out beautifully
on the television last night,

4/5 of the world isn't white.

- Isn't that what Jackie said?
- (applause)

And if 4/5 of the world is dark,
how is it possible for 1/5

to rule, oppress, exploit, dominate,
and brutalize the 4/5

who are in the majority?
How did they do it?

Divide and conquer.

If I take my hand and slap you,
you don't even feel it.

It might sting you,
because these digits are separated.

But all I have to do to put you
back in your place is bring

- those digits together.
- (applause)

This is what the white man
has done to you and me.

He has divided us, and
used us one against the other.

But today, thanks to Allah –
You can say thanks to God,

or thanks to Jesus, or thanks to
Jehovah – whatever you want.

(applause)

But as a follower of
the honorable Elijah Muhammad,

we have been taught
to say thanks to Allah.

And that's what Jesus said.
Jesus called on Allah.

He said, "Allah! [speaks Arabic]"

I believe what's good for Jesus
is good for you.

If Allah was good enough for Jesus
to call upon, I think he

- should be good enough for you to call upon.
- (man) That's right!

Since the so-called Negro community
has shocked the white man

by resisting all efforts to divide us,

I think that you and I
should continue to shock him

by singing and working together in unity.

Despite religious, political, economic,
or educational, or social differences,

let us remember that we are not brutalized
because we're Baptists.

We're not brutalized
because we're Methodists.

We're not brutalized
because we're Muslims.

We're not brutalized
because we're Catholics.

We're brutalized because
because we are black people in America.

(applause)

Here your mother is being raped,
and you're not supposed to be emotional.

Your women – please –
your woman can't walk the street

without some cracker
putting his hands on her--

- and you're not supposed to be emotional!
- (applause)

If you say that you're fed up,
if you teach the Negro – (film skips)

- they don't even know their own name--
- (woman) That's right!

Why? Because he took took it away from her.

Please, please. 20 million Black people
don't even know their own language.

Why? Because he took it away from us.

20 million Black people who
don't even know their history

of their ancestors.
Why? Because he took it away from us!

And if you try and tell them
how thoroughly and completely

they've been robbed, he says
you're teaching hate.

(applause)

That's something to think about.

(murmuring)

Today we're coming out of college, you're
coming out of the leading universities.

You're trying to go in a good direction.

But you don't know which direction to go in.

And if somebody tries to take you
right to the root of your problem

they say that that man's a hate teacher.

If I ask why should
the Senators in Washington--

and, then again, if we tell you that negro
are being hung on the tree,

or being shot down illegally, unjustly...

and those negroes should do
something to protect themselves

you say you're advocating violence.

The white man is tricking you!
He's trapping you.

He doesn't call it violence when he
lands troops in South Vietnam.

- (applause)
- Please, please, please!

He doesn't call it violence
when he lands troops in Berlin.

When the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor,
he didn't say get non-violent.

He said, "Praise the Lord,
but pass the ammunition."

(applause)

But when someone attacks you,
when someone comes at you with a club,

when someone comes you with a rope,
when someone comes at you with a gun,

despite the fact that you've done nothing
he tells you, "Suffer peacefully."

- (murmuring)
- "Pray for those who use you to spite me."

Be long suffering.

And how long can you suffer
after suffering for 400 years?

(applause)

So I just wanna play up
that little point right there

because he said that we
play on your emotions.

And when you turn
on your television tonight,

or your radio, or read the newspaper,
they're gonna tell you in that paper

that I was playing on your emotions.

Imagine you, a second class citizen.
That's not getting emotional!

It's getting intelligent.

And as far as your mayor is concerned,
I see - should say their mayor.

A man named Yorty,

who has been slandering the Muslims,

a professional liar--
a professional liar.

(applause)

Who has mastered the art
of using half truths.

Put in the paper that they break
into our religious place of worship

and got records that they can use to prove
that most of us have criminal records.

You can't be a negro in America
and not have a criminal record.

(thunderous applause)

Martin Luther King has been to jail.

- (applause)
- Please.

James Farmer has been to jail.

Why, you can't name a black man
in this country who was sick and tired

of the hell that he's catching
who hasn't been to jail.

