By: El Hajj Malik Shabazz 1963:-
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Message to the Grass 
Roots is  a public speech by Malcolm X at the Northern Negro Grass Roots
 Leadership Conference on November 10, 1963, in King Solomon Baptist 
Church in Detroit, Michigan. It is hard to believe the failure of 
Africans everywhere to adhere to the most basic concepts espoused in his critical lecture. 50 years later South Africa with its rainbow illusion has not headed Malcolm's message, neither has the so-called African Union. And the African Diaspora still articulate their struggle in a way which enhances White supremacy.
Africans everywhere to adhere to the most basic concepts espoused in his critical lecture. 50 years later South Africa with its rainbow illusion has not headed Malcolm's message, neither has the so-called African Union. And the African Diaspora still articulate their struggle in a way which enhances White supremacy.
We want to have just an off-the-cuff chat between you and me — us. We want to talk right down to earth in a language that everybody here can easily understand.
We all agree tonight, all of the speakers have agreed, that America has a very serious problem
Not only does America 
have a very serious problem, but our people have a very serious problem.
 America’s problem is us. We’re her problem. The only reason she has a 
problem is she doesn’t want us here. And every time you look at 
yourself, be you Black,
 brown, red, or yellow — a so-called Negro — you represent a person who 
poses such a serious problem for America because you’re not wanted. Once
 you face this as a fact, then you can start plotting a course that will
 make you appear intelligent, instead of unintelligent.
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What you and I need to do is
 learn to forget our differences. When we come together, we don’t come 
together as Baptists or Methodists. You don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a
 Baptist, and you don’t catch hell ’cause you’re a Methodist. You don’t 
catch hell ’cause you’re a Methodist or Baptist. You don’t catch hell 
because you’re a Democrat or a Republican. You don’t catch hell because 
you’re a Mason or an Elk. And you sure don’t catch hell ’cause you’re an
 American; ’cause if you was an American, you wouldn’t catch no hell. 
You catch hell ’cause you’re a Black man. You catch hell, all of uscatch hell, for the same reason.
So we are all Black people, 
so-called Negroes, second-class citizens, ex-slaves. You are nothing but
 a [sic] ex-slave. You don’t like to be told that. But what else are 
you? You are ex-slaves. You didn’t come here on the “Mayflower.” You 
came here on a slave ship — in chains, like a horse, or a cow, or a 
chicken. And you were brought here by the people who came here on the 
“Mayflower.” You were brought here by the so-called Pilgrims, or 
Founding Fathers. They were the ones who brought you here.
We have a common enemy. We 
have this in common: We have a common oppressor, a common exploiter, and
 a common discriminator. But once we all realize that we have this 
common enemy, then we unite on the basis of what we have in common. And 
what we have foremost in common is that enemy — the white man. He’s an 
enemy to all of us. I know some of you all think that some of them 
aren’t enemies. Time will tell.
In Bandung back in, I think, 1954, was the first unity meeting in centuries of Black
 people. And once you study what happened at the Bandung conference, and
 the results of the Bandung conference, it actually serves as a model 
for the same procedure you and I can use to get our problems solved. At 
Bandung all the nations came together. Their were dark nations from 
Africa and Asia. Some of them were Buddhists. Some of them were Muslim. 
Some of them were Christians. Some of them were Confucianists; some were
 atheists. Despite their religious differences, they came together. Some
 were communists; some were socialists; some were capitalists. Despite 
their economic and political differences, they came together. All of 
them were Black, brown, red, or yellow.
The number-one thing that was
 not allowed to attend the Bandung conference was the white man. He 
couldn’t come. Once they excluded the white man, they found that they 
could get together. Once they kept him out, everybody else fell right in
 and fell in line. This is the thing that you and I have to understand. 
And these people who came together didn’t have nuclear weapons; they 
didn’t have jet planes; they didn’t have all of the heavy armaments that
 the white man has. But they had unity.
