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Speeches by Malcolm X, 1925-1965: The Ultimate Collection
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About the author
Malcolm X
128 books3,209 followersMalcolm X (born Malcolm Little), also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz, was an American Black Muslim minister and a spokesman for the Nation of Islam.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
After leaving the Nation of Islam in 1964, he made the pilgrimage, the Hajj, to Mecca and became a Sunni Muslim. He also founded the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity. Less than a year later, he was assassinated in Washington Heights on the first day of National Brotherhood Week.
Historian Robin D.G. Kelley wrote, "Malcolm X has been called many things: Pan-Africanist, father of Black Power, religious fanatic, closet conservative, incipient socialist, and a menace to society. The meaning of his public life — his politics and ideology — is contested in part because his entire body of work consists of a few dozen speeches and a collaborative autobiography whose veracity is challenged. Malcolm has become a sort of tabula rasa, or blank slate, on which people of different positions can write their own interpretations of his politics and legacy.
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Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
March 26, 2022
audio: doubt there is a print version of this. "speeches" is a stretch. seems random snippets of where MX or "MX characters" have been recorded and remastered for quality/clarity. There are "speeches", interviews, debates and sermons. I also recognized dialog from a scene of Denzel playing X in the Spike joint (forreal???? Makes me wanna produce my own audiobook from some public figure's "speeches").
In some snippets X sounds prophetic, eloquent, deep, observant... in other speeches he comes across a quick talking witty con man. i fact checked a few of his speech claims about happenings in those times, quite a bit of hyperbole.
In some snippets X sounds prophetic, eloquent, deep, observant... in other speeches he comes across a quick talking witty con man. i fact checked a few of his speech claims about happenings in those times, quite a bit of hyperbole.
January 26, 2022
This "audiobook" is a hot mess,in profound need of an editor. There is a lot of good content here, that would benefit from some context, possibly narration, bookends if you will. Also I'm not sure if it was just my download but there seemed to be abrupt cuts and lacunae. I'm really looking forward to reading his autobiography. Wonder what effects modern developments in discourse would have had on his message and ideology.
June 28, 2022
5 stars for Malcolm X’s speeches: what a charismatic and effective orator
1 star for the editing of this “book”: a lot of repeated material (e.g. some interviews are heard 4 times), excerpts of the Malcolm X biopic, some documentaries and newsreel, archival interviews (not about Mr X) with other contemporary figures, some excerpts of songs. Just a complete mess. Probably the worst edited artefact I’ve ever interacted with.
1 star for the editing of this “book”: a lot of repeated material (e.g. some interviews are heard 4 times), excerpts of the Malcolm X biopic, some documentaries and newsreel, archival interviews (not about Mr X) with other contemporary figures, some excerpts of songs. Just a complete mess. Probably the worst edited artefact I’ve ever interacted with.
October 25, 2023
This is a not-edited-at-all amalgamation of sound materials pertaining to Malcolm X, including a lot of his speeches, usually partially repeated more than once, interviews and debates; and other stuff, some of which is frankly, huh, surprising... But in the end, the words of Malcolm X are still and always miraculously powerful and extraordinary.
For me, "The Ballot or the Bullet", delivered in April 3, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio is still the best political speech of all times, and I'm including all the speeches in William Safire's "Lend Me Your Ears" ("I Have a Dream" is in there). Hearing his words, in his own voice, while a genocide in plain vue is unfolding in West Asia over comparable "miserable conditions", gave them an added gravitas:
"Well, I am one who doesn’t believe in deluding myself. I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn’t need any legislation; you wouldn’t need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn’t be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now. They don’t have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an American. No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver — no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare."
The soul, the clarity of thought, the determination, the eloquence, the dignity, the pursuit of dignity, the fight for denied constitutional rights, all of it is exhaustively present here and all of it is magnificent and inspiring.
Still from "The Ballot or the Bullet": "A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a Dixiecrat. That’s why, in 1964, it’s time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we’re supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don’t cast a ballot, it’s going to end up in a situation where we’re going to have to cast a bullet. It’s either a ballot or a bullet. In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system that’s known as gerrymandering, whatever that means. It means when Negroes become too heavily concentrated in a certain area, and begin to gain too much political power, the white man comes along and changes the district lines. You may say, “Why do you keep saying white man?” Because it’s the white man who does it. I haven’t ever seen any Negro changing any lines. They don’t let him get near the line. It’s the white man who does this. And usually, it’s the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he’s not your friend. So, what I’m trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: 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. So, where do we go from here?"
Well, I can't quote the all thing. Not that I'm not tempted.
From other interventions:
"So 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 don't feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don't think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D. C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights. No, we want it now or we don't think anybody should have it. The purpose of our organization is to start right here in Harlem, which has the largest concentration of people of African descent that exists anywhere on this earth. There are more Africans in Harlem than exist in any city on the African continent. Because that's what you and I are Africans. (...) "We assert that in those areas where the government is either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property of our people, that our people are within our rights to protect themselves by whatever means necessary."
