On Black people and war

Malcolm X, 10 November 1963

[On Nov. 10, 1963, the revolutionary Black nationalist Malcolm X (Al Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) gave a powerful speech directed to a predominantly African American audience in Detroit. Entitled Message to the Grass Roots, it focused on different forms of revolution. This was almost two years before the United States widened its military presence in Vietnam and Southeast Asia and also before Malcolm's historic 1964 trip to Mecca and Africa. Later, on his return to the United States, Malcolm began to develop a worldwide class view toward racism and imperialism, but he was assassinated in 1965. Here are some excerpts from Malcolm X's 1963 talk that ring as true today as they did almost 40 years ago.]

Look at the American Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. ... The French Revolution—what was it based on? The landless against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost, was no compromise, was no negotiation....

The Russian Revolution—what was it based on? Land, the landless against the landlord. How did they bring it about? Bloodshed. You haven't got a revolution that doesn't involve bloodshed. ... As long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the Japanese, you bled ... but when it comes to seeing your own churches being bombed and little Black girls murdered, you haven't got any blood...

How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you were in Korea? How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and Alabama, when your churches are being bombed, and your little girls are being murdered, and at the same time you are going to get violent with Hitler, and Tojo, and somebody else you don't even know?

If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it is wrong to be violent defending black women and black children and black babies and black men, then it is wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here in this country.