Malcolm
X
Born:
Malcolm Little, May 19, 1925, Omaha, Nebraska
Died:
El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, February 21, 1965, Audubon
Ballroom, Harlem, New York City
God’s
Judgment of White America
(The Chickens Come Home to Roost)
New
York City, December 4, 1963
Edited by Benjamin Karim
When
this speech was delivered, Malcolm X was at the height of
his influence as a minister and spokesman for the Nation of
Islam. He was largely credited with increasing NOI national
membership to 30,000 from an estimated 500 in 1952, the year
Malcolm left prison as a follower of the Honorable Elijah
Muhammad.
Shortly
after making this speech, Malcolm was asked his opinion on
the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the previous
month. Malcolm replied that Kennedy “never foresaw that
the chickens would come home to roost so soon" –
the reason some call this Malcolm’s “Chickens Come
Home To Roost” speech. The remark set off a firestorm,
leading Elijah Muhammad to sentence his spokesman to 90 days
of silence. Malcolm formally broke with the NOI in March 1964,
to found the Muslim Mosque, Inc. (See the Official
Malcolm X Web Site.)
Benjamin
Karim, Malcolm’s Assistant Minister, edited this speech
and three others that can be accessed at Karim’s web
site, The
End of White World Supremacy. We have taken the liberty
of beginning the text about one-third the way into the speech.
White
America is doomed! Death and devastating destruction hang
at this very moment in the skies over America. But why must
her divine execution take place? Is it too late for her to
avoid this catastrophe?
All
the prophets of the past listed America as number one among
the guilty that would be too proud, and too blind, to repent
and atone when God's last Messenger is raised in her midst
to warn her. America's last chance, her last warning, is coming
from the lips of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad today. Accept
him and be saved; reject him and be damned!
It
is written that White America will reject him; it is also
written that White America will be damned and doomed ... and
the prophets who make these prophecies are never wrong in
their divine predictions.
White
America refuses to study, reflect, and learn a lesson from
history; ancient Egypt didn't have to be destroyed. It was
her corrupt government, the crooked politicians, who caused
her destruction. Pharaoh hired Hebrew magicians to try and
fool their own people into thinking they would soon be integrated
into the mainstream of that country's life. Pharaoh didn't
want the Hebrews to listen to Moses' message of separation.
Even in that day separation was God's solution to the "slave's
problem." By opposing Moses, the magicians were actually
choosing sides against the God of their own people.
In
like manner, modern Negro magicians are hired by the American
government to oppose The Honorable Elijah Muhammad today.
They pose as Negro "leaders." They have been hired
by this white government (white so-called liberals) to make
our people here think that integration into this doomed white
society will soon solve our problem.
The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad warns us daily: The only permanent
solution to America's race problem is the complete separation
of these twenty-two million ex-slaves from our white slave
master, and the return of these ex-slaves to our own land,
where we can then live in peace and security among our people.
The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad warns us daily: The American government
is trying to trick her twenty-two million ex-slaves with promises
that she never intends to keep. The crooked politicians in
the government are working with the Negro civil rights leaders,
but not to solve the race problem. The greedy politicians
who run this government give lip service to the civil rights
struggle only to further their own selfish interests. And
their main interest as politicians is to stay in power.
In
this deceitful American game of power politics, the Negroes
(i.e., the race problem, the 
integration
and civil rights issues) are nothing but tools, used by one
group of whites called Liberals against another group of whites
called Conservatives, either to get into power or to remain
in power.
Among
whites here in America, the political teams are no longer
divided into Democrats and Republicans. The whites who are
now struggling for control of the American political throne
are divided into "liberal" and "conservative"
camps. The white liberals from both parties cross party lines
to work together toward the same goal, and white conservatives
from both parties do likewise.
The
white liberal differs from the white conservative only in
one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative.
The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative.
Both
want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected
the art of posing as the Negro's friend and benefactor; and
by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the
Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn
or tool in this political "football game" that is
constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives.
Politically
the American Negro is nothing but a football and the white
liberals control this mentally dead ball through tricks of
tokenism: false promises of integration and civil rights.
