Great Throughts Treasury

"Today, when everything that I do has an urgency, I would not spend one hour in the preparation of a book which had the ambition to perhaps titillate some readers. But I am spending many hours"

"True Islam taught me that it takes all of the religious, political, economic, psychological, and racial ingredients, or characteristics, to make the Human Family and the Human Society complete."

"Truth is on the side of the oppressed."

"Today?s Uncle Tom doesn?t wear a handkerchief on his head. This modern, twentieth-century Uncle Thomas now often wears a top hat. He?s usually well-dressed and well-educated. He?s often the personification of culture and refinement. The twentieth-century Uncle Thomas sometimes speaks with a Yale or Harvard accent. Sometimes he is known as Professor, Doctor, Judge, and Reverend, even Right Reverend Doctor. This twentieth-century Uncle Thomas is a professional Negro ?by that I mean his profession is being a Negro for the white man."

"We are African, and we happened to be in America. We're not American. We are people who formerly were Africans who were kidnapped and brought to America. Our forefathers weren't the Pilgrims. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock. The rock was landed on us. We were brought here against our will. We were not brought here to be made citizens. We were not brought here to enjoy the constitutional gifts that they speak so beautifully about today."

"We are nonviolent with people who are nonviolent with us."

"We black men have a hard enough time in our own struggle for justice, and already have enough enemies as it is, to make the drastic mistake of attacking each other and adding more weight to an already unbearable load."

"Usually the black racist has been produced by the white racist. In most cases where you see it, it is the reaction to white racism, and if you analyze it closely, it's not really black racism... If we react to white racism with a violent reaction, to me that's not black racism. If you come to put a rope around my neck and I hang you for it, to me that's not racism. Yours is racism, but my reaction has nothing to do with racism..."

"We need more light about each other. Light creates understanding, understanding creates love, love creates patience, and patience creates unity."

"We need to expand the civil-rights struggle to a higher level?to the level of human rights. Whenever you are in a civil-rights struggle, whether you know it or not, you are confining yourself to the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. No one from the outside world can speak out in your behalf as long as your struggle is a civil-rights struggle. Civil rights comes within the domestic affairs of this country. All of our African brothers and our Asian brothers and our Latin-American brothers cannot open their mouths and interfere in the domestic affairs of the United States. And as long as it?s civil rights, this comes under the jurisdiction of Uncle Sam. But the United Nations has what?s known as the charter of human rights; it has a committee that deals in human rights. You may wonder why all of the atrocities that have been committed in Africa and in Hungary and in Asia, and in Latin America are brought before the UN, and the Negro problem is never brought before the UN. This is part of the conspiracy. This old, tricky blue eyed liberal who is supposed to be your and my friend, supposed to be in our corner, supposed to be subsidizing our struggle, and supposed to be acting in the capacity of an adviser, never tells you anything about human rights. They keep you wrapped up in civil rights. And you spend so much time barking up the civil-rights tree, you don?t even know there?s a human-rights tree on the same floor."

"We reject segregation even more militantly than you say you do! We want separation, which is not the same! The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that segregation is when your life and liberty are controlled, regulated, by someone else. To segregate means to control. Segregation is that which is forced upon inferiors by superiors. But separation is that which is done voluntarily, by two equals ? for the good of both!"

"We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary."

"We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves."

"We do not condemn the preachers as an individual but we condemn what they teach. We urge that the preachers teach the truth, to teach our people the one important guiding rule of conduct - unity of purpose."

"We must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce. We must know what part politics play in our lives. And until we become politically mature we will always be misled, led astray, or deceived or maneuvered into supporting someone politically who doesn?t have the good of our community at heart."

"We have formed an organization known as the Organization of Afro-American Unity which has the same aim and objective to fight whoever gets in our way, to bring about the complete independence of people of African descent here in the Western Hemisphere, and first here in the United States, and bring about the freedom of these people by any means necessary. That's our motto. We want freedom by any means necessary. We want justice by any means necessary. We want equality by any means necessary."

