Malcolm is clearly on the defensive in the first half of his long talk; he is responding to criticism rather than spreading his own gospel. It is only after he has answered charges that the Black Muslims are not orthodox Muslims; only after he has denied that the Black Muslims teach hate; and after he has put the Negro middle class in their place for their criticism of him—only after all this does Malcolm get down to what he really went to Harvard to say.
In essence it is this: The American Negro must have a separate state. This is the only way white men can atone for their sins and escape destruction; this is the only way Negroes can return to their own.
The Harvard Speech is the best statement—and defense—of the proposed all-Negro state that the Black Muslims have issued. It shows why I suggest that the Black Muslims are completely “Americanized” in their aims and approaches. Indeed, the reader will get a good chuckle when Malcolm delivers a blistering attack on non-American Moslems, some one hundred thousand of them he says, who have migrated to this country but have been unable to gather converts. Then Malcolm reminds them that Elijah has been able to garner thousands. So then, Malcolm continues, does this not mean that The Honorable Elijah Muhammad is indeed the Messenger?
Mr. chairman, ladies and gentlemen:
We thank you for inviting us here to the Harvard Law School Forum this evening to present our views on this timely topic: THE AMERICAN NEGRO; PROBLEMS AND SOLUTIONS. But to understand our views, the views of the Black Muslims, you must first realize that we are a religious group, and you must also know something about our religion, the religion of ISLAM.
The Creator of the Universe, whom many of you call God or Jehovah, is known to the Muslims by the name ALLAH. Since the Muslims believe there is but ONE GOD, and that all the prophets came from this ONE GOD, we believe also that all prophets taught the same religion, and that they themselves called that religion ISLAM, an Arabic word that means the complete submission and obedience to the will of ALLAH.
One who practices this Divine Obedience is called a MUSLIM (commonly known, spelled, and referred to here in the West as Moslem).
There are over 725 million Muslims on this earth, predominantly in Africa and Asia, the non-white world ... and we here in America who are under the Divine Leadership of The Honorable Elijah Muhammad, are an integral part of the vast World of Islam that stretches from the China Seas to the sunny shores of West Africa.
A unique situation faces the 20 million ex-slaves here in America because of our unique condition, thus our acceptance of Islam, and into Islam, affects us uniquely ... differently than all other Muslim “converts” anywhere else on this earth.