In this profitable game of deceiving and exploiting the politics
of the American Negro, those white liberals have the willing
cooperation of the Negro civil rights leaders. These "leaders"
sell out our people for just a few crumbs of token recognition
and token gains. These "leaders" are satisfied with
token victories and token progress because they themselves
are nothing but token leaders.
According
to a New York Herald-Tribune editorial (dated February 5,1960),
out of eleven million qualified Negro voters, only 2,700,000
actually took time to vote. This means that, roughly speaking,
only three million of the eleven million Negroes who are qualified
to vote actually take an active part. The remaining eight
million remain voluntarily inactive ... and yet this small
(three million) minority of Negro voters hold the decisive
edge in determining who will be the next President.
If
who will be the next President is influenced by only three
million Negro voters, it is easy to understand why the presidential
candidates of both political parties put on such a false show
with the Civil Rights Bill and with false promises of integration.
They must impress the three million voting Negroes who are
the actual "integration seekers."
If
such a fuss is made over these three million "integration
seekers," what would presidential candidates have to
do to appease the eight million nonvoting Negroes, if they
ever decide to become politically active?
Who
are the eight million nonvoting Negroes; what do they want,
and why don't they vote?
The
three million Negro voters are the so-called middle-class
Negroes, referred to by the late Howard University sociologist,
E. Franklin Frazier, as the "black bourgeoisie,"
who have been educated to think as patriotic "individualists,"
with no racial pride, and who therefore look forward hopefully
to the future "integrated-intermarried" society
promised them by the white liberals and the Negro "leaders."
It is with this hope that the "integration-minded"
three million remain an active part of the white-controlled
political parties. But it must never be overlooked that these
three million "integration seekers" are only a small
minority of the eleven million potential Negro voters.
The
eight million nonvoting Negroes are in the majority; they
are the downtrodden black masses. The black masses have refused
to vote, or to take part in politics, because they reject
the Uncle Tom approach of the Negro leadership that has been
handpicked for them by the white man.
These
Uncle Tom leaders do not speak for the Negro majority; they
don't speak for the black masses. They speak for the "black
bourgeoisie," the brainwashed, white-minded, middle-class
minority who are ashamed of black, and don't want to be identified
with the black masses, and are therefore seeking to lose their
"black identity" by mixing, mingling, intermarrying,
and integrating with the white man.
The
race problem can never be solved by listening to this white-minded
minority. The white man should try to learn what the black
masses want, and the only way to learn what the black masses
want is by listening to the man who speaks for the black masses
of America. The one man here in America who speaks for the
downtrodden, dissatisfied black masses is this same man so
many of our people are flocking to see and hear. This same
Mr. Muhammad who is labeled by the white man as a black supremacist
and as a racist.
If
the three million white-minded Negroes are casting their ballots
for integration and intermarriage, what do the nonvoting black
masses want? Find out what the black masses want, and then
perhaps America's grave race problem can be solved.
Think
how the late President himself got into office by only scant
margin which was "donated" to him by Negro voters,
and think how many governors and other white politicians hold
their seats (some by less than five thousand votes). Only
then can you understand the importance of these white liberals
place on their control of the Negro vote!
The
white liberals hate The Honorable Elijah Muhammad because
they know their present position in the power structure stems
form their ability to deceive and to exploit the Negro, politically
as well as economically.
They
know that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad's divine message will
make our people (1) wake up, (2) clean up, (3) stand up. They
know that once The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is able to resurrect
the Negro from this mental grave of ignorance, by teaching
him the truth about himself and his real enemy, the Negro
will then be able to see and think for himself. Once the Negro
learns to think for himself, he will no longer allow the white
liberal to use him as a helpless football in the white man's
crooked game of "power politics."
Let
us examine briefly some of the tricky strategy used by white
liberals to harness and exploit the political energies of
the Negro.
The
crooked politicians in Washington, D.C., purposely make a
big noise over the proposed civil rights legislation. By blowing
up the civil rights issue they skillfully add false importance
to the Negro civil rights "leaders." Once the image
of these Negro civil rights "leaders" has been blown
up way beyond its proper proportion, these same Negro civil
rights "leaders" are then used by white liberals
to influence and control the Negro voters, all for the benefit
of the white politicians who pose as liberals, who pose as
friends of the Negro.