“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.”
“I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.”
“When ghetto living seems normal, you have no shame, no privacy.”
“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”
“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.”
“It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.”
There much, much more, it's glorious.
For me, "The Ballot or the Bullet", delivered in April 3, 1964 in Cleveland, Ohio is still the best political speech of all times, and I'm including all the speeches in William Safire's "Lend Me Your Ears" ("I Have a Dream" is in there). Hearing his words, in his own voice, while a genocide in plain vue is unfolding in West Asia over comparable "miserable conditions", gave them an added gravitas:
"Well, I am one who doesn’t believe in deluding myself. I’m not going to sit at your table and watch you eat, with nothing on my plate, and call myself a diner. Sitting at the table doesn’t make you a diner, unless you eat some of what’s on that plate. Being here in America doesn’t make you an American. Being born here in America doesn’t make you an American. Why, if birth made you American, you wouldn’t need any legislation; you wouldn’t need any amendments to the Constitution; you wouldn’t be faced with civil-rights filibustering in Washington, D.C., right now. They don’t have to pass civil-rights legislation to make a Polack an American. No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy. So, I’m not standing here speaking to you as an American, or a patriot, or a flag-saluter, or a flag-waver — no, not I. I’m speaking as a victim of this American system. And I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don’t see any American dream; I see an American nightmare."
The soul, the clarity of thought, the determination, the eloquence, the dignity, the pursuit of dignity, the fight for denied constitutional rights, all of it is exhaustively present here and all of it is magnificent and inspiring.
Still from "The Ballot or the Bullet": "A vote for a Democrat is a vote for a Dixiecrat. That’s why, in 1964, it’s time now for you and me to become more politically mature and realize what the ballot is for; what we’re supposed to get when we cast a ballot; and that if we don’t cast a ballot, it’s going to end up in a situation where we’re going to have to cast a bullet. It’s either a ballot or a bullet. In the North, they do it a different way. They have a system that’s known as gerrymandering, whatever that means. It means when Negroes become too heavily concentrated in a certain area, and begin to gain too much political power, the white man comes along and changes the district lines. You may say, “Why do you keep saying white man?” Because it’s the white man who does it. I haven’t ever seen any Negro changing any lines. They don’t let him get near the line. It’s the white man who does this. And usually, it’s the white man who grins at you the most, and pats you on the back, and is supposed to be your friend. He may be friendly, but he’s not your friend. So, what I’m trying to impress upon you, in essence, is this: 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. So, where do we go from here?"
Well, I can't quote the all thing. Not that I'm not tempted.
From other interventions:
"So 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 don't feel that in 1964, living in a country that is supposedly based upon freedom, and supposedly the leader of the free world, we don't think that we should have to sit around and wait for some segregationist congressmen and senators and a President from Texas in Washington, D. C., to make up their minds that our people are due now some degree of civil rights. No, we want it now or we don't think anybody should have it. The purpose of our organization is to start right here in Harlem, which has the largest concentration of people of African descent that exists anywhere on this earth. There are more Africans in Harlem than exist in any city on the African continent. Because that's what you and I are Africans. (...) "We assert that in those areas where the government is either unable or unwilling to protect the lives and property of our people, that our people are within our rights to protect themselves by whatever means necessary."
“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.”
“I have no mercy or compassion in me for a society that will crush people, and then penalize them for not being able to stand up under the weight.”
“When ghetto living seems normal, you have no shame, no privacy.”
“You don’t have to be a man to fight for freedom. All you have to do is to be an intelligent human being.”
“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.”
“It is a time for martyrs now, and if I am to be one, it will be for the cause of brotherhood. That’s the only thing that can save this country.”
There much, much more, it's glorious.
July 12, 2023
I listened to the audiobook. I can't imagine that it exists in written form. This "book" contains some important content that is so poorly curated, edited, and organized that it loses its potential. Much of the information is duplicated multiple times. It may (likely?) contain(s) material that infringes on copyrights belonging to others. The audio quality is often poor. There are probably better sources for this information.
July 7, 2023
Audiobook: Poorly edited, a LOT of repetition (speeches or pieces of speeches recorded multiple times), extraneous weird stuff, not all content is Malcolm X. I give it 5 stars for the (few) actual recordings of Malcolm X and a few others, interesting debates, and interviews, 1 start for editing (following the pattern of another goodreader).
November 5, 2023
Parts are repetitive but this collection primary source speeches is a great compilation! Lots of radio interviews/programs. Some excerpts of what o believe was a documentary. Available on Audiobook via Hoopla from Lincoln Libraries.
September 6, 2022
I could not complete this. It is terribly edited and compiled. I'll find another way of learning more about Malcolm X. This was a waste of money.
July 18, 2025
Best collection of Malcolm X's speeches. This is the most interesting and eye-opening collection I have read.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews