Remembering Malcolm X... excerpts from the Ballot or the Bullet

As we celebrate the birth of Malcolm X on May 19, we must recognize the impact he had on our lives before his passing and even more so after his death.

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become politically mature, we will always be misled, led astray, or deceived, or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn’t have the good of our community at heart. So the political philosophy of Black

As we celebrate the birth of Malcolm X on May 19, we must recognize the impact he had on our lives before his passing and even more so after his death. Malcolm’s teachings are still prevalent today.

The phrase “history repeats itself” is one we tend to marvel at in disbelief. When we look at the current issues we are facing, events surrounding, Voting Rights, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and the inequalities relative to the quality of life and death, racial disparities, the political climate, and the struggle for “basic” human rights--it is unbelievable that these issues are uniquely similar to the issue that Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr. fought for in their time. To me, the battle is the same.

In fact, for all the advances and glass ceilings we break, we are still treated and looked at, by many, as less than... We must recognize our collective values, unite, and work together to achieve equal human rights.

The Ballot or the Bullet (excerpts)

Malcolm X shared some of his views in a now-historic speech entitled “The Ballot or the Bullet,” though we think we have grown and developed as a nation and a people, many of the same concerns he spoke of are still relevant now, more than 60 years later.

Here are some excerpts from “The Ballot or the Bullet” speech made by Malcolm X on April 12, 1964, at King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, just a month after he left the Nation of Islam.