The
white conservatives aren't friends of the Negro either, but
they at least don't try to hide it. They are like wolves;
they show their teeth in a snarl that keeps the Negro always
aware of where he stands with them. But the white liberals
are foxes, who also show their teeth to the Negro but pretend
that they are smiling. The white liberals are more dangerous
than the conservatives; they lure the Negro, and as the Negro
runs from the growling wolf, he flees into the open jaws of
the "smiling" fox.
The
job of the Negro civil rights leader is to make the Negro
forget that the wolf and the fox both belong to the (same)
family. Both are canines; and no matter which one of them
the Negro places his trust in, he never ends up in the White
House, but always in the dog house.
The
white liberals control the Negro and the Negro vote by controlling
the Negro civil rights leaders. As long as they control the
Negro civil rights leaders, they can also control and contain
the Negro's struggle, and they can control the Negro's so-called
revolt.
The
Negro "revolution" is controlled by these foxy white
liberals, by the government itself. But the black revolution
is controlled only by God.
The
black revolution is the struggle of the nonwhites of this
earth against their white oppressors. The black revolution
has swept white supremacy out of Africa, out of Asia, and
is getting ready to sweep it out of Latin America. Revolutions
are based upon land. Revolutionaries are the landless against
the landlord. Revolutions are never peaceful, never loving,
never nonviolent. Nor are they ever compromising. Revolutions
are destructive and bloody. Revolutionaries don't compromise
with the enemy; they don't even negotiate. Like the flood
in Noah's day, revolution drowns all opposition, or like the
fire in Lot's day, the black revolution burns everything that
gets in its path.
America
is the last stronghold of white supremacy. The black revolution,
which is international in nature and scope is sweeping down
upon America like a raging forest fire. It is only a matter
of time before America herself will be engulfed by the black
flames, these black firebrands.
Whenever
an uncontrollable forest fire is roaring down upon the farmhouse,
the only way the farmer can fight that forest fire is by building
a "backfire," a smaller fire that he himself can
control. He then uses this "controlled fire" to
fight the fire that is raging beyond his control.
Here
in America, the black revolution (the "uncontrollable
forest fire") is personified in the religious teachings,
and the religious works, of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.
This great man of God cannot in any way be controlled by the
white man, and he will not compromise in any way with the
wrongs this government has inflicted upon our people.
The
Negro "revolt" is controlled by the white man, the
white fox. The Negro "revolution" is controlled
by this white government. The leaders of the Negro "revolution"
(the civil rights leaders) are all subsidized, influenced
and controlled by the white liberals; and all of the demonstrations
that are taking place on this country to desegregate lunch
counters, theaters, public toilets, etc., are just artificial
fires that have been ignited and fanned by the white liberals
in the desperate hope that they can use this artificial revolution
to fight off the real black revolution that has already swept
white supremacy out of Africa, Asia, and is sweeping it out
of Latin America ... and is even now manifesting itself also
right here among the black masses in this country.
Can
we prove that the Negro revolution is controlled by white
liberals? Certainly!
Right
after the Birmingham demonstrations, when the entire world
had seen on television screens the police dogs, police clubs,
and fire hoses brutalizing defenseless black women, children,
and even babies, it was reported on page twenty-six in the
May 15 issue of The New York Times, that the late President
Kennedy and his brother, Attorney General Robert Kennedy,
during a luncheon conference with several newspaper editors
from the State of Alabama, had warned these editors that they
must give at least some token gains to the moderate Negro
leaders in order to enhance the image of these moderate Negro
leaders in the eyesight of the black masses; otherwise the
masses of Negroes might turn in the direction of Negro extremists.
And the late President named the Black Muslims as being foremost
among the Negro extremist groups that he did not want Negroes
to turn toward.
In
essence, the late President told these southern editors that
he was trying to build up the weak image of the Negro civil
rights leaders, in order to offset the strong religious image
of the Muslim leader, The Honorable Elijah Muhammad. He wasn't
giving these Negro leaders anything they deserved; but he
was confessing the necessity of building them up, and propping
them up, in order to hold the black masses in check, keep
them in his grasp, and under his control.
