When the Word is Given...: A Report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Black Muslim WorldLomax, Louis E.
Religion
When the Word is Given...: A Report on Elijah Muhammad, Malcolm X, and the Black Muslim World
Lomax, Louis E.
Black Muslims
In fact, the same Negro students you are turning out today will soon be
demanding the same things you now hear being demanded by Mr. Muhammad
and the Black Muslims.
In my conclusion: I must remind you that since your own Christian bible
states that God is coming in the “last days,” or at the “end of the
Old World,” and that God’s coming would bring about a GREAT SEPARATION
... and since we see all sorts of signs throughout the earth that
indicate that THE TIME OF GOD’S COMING is upon us ... why don’t you
repent while there is yet time?
Do justice by your faithful ex-slaves. Give us some land of our own
right here, some SEPARATE STATES, so we can separate ourselves from you
... then everyone will be satisfied, and perhaps we will all be able
to then live happily ever after, as your own Christian bible says ...
“every one under his own vine and fig tree.”
Otherwise: all of you who are sitting here, your government, and your
entire race will be destroyed and removed from this earth by Almighty
God, ALLAH. I thank you.
3. MALCOLM X
ON “UNITY”
_Malcolm X delivered this speech at a so-called “unity” rally on the
streets of Harlem early in the spring of 1960. As the text indicates,
politics was in the air, and the Black Muslims were calling for “unity”
among Negro leaders._
_The stage was set for the rally when the Black Muslims telegraphed
some fifteen outstanding Negro leaders, asking them to participate in
the affair. None of them came, but this did not stop Malcolm X from
unburdening himself. Here again we see Malcolm X on the defensive, but
in a somewhat different way. In the first half of the speech Malcolm is
pulling in his horns; he is saying “unity,” “freedom,” “peace.” He is
suggesting a summit meeting of Negro leaders. “Let’s have our arguments
behind closed doors,” Malcolm shouts, “but let’s come out unified.”_
_At that juncture, however, nobody was willing to practice summitry
with the Black Muslims._
_Malcolm used this speech to point up the Black Muslim concern for
morality; he attacks the dope, crime, and prostitution of Harlem as
well as those--black and white--who thrive upon these evils._
_As expected, Malcolm concludes with the call for a separate state;
he restates his Harvard offer: the white race can be spared from
destruction if they give the Negro a separate state._
_The rally lasted five hours; thirteen black nationalist groups were
represented, and some four thousand people blocked off 125th Street and
Seventh Avenue at the peak of the rally._
AS-SALAAM-ALAIKUM, BELOVED BROTHERS AND SISTERS, WELCOME TO OUR HARLEM
FREEDOM RALLY.
When we say “our” we do not mean Muslim nor Christian, Catholic nor
Protestant, Baptist nor Methodist, Democrat nor Republican, Mason nor
Elk. By “our” Harlem Freedom, we mean the black people of Harlem, the
black people of America, and the black people all over this earth.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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