Charged him with being seditious.

- They put Moses in jail!
- (woman) Yeah!

- They put Daniel in jail.
- (woman) Yeah!

Why, you haven't got a man of God
in the Bible that wasn't put to jail

when they started speaking up against
exploitation and oppression.

(applause)

They charged Jesus with sedition.

- Didn't they do that?
- (crowd concurs)

They said he was against Caesar.

They said he was discriminating
because he told his disciples,

"Go not the way of the gentiles,
but rather go to the lost sheep."

He discriminated!
Don't go near the gentiles,

go to the lost sheep.
Go to the oppressed.

Go the downtrodden.
Go to the exploited.

Go the people who don't
know who they are,

who are lost from the knowledge
of themselves and who are

strangers in a land that is not theirs.

Go to those people!
Go to the slaves.

Go the second class citizens.
Go to the ones who are suffering

the brunt of Caesar's brutality.

And if Jesus were here in America today,
he wouldn't be going to the white man.

The white man is the oppressor!
He would be going to the oppressed.

He would be going to the humble.
He would be going to the lowly.

He would be going to
the rejected and the despised.

He would be going to
the so-called American negro.

(applause)

To have once been a criminal

is no disgrace.

To remain a criminal is the disgrace.

I formally was a criminal.

I formally was in prison.
I'm not ashamed of that.

You never can use that over my head.

And he's using the wrong stick!

I don't feel that stick.

(laughter and applause)

I went to a prison because I
believed in men like Sam Yorty.

I went to prison because I
trusted men like Sam Yorty.

I went to prison following the philosophy
of men like Sam Yorty.

But since I've been following
the honorable Elijah Muhammad,

I have been reformed
and that's more--please--

that's more than Sam Yorty
and Chief Parker

and all these other white politicians
that have been able to do

with the inmates in
the prisons of this state.

They should give Mr. Muhammad credit.
They should give Mr. Muhammad credit

for reforming and rehabilitating
men whom they have failed

- to reform and rehabilitate.
- (thunderous applause)

Mayor Yorty went forward
to some press report

that Mr. Muhammad had once been found
guilty of contributing to the delinquency

of a minor.

He failed to explain,
purposely, that in 1934,

the honorable Elijah Muhammad
refused to send his children

to white schools in Detroit, Michigan,
that were teaching you

about little black Sambo.

That's the minor that he contributed
to the delinquency of.

You see this vicious, fork-tongue
white man has been able

to take lies and make you turn against
those who want to help you

and make others turn against you.

This is the contributing to
the delinquency of a minor

that this mayor, or a man who calls
himself mayor, is talking about.

In the same article he said that
the Muslims are the same people

who rioted in the United Nations.

Someone should pull his coat and let
him know that at the present moment

there's six million dollars worth of suits
[inaudible] level against two

of New York's leading newspapers
for making a mistake of charging

the Muslims as being involved
in those United Nations riots.

We were not involved!

And if this fork-tongued man
who calls himself your mayor

had taken the time to find that out,
he wouldn't be walking into the trap

that he's letting his
ignorance lead him into!

(applause)

And if you take the time to read

the Washington Post that came out
the Sunday after that incident took place,

the Washington Post pointed out
on the front page that the Muslims

had nothing to do with the UN riots
and they quoted, in saying so,

the person who was at that time
the Commissioner of Police in New York City.

See, it's lies that the white man
has spread about the Muslims

to try and make you afraid of the Muslims,
or to try and make you think

that the Muslims were a criminal element,
an uncouth element in things

that you have not liked
to be associated with.

Also, they say that--
I'm just clearing these things up

and then we're going
to get into what happened.

They also say that the honorable Elijah
Muhammad was draft dodger.

No, he wasn't.

He just refused to go to the army
because he was a man of peace.

He was a minister of a religion of peace.
He was teaching peace.

So he outright refused to go to the army.

That's not draft dodging.
That's intelligence.

(cheering)

Here, before the grand jury,

because the coroner's jury
is stacked against negros.

(cheers and applause)

The Grand Jury is stacked against negros.