They were able to submerge 
their little petty differences and agree on one thing: That though one 
African came from Kenya and was being colonized by the Englishman, and 
another African came from the Congo and was being colonized by the 
Belgian, and another African came from Guinea and was being colonized by
 the French, and another came from Angola and was being colonized by the
 Portuguese. When they came to the Bandung conference, they looked at 
the Portuguese, and at the Frenchman, and at the Englishman, and at the 
other — Dutchman — and learned or realized that the one thing that all 
of them had in common: they were all from Europe, they were all 
Europeans, blond, blue-eyed and white-skinned. They began to recognize 
who their enemy was. The same man that was colonizing our people in 
Kenya was colonizing our people in the Congo. The same one in the Congo 
was colonizing our people in South Africa, and in Southern Rhodesia, and
 in Burma, and in India, and in Afghanistan, and in Pakistan. They 
realized all over the world where the dark man was being oppressed, he 
was being oppressed by the white man; where the dark man was being 
exploited, he was being exploited by the white man. So they got together
 under this basis — that they had a common enemy.
And when you and I here in 
Detroit and in Michigan and in America who have been awakened today look
 around us, we too realize here in America we all have a common enemy, 
whether he’s in Georgia or Michigan, whether he’s in California or New 
York. He’s the same man: blue eyes and blond hair and pale skin — same 
man. So what we have to do is what they did. They agreed to stop 
quarreling among themselves. Any little spat that they had, they’d 
settle it among themselves, go into a huddle — don’t let the enemy know 
that you got [sic] a disagreement.
Instead of us airing our 
differences in public, we have to realize we’re all the same family. And
 when you have a family squabble, you don’t get out on the sidewalk. If 
you do, everybody calls you uncouth, unrefined, uncivilized, savage. If 
you don’t make it at home, you settle it at home; you get in the closet —
 argue it out behind closed doors. And then when you come out on the 
street, you pose a common front, a united front. And this is what we 
need to do in the community, and in the city, and in the state. We need 
to stopairing our differences in front of the white man. Put 
the white man out of our meetings, number one, and then sit down and 
talk shop with each other. [That’s] all you gotta do.
I would like to make a few comments concerning the difference between the Black
 revolution and the Negro revolution. There’s a difference. Are they 
both the same? And if they’re not, what is the difference? What is the 
difference between a Black
 revolution and a Negro revolution? First, what is a revolution? 
Sometimes I’m inclined to believe that many of our people are using this
 word “revolution” loosely, without taking careful consideration [of] 
what this word actually means, and what its historic characteristics 
are. When you study the historic nature of revolutions, the motive of a 
revolution, the objective of a revolution, and the result of a 
revolution, and the methods used in a revolution, you may change words. 
You may devise another program. You may change your goal and you may 
change your mind.
Look at the American 
Revolution in 1776. That revolution was for what? For land. Why did they
 want land? Independence. How was it carried out? Bloodshed. Number one,
 it was based on land, the basis of independence. And the only way they 
could get it was bloodshed. The French Revolution — what was it based 
on? The land-less against the landlord. What was it for? Land. How did 
they get it? Bloodshed. Was no love lost; was no compromise; was no 
negotiation. I’m telling you, you don’t know what a revolution is. 
’Cause when you find out what it is, you’ll get back in the alley; 
you’ll get out of the way. The Russian Revolution — what was it based 
on? Land. The land-less against the landlord. How did they bring it 
about? Bloodshed. You haven’t got a revolution that doesn’t involve 
bloodshed. And you’re afraid to bleed. I said, you’re afraid to bleed.
                      [As]
 long as the white man sent you to Korea, you bled. He sent you to 
Germany, you bled. He sent you to the South Pacific to fight the 
Japanese, you bled. You bleed for white people. But when it comes time 
to seeing your own churches being bombed and little Black
 girls be murdered, you haven’t got no blood. You bleed when the white 
man says bleed; you bite when the white man says bite; and you bark when
 the white man says bark. I hate to say this about us, but it’s true. 
