The Ballot or the Bulletby Malcolm XApril 3, 1964Cleveland, OhioMr. Moderator, Brother Lomax, brothers and sisters, friends and enemies: I just cant believe everyone in here is a friend, and I dont want to lee anybody out. The question tonight, as I understand it, is The Negro Revolt, and Where Do We Go From Here? or What Next? In my little humble way of understanding it, it points toward either the ballot or the bullet.Before we try and explain what is meant by the ballot or the bullet, I would like to clarify something concerning myself. Im still a Muslim; my religion is still Islam. Thats my personal belief. Just as Adam Clayton Powell is a Christian minister who heads the Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York, but at the same time takes part in the political struggles to try and bring about rights to the black people in this country; and Dr. Martin Luther King is a Christian minister down in Atlanta, Geia, who heads another anization fighting for the civil rights of black people in this country; and Reverend Galamison, I guess youve heard of him, is another Christian minister in New York who has been deeply involved in the school s to eliminate segregated education; well, I myself am a minister, not a Christian minister, but a Muslim minister; and I believe in action on all fronts by whatever means necessary.Although Im still a Muslim, Im not here tonight to discuss my religion. Im not here to try and change your religion. Im not here to argue or discuss anything that we differ about, because its time for us to submerge our differences and realize that it is best for us to first see that we he the same problem, a mon problem, a problem that will make you catch hell whether youre a Baptist, or a Methodist, or a Muslim, or a nationalist. Whether youre educated or illiterate, whether you live on the boulevard or in the alley, youre going to catch hell just like I am. Were all in the same boat and we all are going to catch the same hell from the same man. He just happens to be a white man. All of us he suffered here, in this country, political oppression at the hands of the white man, economic exploitation at the hands of the white man, and social degradation at the hands of the white man.Now in speaking like this, it doesnt mean that were anti-white, but it does mean were anti-exploitation, were anti-degradation, were anti-oppression. And if the white man doesnt want us to be anti-him, let him stop oppressing and exploiting and degrading us. Whether we are Christians or Muslims or nationalists or agnostics or atheists, we must first learn to fet our differences. If we he differences, let us differ in the closet; when we e out in front, let us not he anything to argue about until we get finished arguing with the man. If the late President Kennedy could get together with Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly he more in mon with each other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.If we dont do something real soon, I think youll he to agree that were going to be forced either to use the ballot or the bullet. Its one or the other in 1964. It isnt that time is running out -- time has run out!1964 threatens to be the most explosive year America has ever witnessed. The most explosive year. Why? Its also a political year. Its the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro munity jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my munity with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they dont intend to keep. As they nourish these dissatisfactions, it can only lead to one thing, an explosion; and now we he the type of black man on the scene in America today -- Im sorry, Brother Lomax -- who just doesnt intend to turn the other cheek any longer.Dont let anybody tell you anything about the odds are against you. If they draft you, they send you to Korea and make you face 800 million Chinese. If you can be bre over there, you can be bre right here. These odds arent as great as those odds. And if you fight here, you will at least know what youre fighting for.Im not a politician, not even a student of politics; in fact, Im not a student of much of anything. Im not a Democrat. Im not a Republican, and I dont even consider myself an American. If you and I were Americans, thered be no problem. Those Honkies that just got off the boat, theyre already Americans; Polacks are already Americans; the Italian refugees are already Americans. Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I he been over here, we arent Americans yet.