"We didn't land on Plymouth rock, Plymouth rock landed on us."

"We have a broader scope of pilgrimage thinking and open Beserta I saw in two weeks unless seen in thirty-nine years old."

"What is a Dixiecrat? A Democrat. A Dixiecrat is nothing but a Democrat in disguise... The Dixiecrats in Washington, D.C., control the key committees that run the government. The only reason the Dixiecrats control these committees is because they have seniority. The only reason they have seniority is because they come from states where Negroes can?t vote. This is not even a government that?s based on democracy. It is not a government that is made up of representatives of the people. Half of the people in the South can?t even vote. Eastland is not even supposed to be in Washington. Half of the senators and congressmen who occupy these key positions in Washington, D.C., are there illegally, are there unconstitutionally."

"We, the Black masses, don't want these leaders who seek our support coming to us representing a certain political party. They must come to us today as Black Leaders representing the welfare of Black people."

"We won't organize any black man to be a Democrat or a Republican because both of them have sold us out. Both of them have sold us out; both parties have sold us out. Both parties are racist, and the Democratic Party is more racist than the Republican Party."

"Western interests: imperialism, colonialism, exploitation, racism, and other negative -isms."

"We're not Americans; we're Africans who happen to be in America. We were kidnapped and brought here against our will from Africa. We didn't land on Plymouth Rock - that rock landed on us."

"When the meat platter was passed to me, I didn't even know what the meat was; usually, you couldn't tell, anyway-but it was suddenly as though _don't eat any more pork_ flashed on a screen before me."

"We who follow the Honorable Elijah Muhammad feel that when you try and pass integration laws here in America, forcing white people to pretend that they are accepting black people, what you are doing is making white people act in a hypocritical way."

"When this country here was first being founded there were 13 colonies. The whites were colonized. They were fed up with this taxation without representation, so some of them stood up and said ?Liberty or death.? Though I went to a white school over here in Mason, Michigan, the white man made the mistake of letting me read his history books. He made the mistake of teaching me that Patrick Henry was a patriot, and George Washington -- wasn?t nothing nonviolent about old Pat or George Washington. ?Liberty or death? was what brought about the freedom of whites in this country from the English. They didn?t care about the odds. Why they faced the wrath of the entire British Empire. And in those days they used to say that the British Empire was so vast and so powerful when the sun would never set on them. This is how big it was, yet these 13 little, scrawny states, tired of taxation without representation, tired of being exploited and oppressed and degraded, told that big British Empire ?Liberty or death.? And here you have 22 million Afro-American black people today catching more hell than Patrick Henry ever saw. And I?m here to tell you, in case you don?t know it, that you got a new generation of black people in this country who don?t care anything whatsoever about odds. They don?t want to hear you old Uncle Tom handkerchief heads talking about the odds. No. This is a new generation. If they?re gonna draft these young black men and send them over to Korea or South Vietnam to face 800 million Chinese -- if you?re not afraid of those odds, you shouldn?t be afraid of these odds."

"When a person places the proper value on freedom, there is nothing under the sun that he will not do to acquire that freedom. Whenever you hear a man saying he wants freedom, but in the next breath he is going to tell you what he won't do to get it, or what he doesn't believe in doing in order to get it, he doesn't believe in freedom. A man who believes in freedom will do anything under the sun to acquire... or preserve his freedom."

"When I am dead--I say it that way because from the things I know, I do not expect to live long enough to read this book in its finished form--I want you to just watch and see if I'm not right in what I say: that the white man, in his press, is going to identify me with hate. He will make use of me dead, as he has made use of me alive, as a convenient symbol, of hatred--and that will help him escape facing the truth that all I have been doing is holding up a mirror to reflect, to show, the history of unspeakable crimes that his race has committed against my race."