How are you going to be nonviolent in Mississippi, as violent as you 
were in Korea? How can you justify being nonviolent in Mississippi and 
Alabama, when your churches are being bombed, and your little
 girls are being murdered, and at the same time you’re going to violent 
with Hitler, and Tojo,and somebody else that you don’t even know?
                      
If violence is wrong in America, violence is wrong abroad. If it’s wrong to be violent defending Black women and Black children and Black babies and Black
 men, then it’s wrong for America to draft us and make us violent abroad
 in defense of her. And if it is right for America to draft us, and 
teach us how to be violent in defense of her, then it is right for you 
and me to do whatever is necessary to defend our own people right here 
in this country.
The Chinese Revolution — they
 wanted land. They threw the British out, along with the Uncle Tom 
Chinese. Yeah, they did. They set a good example. When I was in prison, I
 read an article — don’t be shocked when I say I was in prison. You’re 
still in prison. That’s what America means: prison. When I was in 
prison, I read an article in Life magazine showing a little Chinese 
girl, nine years old; her father was on his hands and knees and she was 
pulling the trigger ’cause he was an Uncle Tom Chinaman, When they had 
the revolution over there, they took a whole generation of Uncle Toms — 
just wiped them out. And within ten years that little girl become [sic] a
 full-grown woman. No more Toms in China. And today it’s one of the 
toughest, roughest, most feared countries on this earth — by the white 
man. ’Cause there are no Uncle Toms over there.
Of all our studies, history 
is best qualified to reward our research. And when you see that you’ve 
got problems, all you have to do is examine the historic method used all
 over the world by others who have problems similar to yours. And once 
you see how they got theirs straight, then you know how you can get 
yours straight. There’s been a revolution, a Black
 revolution, going on in Africa. In Kenya, the Mau Mau were 
revolutionaries; they were the ones who made the word ” Uhuru” [Kenyan 
word for "freedom"]. They were the ones who brought it to the fore.The 
Mau Mau, they were revolutionaries. They believed in scorched earth. 
They knocked everything aside that got in their way, and their 
revolution also was based on land, a desire for land. In Algeria, the 
northern part of Africa, a revolution took place. The Algerians were 
revolutionists; they wanted land. France offered to let them be 
integrated into France. They told France: to hell with France. They 
wanted some land, not some France. And they engaged in a bloody battle.
So I cite these various 
revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you — you don’t have a 
peaceful revolution. You don’t have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. 
There’s no suchthing as a nonviolent revolution. [The] only 
kind of revolution that’s nonviolent is the Negro revolution. The only 
revolution based on loving your enemy is the Negro revolution. The only 
revolution in which the goal is a desegregated lunch counter, a 
desegregated theater, a desegregated park, and a desegregated public 
toilet; you can sit down next to white folks on the toilet. That’s no 
revolution. Revolution is based on land. Land is the basis of all 
independence. Land is the basis of freedom, justice, and equality.
The white man knows what a revolution is. He knows that the Black revolution is world-wide in scope and in nature. The Black
 revolution is sweeping Asia, sweeping Africa, is rearing its head in 
Latin America. The Cuban Revolution — that’s a revolution. They 
overturned the system. Revolution is in Asia. Revolution is in Africa. 
And the white man is screaming because he sees revolution in Latin 
America. How do you think he’ll react to you when you learn what a real 
revolution is? You don’t know what a revolution is. If you did, you 
wouldn’t use that word.
A revolution is bloody. 
Revolution is hostile. Revolution knows no compromise. Revolution 
overturns and destroys everything that gets in its way. And you, sitting
 around here like a knot on the wall, saying, “I’m going to love these 
folks no matter how much they hate me.” No, you need a revolution. 
