The Best of the Speeches

May Malcolm X's words live forever and speak to the souls of all Black People.

There should be a compilation of Malcolm X speeches with the title shown above. Although these speeches are an excellent "snapshot" of Minister Shabazz during his times with the Nation of Islam, I do believe that these speeches should be heard as part of a greater body of work and not as THE body of work. The minister's very life, from his birth to the day of his death is a legacy: a journey of a man seeking the truth to help Black people across the world but who also in turn, found himself and continued to improve himself, as a Black man and... as A HUMAN BEING!! They should make his birthday a National Holiday.

malcolm truly spoke the words of a warrior,it's just we had our head so far up whities behind,4 decades later, we still don't understand the brainwashing! Daron

To say that two men should be enemies because of something so trivial as skin color is the work of the Devil.

Context: I'm a white male, 52, whose primary exposure to Malcolm before this set of speech excerpts was Spike Lee's movie. Given who Malcolm was when he was shot, and what he was becoming, according to Lee, I felt that his death was as great or greater a tragedy than that of MLK. These speeches are not by that Malcolm. A series of paraphrases may convey the tenor of these speeches. When he was addressing the killing of a black Korean war vet by LA police, Malcolm said "If a snake bites your child, you don't go out looking for the one snake with blood on its jaws: any snake will do." In other words, as I take it, if one cop kills a black man, kill a cop: any cop will do. Malcolm said the reason Muslim women were not often at his speeches and rallies was because , if someone were to accidentally touch one of them, that person's head would have to roll. He said if a white man were found with a black woman, she should be straightened UP, and the white man should be straightened OUT. He said Jews didn't come from the Holy/Promised Land, they came from Europe. They are not God's chosen people. Just as there are French Poodles, Irish Setters, German Shepherds, and Chihuahuas, yet they're all dogs. He said white men can be chased down the street with the truth, specifically the truth about where their blue eyes came from, where their (our) dog-like hair came from, and where our pale skin came from. He explicitly rejected non-violence–"the ones God doesn't get, we'll get"–in favor of revenge and retribution. He laughed at the story of a magazine owner's suicide, and wished such behavior would become more prevalent. In short, though he makes some trenchant and understandably bitter remarks, given the state of black people at the time he was writing, the preponderance of his rhetoric in these speeches is indistinguishable from other God-inspired hate speech, whether it be from Osama bin Laden or Tim LaHaye's Left Behind books. I would be interested in reading or hearing speeches given from the time he returned from Africa, when Spike Lee felt that Malcolm had grown beyond the rancor of his time in service to Elijah Mohammed. These speeches I found disturbing, and disappointing.

I had to respond to some of the responses left on this album. It is IMPERATIVE that before you open your mouth to speak (or in this case open your laptop or turn on your computer to type), you understand what you are speaking of. The statement made about Malcolm X being a "racist" because of his rejection of "white" names, is completely ridiculous. If you knew anything about slavery, particularly the registration/census of Black African slaves, you would know that their given names, names given to them by parents who were forever separated from them through the cruelty and grips of slavery, were TAKEN AWAY by slave masters upon their "purchase" in this country (and other countries practicing slavery, including the West Indian colonies). As a result, slave masters imposed on their newly acquired slaves, their own last names. Imagine the indignity of being stripped of the name your mother and father took pains to give you and being "given" or "forced to take" the name of a person who has "bought" you. You wouldn't stand for it either. The replacement of that "white" name with the symbol "X" is more powerful than we realize. It is a major move towards reconnecting Black Africans in North America with Black Africans back home in Africa. To take his speech as anything other than the truth, is completely ridiculous. Furthermore, the comments about "racism" leveled against Malcolm X for preaching the gospel of a "white devil" are also misplaced. They evidence that whoever wrote that quote has never taken the time to learn anything about Minister Malcolm X or "El Hajj Malik el Shabazz." That rhetoric belongs to the Nation of Islam under the leadership of Elijah Mohammed. That rhetoric was not Malcolm's. In fact, if you've ever seen Malcolm's debates and speeches before his split with the Nation of Islam, you would know that the Minister prefaced EVERYTHING he said with "Mr. Mohammed teaches us..." and so forth. When he went to Mecca and learned what true Islam is, his voice became the voice that we heard. He understood then that what Mr. Mohammed was preaching was not the way. So before you dare bash a great man of the highest moral discipline and love for people EVERYWHERE (yes I said everywhere, if you take a look at his speeches he expresses love for Black, Latino, Asian, African, etc), be sure to have a look at some of his work. The Autobiography of Malcolm X should be your starting point. Then branch out into works that truly explore who he was and what he stood for. Don't dare disrespect the message, just because you don't understand it.

he was a good man fighting for what he belives in

If you agree with him or not, he was only telling the truth from the perspective of black people. As he evolved, his view broaden and he began to tell the truth of all people.

This group of speeches seems to be pulled only from his time while with the Nation of Islam. Though insightful, his ideas took on greater scope and depth after his trip to Mecca. There should have been a greater mixture of MX work from his later years.

You may not agree with everything he say but, you must admit he was a great man when it came to the rights of blacks. He inspired so many people, he is truly someone to be remembered.