"Message to the Grass Roots" is the name of a public speech

Public speaking

Public speaking is the process of speaking to a group of people in a structured, deliberate manner intended to inform, influence, or entertain the listeners...

 by Malcolm X

Malcolm X

Malcolm X , born Malcolm Little and also known as El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz , was an African American Muslim minister and human rights activist. To his admirers he was a courageous advocate for the rights of African Americans, a man who indicted white America in the harshest terms for its...

 at the Northern Negro Grass Roots Leadership Conference on November 10, 1963, in King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan

Michigan

Michigan is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word mishigamaa, meaning "large water" or "large lake"....

. In the speech, Malcolm X described the difference between the "Black revolution" and the "Negro revolution", he contrasted the "house Negro

House Negro

House Negro is a pejorative term for a black person, used to compare someone to a house slave of a slave owner from the historic period of legal slavery in the US...

" and the "field Negro" during slavery and in the modern age, and he criticized the 1963 March on Washington

March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom

The March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom was the largest political rally for human rights in United States history and called for civil and economic rights for African Americans. It took place in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. Martin Luther King, Jr...

. "Message to the Grass Roots" was ranked 91st in the top 100 American speeches of the 20th century by 137 leading scholars of American public address.

A common enemy

Malcolm X began his speech by emphasizing the common experience of all African American

African American

African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...

s, regardless of their religious or political beliefs:

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 because you're a Baptist, and you don't catch hell because 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 because you're an American; because if you were an American, you wouldn't catch hell. You catch hell because you're a Black man. You catch hell, all of us catch hell, for the same reason.

Not only did Black Americans share a common experience, Malcolm X continued, they also shared a common enemy: white people

White people

White people is a term which usually refers to human beings characterized, at least in part, by the light pigmentation of their skin...

. He said that African Americans should come together on the basis that they shared a common enemy.

Malcolm X described the Bandung Conference

Asian-African Conference

The first large-scale Asian–African or Afro–Asian Conference—also known as the Bandung Conference—was a meeting of Asian and African states, most of which were newly independent, which took place on April 18–24, 1955 in Bandung, Indonesia...

 of 1955, at which representatives of Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

n and Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n nations met to discuss their common enemy: Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

ans. He said that just as the members of the Bandung Conference put aside their differences, so Black Americans must put aside their differences and unite.

The Black revolution and the Negro revolution

Next, Malcolm X spoke about the Black revolution and the Negro revolution. He said that Black people were using the word "revolution" loosely without realizing its full implications. He pointed out that the American

American Revolution

The American Revolution was the political upheaval during the last half of the 18th century in which thirteen colonies in North America joined together to break free from the British Empire, combining to become the United States of America...

, French

French Revolution

The French Revolution , sometimes distinguished as the 'Great French Revolution' , was a period of radical social and political upheaval in France and Europe. The absolute monarchy that had ruled France for centuries collapsed in three years...

, Russian, and Chinese Revolutions were all carried out by people concerned about the issue of land, and that all four revolutions involved bloodshed. He said that the Black revolutions taking place in Africa also involved land and bloodshed.

By contrast, Malcolm X said, advocates of the Negro revolution in the United States think they can have a nonviolent revolution

Nonviolent revolution

A nonviolent revolution is a revolution using mostly campaigns of civil resistance, including various forms of nonviolent protest, to bring about the departure of governments seen as entrenched and authoritarian...

:

You don't have a peaceful revolution. You don't have a turn-the-other-cheek revolution. There's no such thing 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. ... 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, singing "We Shall Overcome"? 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 any nation—they're trying to crawl back on the plantation.

The house Negro and the field Negro

Malcolm X spoke about two types of enslaved Africans: the "house Negro" and the "field Negro". The house Negro lived in his owner's house, dressed well, and ate well. He loved his owner as much as the owner loved himself, and he identified with his owner. If the owner got sick, the house Negro would ask, "Are we sick?" If somebody suggested to the house Negro that he escape slavery, he would refuse to go, asking where he could possibly have a better life than the one he had.

Malcolm X described the field Negro, who he said were the majority of slaves on a plantation. The field Negro lived in a shack, wore raggedy clothes, and ate chittlins

Chitterlings

Chitterlings are the intestines of a pig, although cattle and other animals' intestines are similarly used, that have been prepared as food. In various countries across the world, such food is prepared and eaten either as part of a daily diet, or at special events, holidays or religious...

. He hated his owner. If the owner's house caught fire, the field Negro prayed for wind. If the owner got sick, the field Negro prayed for him to die. If somebody suggested to the field Negro that he escape, he would leave in an instant.

Malcolm X said that there are still house Negroes and field Negroes. The modern house Negro, he said, was always interested in living or working among white people and bragging about being the only African American in his neighborhood or on his job. Malcolm X said the Black masses were modern field Negroes and described himself as a field Negro.