The press, the radio, the television
and the newspapers

- are stacked against negros.
- (crowd concurs)

But, please, the Los Angeles
Police department is stacked

against all negroes, all except those he
has appointed to high positions.

The control press, the white press
inflames the white public against negroes.

The police are able to use it
to paint the negro community

as a criminal element.

The police are able to use the press
to make the white public think

that 90%, or 99%, of the negroes in the
negro community are criminals.

And once the white public is convinced
that most of the negro community

is a criminal element, then this
automatically paves the way for the

police to move into the negro
community, exercising Gestapo tactics

stopping any black man who
is in this - on the sidewalk, whether he

is guilty or whether he is innocent.
Whether he is well dressed or whether

he is poorly dressed.
Whether he is educated or whether he is dumb.

Whether he's a Christian or whether
he's a Muslim.

As long as he is black and a member
of the negro community

the white public thinks that the white
policeman is justified

in going in there and trampling on that
mans civil rights and on that mans

human rights.
(applause)

Once the police have convinced the
white public that the so-called

negro community is a criminal element,
they can go in and question,

brutalize, murder, unarmed innocent
negroes and the white public

is gullible enough to back them up.

This makes the negro community
a police state.

This makes the negro neighborhood
a police state.

It's the most heavily patrolled.
It has more police in it than any

other neighborhood, yet it has more
crime in it than any other neighborhood.

How can you have more cops
and more crime?

(laughter)

It shows you that the cops must be
in cahoots with the criminals.

(laughter, applause)

The texture of the hair that God - please - ,
that God gave them

so much that they put lye on it.
(laughter)

Do you realise - now, you know brother;
lye will eat a hole in steel and you

know your head is not that hard.

(applause)

Who taught you - please. Who taught
you to hate the texture of your hair?

Who taught you to hate the color of
your skin to such extent that

you bleach to get like the white man?

Who taught you to hate
the shape of your nose

and the shape of your lips?
Who taught you to hate yourself

from the top of your head
to the soles of your feet?

Who taught you to hate
your own kind?

Who taught you to hate
the race that you belong to?

So much so that you don't want
to be around each other.

You know, before you come asking
Mr. Muhammed

does he teach hate?

You should ask who- yourself,
who taught you to hate

being what God gave you.
(applause)

We teach you to love the hair
that God gave you.

Here you, way out in the middle
of the ocean, can't swim

and you worried about someone
that's in the bathtub and can't swim.

(laughter and applause)

We don't steal. We don't gamble.
We don't lie, and we don't cheat.

And that also deprives the government
of revenue

(laughter)

because you can't get into a whiskey
bottle without getting

past the government seal.

You can't open a deck of cards without
getting past the government seal.

Hell, the white man makes the whiskey
then puts you in jail for getting drunk.

(cheering)

He sells you the cards and the dice
and puts you in jail when he

catches you using 'em.

So, he's against us because we fix it
where he can't catch you anymore.

We take the dice outta your hands
and the cards out of your hands

and the whiskey out of your head.

The most disrespected person in
America is the black woman.

The most unprotected person in
America is the black woman.

The most neglected person in
America is the black woman.

And as Muslims, the honorable
Elijah Mohammad teaches us

to respect our women
and to protect our women.

And the only time a Muslim really
gets real violent is when

someone goes to molest his woman.
- (man) right!

(applause)

We will kill you for our woman.

I'm making it plain. Yes.
We will kill you for our woman.

(applause)

We believe that if the white man
will do whatever is necessary

to see that his woman gets respect
and protection

then you and I will never be
recognised as men

until we stand up like men
and place the same penalty

over the head of anyone who puts
his filthy hands in the direction

of our women.

(thunderous applause)

We respect them, but we want them
to respect us.

We think that the law should respect
the negro community.

The law should protect
the negro community.

The law should approach the negro
community with intelligence if it

expects the negro community to
react intelligently.

So, the honorable Elijah Mohammed
teaches us

to always avoid anything that smacks
of disrespect for the law.

And if the police department tells the
truth, the will have to admit

that they have never had any, uh,
experiences with Muslims that

have ever been anything other
than honorable

unless they themselves come at us
in a dishonorable way.

There's no case against the Muslims.