"When you expand the civil-rights struggle to the level of human rights, you can then take the case of the black man in this country before the nations in the UN. You can take it before the General Assembly. You can take Uncle Sam before a world court. But the only level you can do it on is the level of human rights. Civil rights keeps you under his restrictions, under his jurisdiction. Civil rights keeps you in his pocket. Civil rights means you?re asking Uncle Sam to treat you right. Human rights are something you were born with. Human rights are your God-given rights. Human rights are the rights that are recognized by all nations of this earth. And any time anyone violates your human rights, you can take them to the world court."

"When we say Afro American, we include everyone in the Western Hemisphere of African descent. South America is America. Central America is America. South America has many people in it of African descent."

"When you take your case to Washington, D.C., you?re taking it to the criminal who?s responsible; it?s like running from the wolf to the fox. They?re all in cahoots together. They all work political chicanery and make you look like a chump before the eyes of the world. Here you are walking around in America, getting ready to be drafted and sent abroad, like a tin soldier, and when you get over there, people ask you what are you fighting for, and you have to stick your tongue in your cheek. No, take Uncle Sam to court, take him before the world."

"Whenever any group can vote in a bloc, and decide the outcome of elections, and it fails to do this, then that group is politically sick."

"When you have an organization that's neither political nor religious and doesn't take part in the civil rights struggle, what can it call itself? It's in a vacuum."

"Where the really sincere white people have got to do their ?proving? of themselves is not among the black victims, but out on the battle lines of where America?s racism really is ? and that?s in their own home communities."

"Whenever you got a racial powder keg sitting in your lap, you're in more trouble than if you had an atomic powder keg sitting in your lap. When a racial powder keg goes off, it doesn't care who it knocks out the way. Understand this, it's dangerous."

"Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to forget our differences. If we have differences, let us differ in the closet; when we come out in front, let us not have anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man."

"Whether you are a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Nationalist, we all have the same problem. They don?t hang you because you?re a Baptist; they hang you ?cause you?re black. They don?t attack me because I?m a Muslim; they attack me ?cause I?m black. They attack all of us for the same reason -- all of us catch hell from the same enemy. We?re all in the same bag, in the same boat. We suffer political oppression, economic exploitation, and social degradation all of them from the same enemy."

"Whenever you?re going after something that belongs to you, anyone who?s depriving you of the right to have it is a criminal. Understand that. 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 segregation is against the law. Which means a segregationist is breaking the law. A segregationist is a criminal. You can?t label him as anything other than that. And when you demonstrate against segregation, the law is on your side. The Supreme Court is on your side."

"Who taught you to hate yourself?"

"Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or who says it."

"You and I in America are faced not with a segregationist conspiracy; we?re faced with a government conspiracy. Everyone who?s filibustering is a senator?that?s the government. Everyone who?s finagling in Washington, D.C., is a congressman?that?s the government. You don?t have anybody putting blocks in your path but people who are a part of the government. The same government that you go abroad to fight for and die for is the government that is in a conspiracy to deprive you of your voting rights, deprive you of your economic opportunities, deprive you of decent housing, deprive you of decent education. You don?t need to go to the employer alone, it is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro."

"You are either free or not free."

"You can?t hate the roots of the tree without ending up hating the tree. You can?t hate your origin without ending up hating yourself. You can?t hate the land, your motherland, the place that you come from, and we can?t hate Africa without ending up hating ourselves. The Black man in the Western Hemisphere?North America, Central America, South America, and in the Caribbean?is the best example of how one can be made, skillfully, to hate himself that you can find anywhere on this earth."

"You can cuss out colonialism, imperialism, and all other kinds of ism, but it's hard for you to cuss that dollarism. When they drop those dollars on you, your soul goes."

"You can?t drive a knife into a man?s back nine inches, pull it out six inches, and call it progress."

"You and I, 22 million African-Americans ? that's what we are ? Africans who are in America. You're nothing but Africans. Nothing but Africans. In fact, you'd get farther calling yourself African instead of Negro. Africans don't catch hell. You're the only one catching hell. They don't have to pass civil-rights bills for Africans."

"You can't hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree."

"You can?t separate peace from freedom because no one can be at peace unless he has freedom."

"You can't have capitalism without racism."

"You can't legislate good will - that comes through education."