Malcolm X: “The Ballot or the Bullet”

About the Author

Malcolm X was born Malcolm Little on May 19, 1925, in Omaha, Nebraska. The family soon moved to Lansing, Michigan, where the six-year-old Malcolm's father was killed in 1931—possibly murdered by members of the Black Legion, a local Ku Klux Klan group. A good student, Malcolm nevertheless got into trouble early. He admired the energy and intelligence of criminals and soon became involved with the numbers racket and drugs. It did not help that his mother was committed to a mental institution and that having lost both parents he was placed in foster care. Living with his sister failed to provide enough stability for the unruly teenager, and at the age of twenty-one he was sent to prison for burglary, larceny, breaking and entering, and carrying a firearm.

Prison life provided Malcolm with the time to reflect on his criminal behavior and absorb the teachings of the Nation of Islam, a black nationalist and religious organization whose members are often called Black Muslims. During Malcolm X's life, the Nation of Islam proclaimed a belief in Allah as the supreme being and followed a theology that emphasized the freedom of the black man and the need to establish a self-governing and, if necessary, separate black nation. Malcolm came to see much of his lawbreaking as a response to a repressive white society. At the same time, however, he did not absolve himself of responsibility for his actions. On the contrary, his fellow Black Muslim prisoners demanded that he take control of his own life rather than blame his plight on others. Only when Malcolm reformed himself, they counseled, could he set out to reform the world. Malcolm left prison with a new name, Malcolm X, jettisoning the last name he associated with his race's slave heritage. He became a preacher for the Nation of Islam, which called upon African Americans to develop their own independence and not base their sense of self-worth on the dictates of the white power structure.

A powerful public speaker, Malcolm X became the most well-known representative of the Nation of Islam. As his public speeches show, however, his appeal was not merely to audiences of Black Muslims or those who might wish to convert to the Nation of Islam but to African Americans of all creeds. Malcolm X presented himself as an alternative to the civil rights movement led by Martin Luther King, Jr., and other ministers steeped in the Christian tradition. While Malcolm X initially scorned the tactics of nonviolence and advocated self-defense in a revolutionary cause, at the same time—as is evident in his speech “The Ballot or the Bullet”—he was seeking ways to unite all African Americans in recognizing their oppression and urge them to create their own strong, self-governing communities.

As Malcolm X's understanding of the racial divide in America deepened, his last speeches—especially those in the last year of his life—exemplify a move away from sectarian beliefs. He sought new ways of binding the black community together and finding power at the grassroots level. His hope was that his views might triumph without the need for the bloody revolutions he had previously extolled as the only way to achieve freedom and dignity. Although his rhetoric against whites could seem quite harsh, he could be hard on the black community and its leaders as well. His speeches bristle with dynamism that make change seem not merely desirable but inevitable. Not afraid to dramatize the consequences of racial strife, Malcolm X also called for African Americans to scrutinize their own collaboration in second-class citizenship. By noting just how far America had fallen short of its democratic ideals, he also drew the support of many white critics of society. Indeed, his appeal enlarged the audience for black leaders even as he was redefining the conception of black leadership. This is why his speeches do not hesitate to attack those prominent black public figures who seem, in his view, to act in league with white leaders rather than develop an independent politics.

That Malcolm X eventually broke free from Elijah Muhammad, who had assumed leadership of the Nation of Islam in 1931, can be seen as an extension of his quest to develop a style of leadership entirely his own. His death on February 21, 1965, was viewed, in part, as the result of his unwillingness to submit to Elijah Muhammad's authority. (Two of his three assassins were Black Muslims.) But his death also confirmed his central position as a new kind of leader, seeking unity for his people in ways that conformed neither to the black separatist movement associated with the Nation of Islam nor to the integrationist movement led by King. Malcolm X's death cut short his effort to find a third way to freedom and equality, but his speeches give testimony to his relentless effort to speak truth to empower and galvanize people from the ground up.