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{{Short description|1964 public speech by Malcolm X}}
[[File:Malcolm X NYWTS 2a.jpg|right|thumb|Malcolm X, March 1964]]
{{listen |filename=MALCOLM_X-_THE_BALLOT_OR_THE_BULLET_April_12_1964_.ogg |title=Clip from "The Ballot or the Bullet" |description=The first 45 seconds of "The Ballot or the Bullet" as given April 12, 1964 in Detroit }}
"'''The Ballot or the Bullet'''" is the title of a [[public speaking|public speech]] by [[human rights]] activist [[Malcolm X]]. In the speech, which was delivered on two occasions the first being April 3, 1964, at the Cory Methodist Church in [[Cleveland]],
==Background==
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===The Civil Rights Act of 1964===
{{details|Civil Rights Act of 1964}}
In June 1963, President [[John F. Kennedy]] sent [[United States Congress|Congress]] a civil rights bill. The bill proposed a ban on discrimination based on race, religion, sex, or national origin in jobs and public accommodations. [[Southern Democrats]] (sometimes called Dixiecrats, though the term is ambiguous and more properly refers to [[Dixiecrats|a short-lived separate political party]]), blocked the bill from consideration by the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]]
After Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] threw his support behind the civil rights bill. The bill was passed by the House on February 10, 1964, and sent to the [[United States Senate|Senate]] for consideration. Southern Democrats had promised to oppose the bill.
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{{quote|1=It's time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we have the same problem, a common problem — a problem that will make you catch hell whether you're a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether you're educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, you're going to catch hell just like I am.}}
===The ballot===
Malcolm X noted that 1964 was an election year, a year "when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community ... with their false promises which they don't intend to keep".<ref name="Speaks25">''Malcolm X Speaks'', p. 25.</ref> He said that President Johnson and the Democratic Party claimed to support the civil rights bill, and the Democrats controlled both the House of Representatives and the Senate, but they had not taken genuine action to pass the bill. Instead, he said, the Democrats blamed the Dixiecrats, who were "nothing but Democrat[s] in disguise". He accused the Democrats of playing a "political con game", with African Americans as its victims.<ref>''Malcolm X Speaks'', p. 28.</ref>
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Although he advocated exercising the ballot, Malcolm X expressed skepticism that voting would bring about full equality for African Americans. The government, he said, "is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of Black people in this country.... This government has failed the Negro".<ref name="Speaks31">''Malcolm X Speaks'', p. 31.</ref>
According to Malcolm, one of the ways in which the government had "failed the Negro" was its unwillingness to enforce the law. He pointed out that the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] had outlawed segregation
{{quote|1=Whenever you are going after something that is yours, you are within your legal rights to lay claim to it. And anyone who puts forth any effort to deprive you of that which is yours, is breaking the law, is a criminal. And this was pointed out by the Supreme Court decision. It outlawed segregation. Which means a segregationist is breaking the law.}}
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The proper solution, Malcolm X said, was to elevate the struggle of African Americans from one of [[civil rights]] to one of [[human rights]]. A fight for civil rights was a domestic matter, and "no one from the outside world can speak out in your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle".<ref name="Speaks34">''Malcolm X Speaks'', p. 34.</ref>
Malcolm said that changing the fight for African
===Black nationalism===
Malcolm X described his continued commitment to [[black nationalism]], which he defined as the philosophy that African Americans should govern their own communities. He said that Black nationalists believe that African Americans should control the politics and the economy in their communities and that they need to remove the vices, such as alcoholism and drug addiction, that afflict their communities.<ref>''Malcolm X Speaks'', pp. 38–39.</ref>
Malcolm said that the philosophy of Black nationalism was being taught in the major civil rights organizations, including the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People|NAACP]], [[Congress of Racial Equality|CORE]], and [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee|SNCC]].<ref name="Speaks38" />
Black nationalism was characterized by its political, social, and economic philosophies. The political philosophy is self-government. The local governments of the African
{{quote|1=Don't be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don't throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.}}
The economic philosophy of black nationalism promotes African
{{quote|1=Then you wonder why where you live is always a ghetto or a slum area. And where you and I are concerned, not only do we lose it when we spend it out of the community, but the white man has got all our stores in the community tied up; so that though we spend it in the community, at sundown the man who runs the store takes it over across town somewhere.}}
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When Malcolm X spoke of "the type of Black man on the scene in America today [who] doesn't intend to turn the other cheek any longer",<ref name="Speaks25" /> he was addressing his followers, people who were not advocates of the non-violent approach generally favored by the Civil Rights Movement. Likewise, by stating his continued commitment to Black nationalism, Malcolm reassured his followers that he had not made a complete break with his past.<ref>Cone, pp. 194–195.</ref>
One biographer notes that Malcolm was one of the first African
===Rhetoric===
"The Ballot or the Bullet" further indicates a shift in Malcolm X's rhetoric, as his separation from the Nation of Islam and new, unfettered public activism prompted a change in the ways he addressed his audience. Malcolm X maintained his use of repetition as "communications of the passion that is satisfied by a single statement, but that beats through the pulses",<ref>{{cite journal |title=The Rhetoric of Malcolm X |first=John |last=Illo |url=http://www.bookrags.com/criticism/malcolm-x-19251965/3/#gsc.tab=0 |journal=Columbia University Forum |date=Spring 1966 |volume=9 |issue=2 |pages=5–12 |access-date=April 17, 2016 }}</ref> and this can be exemplified by his consistent use of the phrase "the ballot or the bullet". In addition, Malcolm X
==References==
===Footnotes===
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==External links==
{{Portal|United States}}
*[https://
{{Malcolm X}}
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