Whoever heard of a revolution where they lock arms, as Reverend Cleage 
was pointing out beautifully, singing “We Shall Overcome”? Just tell me.
 You don’t do that in a revolution. You don’t do any singing; you’re too
 busy swinging. It’s based on land. A revolutionary wants land so he can
 set up his own nation, an independent nation. These Negroes aren’t 
asking for no nation. They’re trying to crawl back on the plantation.
When you want a nation, 
that’s called nationalism. When the white man became involved in a 
revolution in this country against England, what was it for? He wanted 
this land so he could set up another white nation. That’s white 
nationalism. The American Revolution was white nationalism. The French 
Revolution was white nationalism. The Russian Revolution too — yes, it 
was — white nationalism. You don’t think so? Why [do] you think 
Khrushchev and Mao can’t get their heads together? White nationalism. 
All the revolutions that’s going on in Asia and Africa today are based 
on what? Black nationalism. A revolutionary is a Black
 nationalist. He wants a nation. I was reading some beautiful words by 
Reverend Cleage, pointing out why he couldn’t get together with someone 
else here in the city because all of them were afraid of being 
identified with Black nationalism. If you’re afraid of Black nationalism, you’re afraid of revolution. And if you love revolution, you love Black nationalism.
To understand this, you have 
to go back to what [the] young brother here referred to as the house 
Negro and the field Negro — back during slavery. There was two kinds of 
slaves. There was the house Negro and the field Negro. The house Negroes
 – they lived in the house with master, they dressed pretty good, they 
ate good ’cause they ate his food — what he left. They lived in the 
attic or the basement, but still they lived near the master; and they 
loved their master more than the master loved himself. They would give 
their life to save the master’s house quicker than the master would. The
 house Negro, if the master said, “We got a good house here,” the house 
Negro would say, “Yeah, we got a good house here.” Whenever the master 
said “we,” he said “we.” That’s how you can tell a house Negro.
If the master’s house caught 
on fire, the house Negro would fight harder to put the blaze out than 
the master would. If the master got sick, the house Negro would say, 
“What’s the matter, boss, we sick?” We sick! He identified himself with 
his master more than his master identified with himself. And if you came
 to the house Negro and said, “Let’s run away, let’s escape, let’s 
separate,” the house Negro would look at you and say, “Man, you crazy. 
What you mean, separate? Where is there a better house than this? Where 
can I wear better clothes than this? Where can I eat better food than 
this?” That was that house Negro. In those days he was called a “house 
nigger.” And that’s what we call him today, because we’ve still got some
 house niggers running around here.
This modern house Negro loves
 his master. He wants to live near him. He’ll pay three times as much as
 the house is worth just to live near his master, and then brag about 
“I’m the only Negro out here.” “I’m the only one on my job.” “I’m the 
only one in this school.” You’re nothing but a house Negro. And if 
someone comes to you right now and says, “Let’s separate,” you say the 
same thing that the house Negro said on the plantation. “What you mean, 
separate? From America? This good white man? Where you going to get a 
better job than you get here?” I mean, this is what you say. “I ain’t 
left nothing in Africa,” that’s what you say. Why, you left your mind in
 Africa.
On that same plantation, 
there was the field Negro. The field Negro — those were the masses. 
There were always more Negroes in the field than there was Negroes in 
the house. The Negro in the field caught hell. He ate leftovers. In the 
house they ate high up on the hog. The Negro in the field didn’t get 
nothing but what was left of the insides of the hog. They call ’em 
“chitt’lin’” nowadays. In those days they called them what they were: 
guts. That’s what you were — a gut-eater. And some of you all still 
gut-eaters.
