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Appeal
to African Heads of State
Speech
by Malcolm X
Chairman, Organization of Afro-American
Unity
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Throughout June, 1964,
MALCOLM X spoke, agitated, educated and organized to
create a new, non-religious movement to promote black
unity and work for freedom “by any means necessary.”
On June 28, this new movement was born under the name of
the Organization of Afro-American Unit, its “statement
of basic aims and objectives” was released to the
public, and Malcolm was designated chairman.
Shortly thereafter, on
July 9, Malcolm again left the United States for Africa
and the Middle East. His immediate objective was to
attend the “African Summit”—the second meeting of
the Organization of African Unity, which had been formed
in 1963 to bring about joint action by the independent
African governments.
The OAU conference was
held in Cairo July 17–21, and was attended by nearly
all the heads of the thirty-four member states. The
welcoming address was made by President Gamal Abdel
Nasser of the United Arab Republic who, while reviewing
the events of the previous year, hailed the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 that had recently been enacted in the United
States.
Malcolm was accepted
as an observer at the conference. In this capacity he
was permitted to submit to the delegates an eight-page
memorandum urging their support of the Negro struggle in
the United States and their help in bring the plight of
the American Negro before the United Nations. The
memorandum, which follows, was delivered to the
delegates on July 17, one day before the events that
came to be called “the Harlem riots.” |
Your Excellencies:
The Organization of Afro-American Unity has
sent me to attend this historic African summit conferences as an
observer to represent the interests of 22 million
African-American whose human rights are being violated daily by the racism of American
imperialists.
The Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU)
has been formed by a cross-section of America’s
African-American community, and is patterned after the letter
and spirit of the Organization of African Unity (OAU).
Just as the Organization of African Unity has
called upon all African leaders to submerge their differences
and unite on common objectives for the common good of all
Africans—in America the Organization of Afro-American Unity has
called upon Afro-American leaders to submerge their differences
and find areas of agreement wherein we can work in unity for the
good of the entire 22 million African-Americans.
Since the 22 million of us were originally
Africans, who are now in America, not by choice but only by a
cruel accident in our history, we strongly believe that African
problems are our problems and our problems are African problems.
Your Excellencies:
We also believe that as heads of the
Independent African states you are the shepherd of all
African peoples everywhere, whether they are still at home on
the mother continent or have been scattered abroad.
Some African leaders at this conference have
implied that they have enough problems here on the mother
continent without adding the Afro-American problem.
With all due respect to your esteemed
positions, I must remind all of you that the good shepherd will
leave ninety-nine sheep, who are safe at home, to go to the aid
of the one who is lost and has fallen into the clutches of the
imperialist wolf.
We, in America, are your long-lost brothers
and sisters, and I am here only to remind you that our problems
are your problems. As the African-Americans “awaken” today,
we find ourselves in a strange land that has rejected us, and,
like the prodigal son, we are turning to our elder brothers for
help. We pray our pleas will not fall upon deaf ears.
We were taken forcibly in chains from this
mother continent and have now spend over 300 years in America,
suffering the most inhuman forms of physical and psychological
tortures imaginable.
During the past ten years the entire world
has witnessed our men, women, and children being attacked and
bitten by vicious police dogs, brutally beaten by police clubs,
and washed down the sewers by high-pressure water hoses that
would rip the clothes from our bodies and the flesh from our
limbs.
And all of these inhuman atrocities have been
inflicted upon us by the American governmental authorities, the
police themselves, for no reason other than we seek the
recognition and respect granted our human beings in America.
Your Excellencies:
The American government is either unable or
unwilling to protect the lives and property of your 22 million
African-American brothers and sisters. We stand defenseless, at
the mercy of American racists who murder us at will for no
reason other than we are black and of African descent.
Two black bodies were found in the
Mississippi River this week; last week an unarmed
African-American educator was murdered in cold blood in Georgia;
a few days before that three civil-rights workers disappeared
completely, perhaps murdered also, only because they were
teaching our people in Mississippi how to vote and how to secure
their political rights.
Our problems are your problems We have lived
for over 300 years in that American den of racist wolves in
constant fear of losing life and limb. Recently, three students
from Kenya were mistaken for American Negroes and were brutally
beaten by New York police. Shortly after that, two diplomats
from Uganda were also beaten by the New York City police, who
mistook them for American Negroes.
If Africans are brutally beaten while only
visiting in America, imagine the physical and psychological
suffering received by your brothers and sisters who have lived
there for over 300 years.