The
late President knew that once Negroes heard The Honorable
Elijah Muhammad the white liberals will never influence or
control or misuse those Negroes for the benefit of the white
liberals any more. So the late President was faced with a
desperate situation.
Martin
Luther King's image had been shattered the previous year when
he failed to bring about desegregation in Albany, Georgia.
The other civil rights leaders had also become fallen idols.
The black masses across the country at the grass roots level
had already begun to take their cases to the streets on their
own. The government in Washington knew that something had
to be done to get the rampaging Negroes back into the corral,
back under the control of the white liberals.
The
government propaganda machine began encouraging Negroes to
follow only what it called "responsible" Negro leaders.
The government actually meant, Negro leaders who were responsible
to the government, and who could therefore by controlled by
the government, and be used by that same government to control
their impatient people.
The
government knows that the Honorable Elijah Muhammad is responsible
only to God and can be controlled only by God. But this white
government of America doesn't believe in God!
Let
us review briefly what happened last spring: In May in Birmingham,
Negroes erupted and retaliated against the whites. During
the many long weeks when the police dogs and police clubs
and the high-pressure water hoses were brutalizing black women
and children and babies, and the Birmingham Negroes had called
for the government to intervene with Federal troops, the late
President did nothing but sit on his hands. He said there
was 
nothing
he could do. But when Negroes in Birmingham exploded and began
to defend themselves, the late President then sent in Federal
troops, not to defend the Negroes, but to defend the whites
against whom the Negroes had finally retaliated.
At
this point, spontaneous demonstrations began taking place
all over the country. At the grass roots level Negroes began
to talk about marching on Washington, tying up the Congress,
the Senate, the White House, and even the airport. They threatened
to bring this government to a halt. This frightened the entire
white power structure.
The
late President called in the Negro civil rights leaders and
told them to bring this "march" to a halt. The Negro
civil rights leaders were forced to tell the late President
that they couldn't stop the march because they hadn't started
it. It was spontaneous, at the grass roots level across the
country, and it had no leadership whatsoever.
When
the late President saw that he couldn't stop the march, he
joined; he endorsed it; he welcomed it; he became a part of
it; and it was he who put the six Negro civil rights leaders
at the head of it. It was he who made them the Big Six.
How
did he do it? How did he gain control of the March on Washington?
A study of his shrewd strategy will give you a glimpse of
the political genius with which the Kennedy family was ruling
this country from the White House, and how they used the American
Negro in all of their schemes.
The
late President endorsed the march; that should have been the
tip-off. A few days later in New York City, at the Carlysle
Hotel, a philanthropic society known as the Taconic Foundation,
headed by a shrewd white liberal named Stephen Currier, called
a meeting of the six civil rights leaders in an effort to
bring unity of action and purpose among all the civil rights
groups.
After
Martin Luther King had been released from his Birmingham jail
cell in May, he traveled from coast to coast in a fund-raising
campaign for his Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
Roy Wilkins then began to attack King, accusing him of stirring
up trouble, saying that after the NAACP would bail out King
and the other demonstrators, then King would capitalize on
the trouble by taking up all the money for his own organization,
leaving the NAACP to hold the bag at a great financial loss.
As
King, Wilkins, and the other civil rights leaders began to
fight publicly among themselves over the money they were trying
to get from the white liberals, they were destroying their
own leadership "image."
The
white liberal, Stephen Currier, showed them how they were
destroying themselves by attacks upon each other, and it was
suggested that, since most of their divisions and disagreements
stemmed from competition for funds from white liberals, they
should unite their fund raising efforts. Then they formed
the Council for the United Civil Rights Leadership, under
the pretext that it would be for fund-raising purposes. They
chose the Urban League's Whitney Young as the chairman, and
the white liberal Stephen Currier became the co-chairman.
It
took the white man to bring those Negro leaders together and
to unite them into one group. He let them select their own
chairman, but he himself became the co-chairman. This shrewd
maneuver placed the white liberal and the Taconic Foundation
in the position to exercise influence and control over the
six civil rights leaders and, by working through them, to
control the entire civil rights movement, including the March
on Washington.