It has no case against these brothers
whom they shot down.

And because it has no case,
it's trying to create a case.

It's trying to manufacture a case.

And therefore they set up a grand jury
hearing of the case so that they

could hear it behind closed doors,
and after hearing what we have to say

then they'll- their particular strategy
or defense against the actions

that they committed on that April
the 27th.

So, at the advice of our attorneys,
we purposefully, the victims,

those who have been indicted, or
rather those who have been arrested

and are out on bond, have purposefully
refrained and refused from making

any statement whatsoever until after
the case appears in court.

And when you hear their story
it will be in a public trial.

We have already been - had
experience with these private hearings

behind closed doors.

Anything that the white man has to
do to the Muslim,

he has to do it in the open.

He has to do it in public, or he has to
put every single one of us

behind bars for the rest our our lives.

(applause)

When Mayor Yorty called for a
government investigation

of a religious group that have the
highest moral standards

of any group in the negro community,
Mayor Yorty was giving you an

example of what Hitler did in Nazi
Germany when he began to go

on the rampage.

(applause)

We feel, we have confidence that
the white public and the black public,

if they hear our case, if they hear and
have access to the investigation,

will never be fooled by this phony
set up that's stacked from the top

all the way down.

And if you doubt it, when you leave home
tonight, when you go home tonight

look for the press.
I'd like at this time to call forth

these brothers who are under, uh,
who were arrested.

The brothers who were arrested. Come
up here behind these chairs, please.

(applause)

They were suspects.
(laughter)

This wouldn't happen in a
white neighborhood.

White man can walk down the street
with packages on his head

packages under his arm
and packages anywhere else

and won't anybody question his
right to carry those packages.

But a negro is suspect because
the press makes you suspect.

Yes, the white press makes negroes
suspect.

- (murmuring)
- (video skips)

All the information you need, Officer.

And the Officer made one stay at the
rear of the car and the

other go to the front of the car,
and while he was taking the one

to the one to the front of the car,
the polite attitude, the humble if,

the submissive, intelligent peaceful
spirit that he uexpectedly found

in this negro infuriated him.
And he began to - he told

the brother; 'put down your hands.'
Brother was talking, he's not a criminal.

A man has a right on the
sidewalk to talk with his hands.

'Put down your hands, don't talk with
your hands.'

And when the brother continued to
gesture with his hands

the Officer grabbed his hand, twisted
it around, 'round behind his back

flung him up against the car
and then that's when hell broke loose.

That was when hell broke loose.

A struggle ensued, shots were fired
by the police

and by a negro door shaker.

(laughter)

An alarm went out.

When the alarm went out, instead
of the police going to the place

where the incident occurred,
the police went one block away

to the temple.

When they arrived there, they got out
of their cars with their guns smokin'.

You woulda thought it was Wyatt -
what his name?

Wyatt Earp.

I'm telling you, they came out of those
cars, and we have enough

witnesses to hang 'em.

With their guns smokin'.

Cheif Parker knows this,
Mayor Yorty knows this

and every police official in the city
knows that.

They didn't fire no warning shots in
the air

they fired warning shots point blank at
innocent, unarmed,

defenseless negroes.

As I say, two of the brothers were
shot in the back.

Another was shot in the shoulder.

Another was shot, two of them were
shot, excuse the expression,

through the penis.

(murmuring)

Another was shot in the hip and the
bullet came out the other side.

But Arthur here was shot 1/4 of an
inch from his heart.

Let me tell you something, and I'll tell
you why you say 'we hate white people'.

We don't hate anybody.

We love our own people so much,
they think we hate the ones who

are inflicting injustice against them.

- (applause)
- (video skips)

Who has been shot, the bullet
having passed a 1/4 of an

inch through his heart.

I'm not gonna let him talk, which
I think you can understand why.

You should listen to the conversation
of the police officers

while it was going on.

Two of the brothers who had been shot,
who were lying hand in hand,

the officer said they were chanting a
death chant.

You read that.

They were saying 'Allahu Akbar'.
What does that mean?

It means that God is the greatest.
It means that God is the greatest.

(applause)

Understand what the white officer called
a death chant was a prayer.