Our problem is your problem. No matter how
much independence Africans get here on the mother continent,
unless you wear your national dress at all times, when you visit
America, you may be mistaken for one of us and suffer the same
psychological humiliation and physical mutilation that is an
everyday occurrence in our lives.
Your problems will never be fully solved
until and unless ours are solved. You will never be fully
respected until and unless we are also respected. You will never
be recognized as free human beings until and unless we are also
recognized and treated as human beings.
Our problem is your problem. It is not a
Negro problem, nor an American problem. This is a world problem;
a problem for humanity. It is not a problem of civil rights but
a problem of human rights.
If the United States Supreme Court justice,
Arthur Goldberg, a few weeks ago, could find legal grounds to
threaten to bring Russia before the United Nations and charge
her with violating the human rights of less than three million
Russian Jews, what makes our African brothers hesitate to bring
the Untied States government before the United Nations and
charge her with violating the human rights of 22 million
African-Americans?
We pray that our African brothers have not
freed themselves of European colonialism only to be overcome and
held in check now by American dollarism.
Don’t let American racism be “legalized” by American
dollarism.
America is worse than South Africa, because
not only is America racist, but she also is deceitful and
hypocritical. South Africa preaches segregation and practices
segregation. She, at least, practices what she preaches.
American preaches integration and practices segregation. She
preaches one thing while deceitfully practicing another.
South Africa is like a vicious wolf, openly
hostile towards black humanity. But America is cunning like a
fox, friendly and smiling, but even more vicious and deadly than
the wolf.
The wolf and the fox are both enemies of
humanity; both are canine; both humiliate and mutilate their
victims. Both have the same objectives, but differ only in
methods.
If South Africa is guilty of violating the
human rights of Africans here on the mother continent, then
America is guilty of worse violations of 22 million Africans on
the American continent. And if South Africa racism is not a
domestic issue, then American racism also is not a domestic
issue.
Many of you have been led to believe that the
much publicized, recently passed civil-rights bill is a sign
that America is making a sincere effort to correct the
injustices we have suffered there. This propaganda maneuver is
part of her deceit and trickery to keep the African nations from
condemning her racist practices before the United Nations, as
you are now doing as regards the same practices of South Africa.
The United States Supreme Court passed a law
ten years ago making America’s segregated school system
illegal. But the federal government has yet to enforce this law
even in the North. If the federal government cannot enforce the
law of the highest court in the land when it comes to nothing
but equal rights to education for African Americans, how can
anyone be so naïve as to think all the additional laws brought
into being by the civil-rights bill will be enforced?
These are nothing but tricks of the
century’s leading neo-colonialist power. Surely, our
intellectually mature African brothers will not fall for this
trickery.
The Organization of Afro-American Unity, in
cooperation with a coalition of other Negro leaders and
organizations, has decided to elevate our freedom struggle above
the domestic level of civil rights. We intend to
“internationalize” it by placing it at the level of human
rights. Our freedom struggle for human dignity is no longer
confined to the domestic jurisdiction of the United States
government.
We beseech the independent African states to
help us bring our problem before the United Nations, on the
grounds that the United States government is morally incapable
of protecting the lives and the property of 22 million
African-Americans. And on the grounds that our deteriorating
plight is definitely becoming a threat to world peace.
Out of frustration and hopelessness our young
people have reached the point of no return. We no longer endorse
patience and turning-the-other-cheek. We assert the right of
self-defense by whatever means necessary, and reserve the right
of maximum retaliation against our racist oppressors, no matter
what the odds against us are.
From here on in, if we must die anyway, we
will die fighting back and we will not die alone. We intend to
see that our racist oppressors also get a taste of death.
We are well aware that our future efforts to
defend ourselves by retaliating—by meeting violence with
violence, eye for eye and tooth for tooth—could create the
type of racial conflict in America that could easily escalate
into a violent, world-wide, bloody race war.
In the interests of world peace and security,
we beseech the heads of the independent African states to
recommend an immediate investigation into our problem by the
United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
If this humble plea that I am voicing at this
conference is not properly worded, then let our elder brothers,
who know the legal language, come to our aid and word our plea
in the proper language necessary for it to be heard.
One last word, my beloved brothers at this
African summit:
“No one knows the master better than his
servant.” We have been servants in America for over 300 years.
We have a thorough, inside knowledge of this man who calls
himself “Uncle Sam.” Therefore, you must heed our warning:
Don’t escape from European colonialism only to become even
more enslaved by deceitful, “friendly” American dollarism.
May Allah’s blessings of good health and
wisdom be upon you all. Salaam Alaikum.
