Beloved brothers and sisters, let us bring our minds out of the sky; let us stop being spooky; let us learn to face reality; let us look around here on this earth as other intelligent and civilized people are doing. Here in Atlanta is the seat of education for the so-called Negroes in this country. Yet most Negroes here are still locked into the most crowded and undesirable areas. Therefore, I would like to know what are our educated people doing with this education to elevate the living standards of your own people, and to eliminate the misery and poverty yet suffered by the so-called Negro masses who do not have education?
You who are college graduates, and you who are educators and instructors here in Atlanta, Georgia: I would like for you to tell me what you are doing with this education you have received from the white man toward making your own people more independent? What are you doing for your people with your education? Should not you take that education to unite your people and bring them up out of the “mud of ignorance,” and make them an independent people? But with all your education you yourself are still dependent upon your slave master for a job, and for your food, clothing and shelter. With your education, you have enough land and farmers to do something about the condition of the so-called American Negro.
But you must first agree that the most important ingredient has been omitted from your education, and that is the knowledge of God, the devil, of yourself, and of your enemy. Accept Allah and His true religion (Islam), and come and follow me. I am God’s Messenger to you. I have the keys to your salvation. Come and follow me and I will show you how to use your education, your skills and talents, for the good of your own people and yourself.
In the unity and harmony and Brotherhood created by the religion of Islam, it is easy for us to pool our knowledge and finance to set up farms and grow food to feed our people; we can set up factories to manufacture our own necessities, and other businesses with which we can establish trade and commerce and become independent as other civilized people are. Then, in this way you will be using your education to bring your people out of the slums and the breadlines. They will cease to be the “last hired and the first fired,” when you use your education to make jobs for them.
I thank you, my beloved brothers and sisters, for being here this afternoon, and listening so attentively to this truth. I am God’s last Messenger to you. You must accept Allah as God. You must know that Islam is your religion. Come and follow me; let me teach you, and I will put 20 million so-called American Negroes overnight on the road to success ... on the road toward complete independence in a home of your own, where you will never any more have to beg anyone for freedom, justice, or equality.
Thank you, my beloved brothers and sisters. May Allah forever bless you, as I leave you with the greetings of the peaceful and the righteous: As-Salaam-Alaikum ... which means, “Peace be unto you.”
2. MALCOLM X
AT HARVARD
This 1960 speech, delivered by Malcolm X before a jam-packed Harvard Law School Forum, comes from what I have called the Black Muslims’ “rasping” period. These were their early days on the national scene, and it would be interesting to find out if Malcolm would make just such a speech now.