The field Negro was beaten 
from morning to night. He lived in a shack, in a hut; He wore old, 
castoff clothes. He hated his master. I say he hated his master. He was 
intelligent. That house Negro loved his master. But that field Negro — 
remember, they were in the majority, and they hated the master. When the
 house caught on fire, he didn’t try and put it out; that field Negro 
prayed for a wind, for a breeze. When the master got sick, the field 
Negro prayed that he’d die. If someone come [sic] to the field Negro and
 said, “Let’s separate, let’s run,” he didn’t say “Where we going?” He’d
 say, “Any place is better than here.” You’ve got field Negroes in 
America today. I’m a field Negro. The masses are the field Negroes. When
 they see this man’s house on fire, you don’t hear these little Negroes 
talking about “our government is in trouble.” They say, “The government
 is in trouble.” Imagine a Negro: “Our government”! I even heard one say
 “our astronauts.” They won’t even let him near the plant — and “our 
astronauts”! “Our Navy” — that’s a Negro that’s out of his mind. That’s a
 Negro that’s out of his mind.
Just as the slavemaster of 
that day used Tom, the house Negro, to keep the field Negroes in check, 
the same old slavemaster today has Negroes who are nothing but modern 
Uncle Toms, 20th century Uncle Toms, to keep you and me in check, keep 
us under control, keep us passive and peaceful and nonviolent. That’s 
Tom making you nonviolent. It’s like when you go to the dentist, and the
 man’s going to take your tooth. You’re going to fight him when he 
starts pulling. So he squirts some stuff in your jaw called novocaine, 
to make you think they’re not doing anything to you. So you sit there 
and ’cause you’ve got all of that novocaine in your jaw, you suffer 
peacefully. Blood running all down your jaw, and you don’t know what’s 
happening. ’Cause someone has taught you to suffer — peacefully.
The white man do the same 
thing to you in the street, when he want [sic] to put knots on your head
 and take advantage of you and don’t have to be afraid of your fighting 
back. To keep you from fighting back, he gets these old religious Uncle 
Toms to teach you and me, just like novocaine, suffer peacefully. Don’t 
stop suffering — just suffer peacefully. As Reverend Cleage pointed out,
 “Let your blood flow In the streets.” This is a shame. And you know 
he’s a Christian preacher. If it’s a shame to him, you know what it is 
to me.
There’s nothing in our book, 
the Quran — you call it “Ko-ran” — that teaches us to suffer peacefully.
 Our religion teaches us to be intelligent. Be peaceful, be courteous, 
obey the law, respect everyone; but if someone puts his hand on you, 
send him to the cemetery. That’s a good religion. In fact, that’s that 
old-time religion. That’s the one that Ma and Pa used to talk about: an 
eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth, and a head for a head, and a 
life for a life: That’s a good religion. And doesn’t nobody resent that 
kind of religion being taught but a wolf, who intends to make you his 
meal.
This is the way it is with 
the white man in America. He’s a wolf and you’re sheep. Any time a 
shepherd, a pastor, teach [sic] you and me not to run from the white man
 and, at the same time, teach [sic] us not to fight the white man, he’s a
 traitor to you and me. Don’t lay down our life all by itself. No, 
preserve your life. it’s the best thing you got. And if you got to give 
it up, let it be even-steven.
The slavemaster took Tom and 
dressed him well, and fed him well, and even gave him a little education
 — a little education; gave him a long coat and a top hat and made all 
the other slaves look up to him. Then he used Tom to control them. The 
same strategy that was used in those days is used today, by the same 
white man. He takes a Negro, a so-called Negro, and make [sic] him 
prominent, build [sic] him up, publicize [sic] him, make [sic] him a 
celebrity. And then he becomes a spokesman for Negroes — and a Negro 
leader.
I would like to just mention 
just one other thing else quickly, and that is the method that the white
 man uses, how the white man uses these “big guns,” or Negro leaders, 
against the Black revolution. They are not a part of the Black revolution. They’re used against the Black revolution.
When Martin Luther King 
failed to desegregate Albany, Georgia, the civil-rights struggle in 
America reached its low point. King became bankrupt almost, as a leader.
 Plus, even financially, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference 
was in financial trouble; plus it was in trouble, period, with the 
people when they failed to desegregate Albany, Georgia. Other Negro 
civil-rights leaders of so-called national stature became fallen idols. 
As they became fallen idols, began to lose their prestige and influence,
 local Negro leaders began to stir up the masses. In Cambridge, 
Maryland, Gloria Richardson; in Danville, Virginia, and other parts of 
the country, local leaders began to stir up our people at the grassroots
 level. This was never done by these Negroes, whom you recognize, of 
national stature. They controlled you, but they never incited you or 
excited you. They controlled you; they contained you; they kept you on 
the plantation.
As soon as King failed in 
Birmingham, Negroes took to the streets. King got out and went out to 
California to a big rally and raised about — I don’t know how many 
thousands of dollars. [He] come [sic] to Detroit and had a march and 
raised some more thousands of dollars. And recall, right after that 
[Roy] Wilkins attacked King, accused King and the CORE [Congress Of 
Racial Equality] of starting trouble everywhere and then making the 
NAACP [National Association for the Advancement of Colored People] get 
them out of jail and spend a lot of money; and then they accused King 
and CORE of raising all the money and not paying it back. This happened;
 I’ve got it in documented evidence in the newspaper. Roy started 
attacking King, and King started attacking Roy, and Farmer started 
attacking both of them. And as these Negroes of national stature began 
to attack each other, they began to lose their control of the Negro 
masses.
And Negroes was [sic] out 
there in the streets. They was [sic] talking about [how] we was [sic] 
going to march on Washington. By the way, right at that time Birmingham 
had exploded, and the Negroes in Birmingham — remember, they also 
exploded. They began to stab the crackers in the back and bust them up 
’side their head — yes, they did. That’s when Kennedy sent in the 
troops, down in Birmingham. So, and right after that, Kennedy got on the
 television and said “this is a moral issue.” That’s when he said he was
 going to put out a civil-rights bill. And when he mentioned 
civil-rights bill and the Southern crackers started talking about [how] 
they were going to boycott or filibuster it, then the Negroes started 
talking — about what? We’re going to march on Washington, march on the 
Senate, march on the White House, march on the Congress, and tie it up, 
bring it to a halt; don’t let the government proceed. They even said 
they was [sic] going out to the airport and lay down on the runway and 
don’t let no airplanes land. I’m telling you what they said. That was 
revolution. That was revolution. That was the Black revolution.
It was the grass roots out 
there in the street. [It] scared the white man to death, scared the 
white power structure in Washington, D. C. to death; I was there. When 
they found out that this Black
 steamroller was going to come down on the capital, they called in 
Wilkins; they called in Randolph; they called in these national Negro 
leaders that you respect and told them, “Call it off.” Kennedy said, 
“Look, you all letting this thing go too far.” And Old Tom said, “Boss, I
 can’t stop it, because I didn’t start it.” I’m telling you what they 
said. They said, “I’m not even in it, much less at the head of it.” They
 said, “These Negroes are doing things on their own. They’re running 
ahead of us.” And that old shrewd fox, he said, “Well If you all aren’t 
in it, I’ll put you in it. I’ll put you at the head of it. I’ll endorse 
it. I’ll welcome it. I’ll help it. I’ll join it.”
A matter of hours went by. 
They had a meeting at the Carlyle Hotel in New York City. The Carlyle 
Hotel is owned by the Kennedy family; that’s the hotel Kennedy spent the
 night at, two nights ago; [it] belongs to his family. A philanthropic 
society headed by a white man named Stephen Currier called all the top 
civil-rights leaders together at the Carlyle Hotel. And he told them 
that, “By you all fighting each other, you are destroying the 
civil-rights movement. And since you’re fighting over money from white 
liberals, let us set up what is known as the Council for United Civil 
Rights Leadership. Let’s form this council, and all the civil-rights 
organizations will belong to it, and we’ll use it for fund-raising 
purposes.” Let me show you how tricky the white man is. And as soon as 
they got it formed, they elected Whitney Young as the chairman, and who 
[do] you think became the co-chairman? Stephen Currier, the white man, a
 millionaire. Powell was talking about it down at the Cobo [Hall] today.