(It
also put the white liberals in a position to force the Big
Six to come out against the recently proposed Christmas boycott
by threatening to withdraw their financial support from the
civil rights drive.)
According
to the August 4 edition of The New York Times, $800,000 was
split up between these six Negro civil rights leaders on June
19 at the Carlysle Hotel, and another $700,000 was promised
to be given to them at a later date after the march was over,
if everything went well with the march.
Public
relations experts were made available to these "Six Big
Negroes," and they were given access to the news media
throughout the country. The press skillfully projected them
as the leaders of the March on Washington, and as soon as
the Big Six were looked upon in the public eye as the organizers
of the march, their first step was to invite four white "leaders"
to become a part of the march "godhead." This group
of leaders would supposedly okay all the plans and thereby
control the "direction and the mood" of the march.
These
four white "leaders" represented the same factions
that had put the late President in the White House: Catholics,
Jews, Labor, and Protestant liberals. When the late President
had learned that he couldn't stop the march, he not only joined
it himself but he encouraged all of his political bedfellows
to join it. This is the way the white liberals took over the
March on Washington, weakened its impact, and changed its
course; by changing the participants and the contents, they
were able to change the very nature of the march itself.
Example:
If I have a cup of coffee that is too strong for me because
it is too black, I weaken it by pouring cream into it. I integrate
it with cream. If I keep pouring enough cream in the coffee,
pretty soon the entire flavor of the coffee is changed; the
very nature of the coffee is changed. If enough cream is poured
in, eventually you don't even know that I had coffee in this
cup. This is what happened with the March on Washington. The
whites didn't integrate it; they infiltrated it. Whites joined
it; they engulfed it; they became so much a part of it, it
lost its original flavor. It ceased to be a black march; it
ceased to be militant; it ceased to be angry; it ceased to
be impatient. In fact, it ceased to be a march. It became
a picnic, an outing with a festive, circus-like atmosphere
... CLOWNS AND ALL.
The
government had learned that in cases where the demonstrators
are predominantly black, they are extremely militant, and
oft-times very violent. But to the same degree that whites
participate, violence most times is decreased. The government
knew that in cases wherein blacks were demonstrating all by
themselves, those blacks are so dissatisfied, disenchanted,
and angry at the white man that they will oft-times strike
back violently regardless of the odds or the consequences.
The white government had learned that the only way to hold
these black people in check is by joining them, by infiltrating
their ranks disguised as integrationists; by integrating their
marches and all their demonstrations, and weakening them:
in this way only could they be held in check.
The
government told the marchers what time to arrive in Washington,
where to arrive, and how to arrive. The government then channeled
them from the arrival point to the feet of a dead President,
George Washington, and then let them march from there to the
feet of another dead President, Abraham Lincoln.
The
original black militants had planned to march on the White
House, the Senate, and the Congress and to bring all political
traffic on Capitol Hill to a halt, but the shrewd politicians
in Washington, realizing that those original black militants
could not be stopped, joined them. By joining the marchers,
the white liberals were able to lead the marchers away from
the White House, the Senate, the Congress, Capitol Hill, and
away from victory. By keeping them marching from the Washington
Monument to the Lincoln Monument, marching between the feet
of two dead Presidents, they never reached the White House
to see the then living President.
The
entire march was controlled by the late president. The government
in Washington had told the marchers what signs to carry, what
songs to sing, what speeches to make, and what speeches not
to make, and then told the marchers to be sure to get out
of town by sundown.
One
of the Big Six leaders, John Lewis, chairman of the Student
Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, was prevented from making
a very militant speech. He wanted to attack the Kennedy administration
for its hypocrisy on civil rights.
The
speech was censored by the Rt. Rev. Patrick O'Boyle, the Catholic
Archbishop of Washington, D.C. This was a case in which the
Catholic Church itself, for whom Rev. O'Boyle speaks, put
itself in the position of censoring the legitimate opinion
of one of the Big Six Negro civil rights leaders.
The
late President's shrewd strategy was: If you can't beat them,
join them. The Catholic President placed his Catholic bishop
in a strategic position to exercise censorship over any one
of the Big Six Negro leaders who tried to deviate from the
script in this great "extravaganza" called the March
on Washington which the government had controlled right from
the very beginning.