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Malcolm X Speaks • George Breitman, editor • © Copyright 1965
by Merit Publishers and Betty Shabazz • Grove Press • New
York, NY 10003
Remembering
Malcolm
Malcolm X Videos posted 21 February 2006
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Malcolm X
artifacts unearthed—Police docs and more found among
belongs of 'Shorty' Jarvis—1 February 2012—Documents
outlining the crime that landed Malcolm X in prison in
the 1940s are among some 1,000 recently unearthed items
purchased jointly by the civil rights leader's
foundation and an independent collector of
African-American artifacts. The documents and other
artifacts belonged to late musician Malcolm "Shorty"
Jarvis, who served in prison with Malcolm X and was one
of his closest friends. Jarvis' 1976 pardon paper also
is part of the collection, which was recently discovered
by accident. The items had been in a Connecticut storage
unit that had gone into default, and were initially
auctioned off to a buyer who had no idea what he was
bidding on. The Omaha, Nebraska-based Malcolm X Memorial
Foundation, which oversees the Malcolm X Center located
at his birthplace, will house and display the
just-arrived archives. It split the cost with Black
History 101 Mobile Museum, based in Detroit—the
birthplace of the Nation of Islam.—Mobile Museum founder
and curator Khalid el-Hakim declined to identify the
original buyer or the price the two organizations paid
for the trove. Still, even after splitting the cost, he
said it's the largest acquisition to date for his mobile
museum, which includes Jim Crow-era artifacts, a Ku Klux
Klan hood and signed documents by Malcolm X and Rosa
Parks. . . . The collection also reveals an enduring
connection between the two Malcolms after their
incarceration, Malcolm X's conversion to Islam and his
rise to prominence. There's a 72-page scrapbook of
Malcolm X's life that was maintained by Jarvis until
after his friend's 1965 assassination. One of the civil
rights era's most controversial and compelling figures,
Malcolm X rose to fame as the chief spokesman of the
Nation of Islam, a movement started in Detroit more than
80 years ago. He proclaimed the black Muslim
organization's message at the time: racial separatism as
a road to self-actualization and urged blacks to claim
civil rights "by any means necessary" and referred to
whites as "devils."—TheGrio
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Malcolm X
A Life of Reinvention
By
Manning Marable
Years
in the making-the definitive biography of
the legendary black activist.
Of the great figure in twentieth-century
American history perhaps none is more
complex and controversial than Malcolm X.
Constantly rewriting his own story, he
became a criminal, a minister, a leader, and
an icon, all before being felled by
assassins' bullets at age thirty-nine.
Through his tireless work and countless
speeches he empowered hundreds of thousands
of black Americans to create better lives
and stronger communities while establishing
the template for the self-actualized,
independent African American man. In death
he became a broad symbol of both resistance
and reconciliation for millions around the
world. |
Manning Marable's
new biography of Malcolm is a stunning achievement.
Filled with new information and shocking revelations
that go beyond the Autobiography, Malcolm X unfolds a
sweeping story of race and class in America, from the
rise of Marcus Garvey and the Ku Klux Klan to the
struggles of the civil rights movement in the fifties
and sixties.
Reaching into
Malcolm's troubled youth, it traces a path from his
parents' activism through his own engagement with the
Nation of Islam, charting his astronomical rise in the
world of Black Nationalism and culminating in the
never-before-told true story of his assassination.
Malcolm X will stand as the definitive work on one of
the most singular forces for social change, capturing
with revelatory clarity a man who constantly strove, in
the great American tradition, to remake himself anew.
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21 February 2006—41 years ago, Malcolm X
was gunned down at the Audubon Ballroom
in Harlem
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Spectres of 1919: Class and Nation in the
Making of the New Negro
By
Barbara Foley
Foley's book is a lucid
and useful one... A heavyweight
intervention, it prompts significant
rethinking of the ideological and
representational strategies structuring the
era.—Journal
of American Studies
Foley
does a masterful job of analyzing the racial
and political theories of a wide range of
black and white figures, from the radical
Left to the racist Right... Students of
African American political and cultural
history in the early twentieth century
cannot ignore this book. Essential.—Choice
In our
current time of crisis, when ruling classes
busily promote nationalism and racism to
conceal the class nature of their
inter-imperialist rivalries, one can only
hope that readers will not be daunted by
Foley's dedication to analyzing the
ideological milieu of the 1920s that
contributed to the eclipse of New Negro
radicalism by New Negro nationalism.—Science
& Society
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update
5 February 2012
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