The March on Washington

Finally, Malcolm X spoke about the March on Washington, which had taken place on August 28, 1963. He said the impetus behind the march was the masses of African Americans, who were angry and threatening to march on the White House

White House

The White House is the official residence and principal workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW in Washington, D.C., the house was designed by Irish-born James Hoban, and built between 1792 and 1800 of white-painted Aquia sandstone in the Neoclassical...

 and the Capitol

United States Capitol

The United States Capitol is the meeting place of the United States Congress, the legislature of the federal government of the United States. Located in Washington, D.C., it sits atop Capitol Hill at the eastern end of the National Mall...

. Malcolm X said there were threats to disrupt traffic on the streets of Washington and at its airport. He described it as the Black revolution.

Malcolm X said that President Kennedy

John F. Kennedy

John Fitzgerald "Jack" Kennedy , often referred to by his initials JFK, was the 35th President of the United States, serving from 1961 until his assassination in 1963....

 called the Big Six

Big Six (civil rights)

The chairmen, presidents, or co-founders of some of the civil rights organizations active during the height of the American Civil Rights movement, likely mockingly named the "Big Six" by Malcolm X, include:* Martin Luther King, Jr...

 civil rights leaders and told them to stop the march, but they told him they couldn't. "Boss, I can't stop it, because I didn't start it." "I'm not even in it, much less the head of it." According to Malcolm X, Kennedy arranged for the civil rights leaders to take over the march by arranging donors and a public relations firm for them. As a result, the March on Washington lost its militancy and became "a circus".

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.

Analysis

"Message to the Grass Roots" was one of Malcolm X's last speeches as a member of the Nation of Islam

Nation of Islam

The Nation of Islam is a mainly African-American new religious movement founded in Detroit, Michigan by Wallace D. Fard Muhammad in July 1930 to improve the spiritual, mental, social, and economic condition of African-Americans in the United States of America. The movement teaches black pride and...

. A few weeks after delivering the speech, Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad

Elijah Muhammad was an African American religious leader, and led the Nation of Islam from 1934 until his death in 1975...

, the Nation's leader, silenced Malcolm X for comments he made with respect to the assassination of President Kennedy. On March 8, 1964, Malcolm X announced his departure from the Nation of Islam.

In some ways, "Message to the Grass Roots" can be viewed as a sign of Malcolm X's impending separation from the Nation of Islam. In it, he spoke not as a Muslim minister but as a leader of the Black masses. Gloria Richardson

Gloria Richardson

Gloria St. Clair Hayes Richardson is best known as the leader of the Cambridge Movement, a civil rights struggle in Cambridge, Maryland in the 1960s. The Movement made significant strides against institutionalized racial discrimination in Cambridge by bringing attention to social injustices such...

, who was present, later remembered: "That was when I really wondered how long it would be before he broke with [the Nation of Islam]."

"Message to the Grass Roots" was the most "political" speech Malcolm X had delivered to that time. The political message of the speech was beyond the teachings of the Nation of Islam.

Some of the themes touched on by Malcolm X in "Message to the Grass Roots" were familiar ones. The distinction between the Black revolution and the Negro revolution, and that between the house Negro and the field Negro, had become common features of his speeches.

Theologian James Cone

James Hal Cone

James Hal Cone is an advocate of Black liberation theology, a theology grounded in the experience of African Americans, and related to other Christian liberation theologies. In 1969, his book Black Theology and Black Power provided a new way to articulate the distinctiveness of theology in the...

 suggests that Malcolm X's critique of the March on Washington, while not accurate in the details, was true in general. According to Cone, the march was controlled by the Black bourgeoisie and the white liberals who financed it. The whites forced John Lewis to rewrite his speech because it was considered offensive to the Kennedy administration, and James Baldwin

James Baldwin (writer)

James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.Baldwin's essays, for instance "Notes of a Native Son" , explore palpable yet unspoken intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies, most notably in mid-20th century America,...

 wasn't allowed to speak out of fear for what he might say.

Legacy

In 2008, shortly after the election of Barack Obama

Barack Obama

Barack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office. Obama previously served as a United States Senator from Illinois, from January 2005 until he resigned following his victory in the 2008 presidential election.Born in...

, the first African-American president, al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda

Al-Qaeda is a global broad-based militant Islamist terrorist organization founded by Osama bin Laden sometime between August 1988 and late 1989. It operates as a network comprising both a multinational, stateless army and a radical Sunni Muslim movement calling for global Jihad...

 released a videotape that included a statement by Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman al-Zawahiri

Ayman Mohammed Rabie al-Zawahiri is an Egyptian physician, Islamic theologian and current leader of al-Qaeda. He was previously the second and last "emir" of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad, having succeeded Abbud al-Zumar in the latter role when Egyptian authorities sentenced al-Zumar to life...

, who called Obama a "house Negro" and contrasted him with "honorable Black Americans" such as Malcolm X.

Key excerpts

• "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."

External links

• Message to the Grassroots, King Solomon Baptist Church, Detroit, November 10, 1963
• Message to the Grassroots, includes links to the speech in HTML, PDF and MP3 formats