They were praying when they
were shot down.

They were saying Allhu Akbar.

And it shook the officer up that they
haven't heard black people talk

any kinda talk but what they taught 'em.

And two of the brothers who were shot
in the back were telling me that

as they lay on the sidewalk, they
were holding hands.

They held hands with each other
saying Allahu Akbar.

And the blood was seeping out of
them where the police bullets

had torn into their insides.
Still, they said Allahu Akbar

and the police came and kicked them
in the head.

Police kicked them in the head
telling them to shut up that noise

while they were laying on the sidewalk
in front of our temple.

Kicked them in the head.

Shut up that noise. And one of them,
when he was on his way to the

police station in the ambulance,
one of the ambulance attendants

told the white cop, 'why don't you
kill the nigger?'

He said, 'I'll tell them that he tried
to get away. Why don't you

kill the nigger? While you got a chance.
I'll swear that he tried to get away.'

If he didn't say this, then I need to
be put in jail, and I'll gladly go.

(applause)

One of them who was being taken to
jail in a police car

as the ambulance sirens were coming
to the place, one of the policeman

said to the other: 'what are the
ambulances rushing for? Nothing

but some niggers.'
So, he looked then and saw the Muslim

brothers sitting beside him
and he shut up.

But after he got to the jail, the same
officer that said this

turned to the brother and said; 'I hope
that you didn't get offended by

what I said back there under the heat
of emotion, because some of my

best friends are colored.'

(roaring)

That's what he said.

That's his password: 'Some of my best
friends are colored.'

And I for one, as a Muslim, believe
that the white man is intelligent

enough, if he were made to realise
how black people really feel

and how fed up we are without that
whole compromising sweet talk.

Why you're the one that make it
hard for yourself.

The white man believes you when you
go to him with that old sweet talk

'cause you been sweet talkin' him
ever since he brought you here.

Stop sweet talking him.
Tell him how you feel.

Tell him how or what kinda hell you
been catching

and let him know that if he's not ready
to clean his house up

if hes not ready to clean his house up,
he shouldn't have a house.

It should catch on fire. And burn down.

(applause)

As Muslims, we identify ourselves with
the dark world.

So we're not any minority.
We're apart of the majority

and the white man is the minority.

(applause)

You have to know this to understand us:
we don't think any odds are

against us.

We don't fight a battle like the odds
are against us.

Why, the whole dark world today
is in unity.

It's one. If you don't
think so, look at the United Nations.

When the dark world votes,
they vote as one.

They gettin' the colonialists out of Africa,
and out of Asia.

Tellin' them to get out.
They don't have any nuclear weapons

but they got a solid, united voice
and their unity alone is sufficient

to drive the oppressor and exploiter
of their people out of their own country.

You and I need to learn a lesson from
that right there.

In the UN, the dark world consists of
Buddhist's, Hindu's, Shinto's,

Taoist's, Christian's, Muslims,
everything.

But they're together.

They forget their religious and
political differences.

They think as one.
They move as one

against a common enemy.

And [inaudible] of Algeria, he's
going, don't think he's not going,

he's going.

(applause)

They're getting him out of Angola,
out of Tanganyika, out of Angola,

Out of Uganda, out of Kenya.
He's going from South Africa, too.

He hasn't got long to be there.

All over this earth, dark people who
have been oppressed and exploited

by those who are not their own kind,
strangers, are coming together to

get the oppressor off their back.

You and I learn a lesson from that.

We are oppressed.

We are exploited.

We are downtrodden.

We are denied, not only civil rights,
but even human rights.

So, the only way we're going to get
some of this oppression

and exploitation away from us,
or aside from us

is come together against the
common enemy.

(applause)

When they sat down at the Bandung
conference, everyone there

had this in common: a dark skin.

Some of those who were sitting there
were socialists, some were communists,

some where capitalists, some were
Christian, some were Buddhist.

They were everything!
But all of 'em was dark skinned.

And they looked at that dark skin
and agreed that this is

one thing they had in common.

Forget that you're a Methodist,
forget that you're a Catholic,

forget that you're a Protestant,
forget that you're a Muslim.

Remember that all of us are black,

and we're catching h -