 This is what he was talking about. Powell knows it happened. Randolph 
knows it happened. Wilkins knows it happened. King knows it happened. 
Everyone of that so-called Big Six — they know what happened.
Once they formed it, with the
 white man over it, he promised them and gave them $800,000 to split up 
between the Big Six; and told them that after the march was over they’d 
give them $700,000 more. A million and a half dollars — split up between
 leaders that you’ve been following, going to jail for, crying crocodile
 tears for. And they’re nothing but Frank James and Jesse James and the 
what-do-you-call-’em brothers.
                      [As]
 soon as they got the setup organized, the white man made available to 
them top public relations experts; opened the news media across the 
country at their disposal; and then they begin [sic] to project these 
Big Six as the leaders of the march. Originally, they weren’t even in 
the march. You was [sic ] talking this march talk on Hastings Street — 
Is Hastings Street still here? —  on Hasting Street. You was [sic] 
talking the march talk on Lenox Avenue, and out on — What you call it? —
 Fillmore Street, and Central Avenue, and 32nd Street and 63rd Street. 
That’s where the march talk was being talked. But the white man put the 
Big Six [at the] head of it; made them the march. They became the march.
 They took it over. And the first move they made after they took it 
over, they invited Walter Reuther, a white man; they invited a priest, a
 rabbi, and an old white preacher. Yes, an old white preacher. The same 
white element that put Kennedy in power — labor, the Catholics, the 
Jews, and liberal Protestants; [the] same clique that put Kennedy in 
power, joined the march on Washington.
                      
It’s just like when you’ve got some coffee that’s too Black,
 which means it’s too strong. What you do? You integrate it with cream; 
you make it weak. If you pour too much cream in, you won’t even know you
 ever had coffee. It used to be hot, it becomes cool. It used to be 
strong, it becomes weak. It used to wake you up, now it’ll put you to 
sleep. This is what they did with the march on Washington. They joined 
it. They didn’t integrate it; they infiltrated it. They joined it, 
became a part of it, took it over. And as they took it over, it lost its
 militancy. They ceased to be angry. They ceased to be hot. They ceased 
to be uncompromising. Why, it even ceased to be a march. It became a 
picnic, a circus. Nothing but a circus, with clowns and all. You had one
 right here in Detroit — I saw it on television — with clowns leading 
it, white clowns and Black
 clowns. I know you don’t like what I’m saying, but I’m going to tell 
you anyway. ’Cause I can prove what I’m saying. If you think I’m telling
 you wrong, you bring me Martin Luther King and A. Philip Randolph and 
James Farmer and those other three, and see if they’ll deny it over a 
microphone.
No, it was a sellout. It was a
 takeover. When James Baldwin came in from Paris, they wouldn’t let him 
talk, ’cause they couldn’t make him go by the script. Burt Lancaster 
read the speech that Baldwin was supposed to make; they wouldn’t let 
Baldwin get up there, ’cause they know Baldwin’s liable to say anything.
 They controlled it so tight — they told those Negroes what time to hit 
town, how to come, where to stop, what signs to carry, what song to 
sing, what speech they could make, and what speech they couldn’t make; 
and then told them to get out town by sundown. And everyone of those 
Toms was out of town by sundown. Now I know you don’t like my saying 
this. But I can back it up. It was a circus, a performance that beat 
anything Hollywood could ever do, the performance of the year. Reuther 
and those other three devils should get a Academy Award for the best 
actors ’cause they acted like they really loved Negroes and fooled a 
whole lot of Negroes. And the six Negro leaders should get an award too,
 for the best supporting cast.
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      Source: http://www.africanholocaust.net 

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