So,
in the final analysis of the march: It would have to be classified
as the best performance of the year; in fact it was the greatest
performance of this century. It topped anything that Hollywood
could have produced.
If
we were going to give out Academy Awards in 1963, we would
have to give the late President an Oscar for the "Best
Producer of the Year"; and to the four white liberals
who participated should go an Oscar as the "Best Actors
of the Year," because they really acted like sincere
liberals and fooled many Negroes. And to the six Negro civil
rights leaders should go an Oscar for the "Best Supporting
Cast," because they supported the late President in his
entire act, and in his entire program.
Now
that the show is over, the black masses are still without
land, without jobs, and without homes ... their Christian
churches are still being bombed, their innocent little girls
murdered. So what did the March on Washington accomplish?
Nothing!
The
late President has a bigger image as a liberal, the other
whites who participated have bigger liberal images also, and
the Negro civil rights leaders have now been permanently named
the Big Six (because of their participation in the Big Fix?)
... but the black masses are still unemployed, still starving,
and still living in the slums ... and, I might add, getting
angrier and more explosive every day.
History
must repeat itself! Because of America's evil deeds against
these twenty-two million "Negroes," like Egypt and
Babylon before her, America herself now stands before the
"bar of justice." White America is now facing her
Day of Judgment, and she can't escape because today God himself
is the judge. God himself is now the administrator of justice,
and God himself is to be her divine executor!
Is
it possible for America to escape this divine disaster? If
America can't atone for the crimes she has committed against
the twenty-two million "Negroes," if she can't undo
the evils she has brutally and mercilessly heaped upon our
people these past four hundred years, then America has signed
her own doom ... and our own people would be foolish to accept
her deceitful offers of integration into her doomed society
at this late date!
How
can America atone for her crimes? The Honorable Elijah Muhammad
teaches us that a desegregated theater or lunch counter won't
solve our problems. Better jobs won't even solve our problems.
An integrated cup of coffee isn't sufficient pay for four
hundred years of slave labor, and a better job in the white
man's factory or position in his business is, at best, only
a temporary solution. The only lasting or permanent solution
is complete separation on some land that we can call our own.
The
Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that the race problem
can easily be solved, just by sending these twenty-two million
ex-slaves back to our own homeland where we can live in peace
and harmony with our own kind. But this government should
provide the transportation, plus everything else we need to
get started again in our own country. This government should
provide everything we need in machinery, materials, and finance;
enough to last us for from twenty to twenty-five years, until
we can become an independent people in our own country.
If
this white government is afraid to let her twenty-two million
ex-slaves go back to our country and to our own people, then
America must set aside some separate territory here in the
Western Hemisphere, where the two races can live apart from
each other, since we certainly don't get along peacefully
while we are here together.
The
size of the territory can be judged according to our own population.
If our people number one-seventh of America's total population,
then give us one-seventh of this land. We don't want any land
in the desert, but where there is rain and much mineral wealth.
We
want fertile, productive land on which we can farm and provide
our own people with sufficient food, clothing, and shelter.
This government must supply us with the machinery and other
tools needed to dig into the earth. Give us everything we
need for them for from twenty to twenty-five years, until
we can produce and supply our own needs.
If
we are a part of America, then part of what she is worth belongs
to us. We will take our share and depart, then this white
country can have peace. What is her net worth? Give us our
share in gold and silver and let us depart and go back to
our homeland in peace.
We
want no integration with this wicked race that enslaved us.
We want complete separation from this race of devils. But
we should not be expected to leave America and go back to
our homeland empty-handed. After four hundred years of slave
labor, we have some back pay coming, a bill owed to us that
must be collected.
If
the government of White America truly repents of its sins
against our people, and atones by giving us our true share,
only then can America save herself!
But
if America waits for Almighty God himself to step in and force
her into a just settlement, God will take this entire continent
away from her; and she will cease to exist as a nation. Her
own Christian Scriptures warn her that when God comes He can
give the "entire Kingdom to whomsoever He will"
... which only means that the God of Justice on Judgment Day
can give this entire continent to whomsoever He wills!
White
America, wake up and take heed, before it is too late!
