OPINION | Malcolm X's Timeless Call to Action: Echoes of 'The Ballot or the Bullet' in Today's Struggle for Black Liberation

by Gennette Cordova

Black History Month, especially, is a time for reflecting on the teachings and work of Black leaders who came before us. Malcolm X's 1964 speech "The Ballot or the Bullet," delivered less than a year before his assassination, offers valuable perspective to understand the ways in which history has continued to repeat itself, with a call to action to disrupt the cycle.

This speech, which he opens by beseeching his Black audience to unite despite their differences, is rich with relevant insights. The most pertinent of these is an urgent idea with two parts. The first is that, while supporting Republicans is clearly not a realistic solution to the problems Black people face — it wasn't in 1964 and it isn't today — we must urgently address the Democratic Party's consistent failure of the Black community.

The second part is that this addressing will be done by the ballot or the bullet. Meaning that if Black people couldn't use their collective electoral power to bring about change, they'd need a revolution. The change they sought would never be gained by pleading with a morally bankrupt system to give them what they needed. This is as true today as it was in 1964. Perhaps more so, as we've endured 60 more years of pronounced and often violent inequality.

"It is the government itself, the government of America, that is responsible for the oppression and exploitation and degradation of Black people in this country. And you should drop it in their lap. This government has failed the Negro. This so-called democracy has failed the Negro. And all these white liberals have definitely failed the Negro," Malcolm said, urging his audience to recognize the full weight of Black suffering the government had both allowed and engendered.

"You can't change his mind," Malcolm continued, speaking of the U.S.'s white supremacist systems. "And that whole thing about appealing to the moral conscience of America — America's conscience is bankrupt. She lost all conscience a long time ago. Uncle Sam has no conscience."

In 2024, I believe our situation necessitates both a revolution, through a commitment to protesting, boycotting, and other forms of organizing and collective action, with varying degrees of aggression, in conjunction with strategic, concerted wielding of our electoral power.

At the time Malcolm delivered this speech, Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson was running for re-election against Republican candidate Barry Goldwater. "It's the year when all of the white politicians will be back in the so-called Negro community jiving you and me for some votes. The year when all of the white political crooks will be right back in your and my community with their false promises, building up our hopes for a letdown, with their trickery and their treachery, with their false promises which they don't intend to keep."

An honest analysis of today's presidential elections would have to concede that those words apply aptly to the present. Still, this year, your concerns and criticisms of Democrats will be met with a chorus of voices telling you that this election is a matter of life and death and therefore not the time to be making demands in exchange for our votes. But the alleged stakes of this election are precisely what makes this the optimal opportunity to advocate for our communities.

While U.S. lawmakers continue to promote the idea of the American Dream, the reality for Black Americans, as a whole, has the makings of a nightmare. Demanding that radical solutions be presented to us to remedy hundreds of years of oppression is not asking for a handout or a favor. It's the very bare minimum of what we're owed. Measuring progress through increased Black representation and the perception of integration has warped our understanding of true progress.

"How can you thank a man for giving you what's already yours? How then can you thank him for giving you only part of what's already yours?" Malcolm asked the crowd in 1964. "You haven't even made progress, if what's being given to you, you should have had already. That's not progress. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're behind where we were in 1954. There's more segregation now than there was in 1954."

Similarly to today, large metropolitan areas in the United States were 81% more segregated in 2019 than they were in 1990, according to a 2021 analysis of residential segregation. Whether it's household wealth, incarceration rates, farming, homelessness, schools, or health care, Black people experience disproportionately poor outcomes. Our communities can no longer wait for relief. And we shouldn't have to.

As Malcolm reminded his audience, the unpaid labor of Black people for over 300 years is the reason the U.S. amassed wealth and, therefore, power so quickly. The issue of reparations for descendants of American slaves should have been resolved long ago, but it's a topic that's far beyond the horizon of mainstream discourse among lawmakers.

This is true even of the party that depends on us to put them in or keep them in power. How can we continue to allow this? In 2020, 90% of Black voters cast their vote for Joe Biden, the Democratic Party's choice for nominee, making us their most loyal voting bloc by a sizable margin.

Malcolm's words, which illuminate how justice and liberation have been deferred for Black people for far too long, should be a resounding call to action. We must wield the power we have, whether through voting or other means, in the interest of improving the material conditions and the collective quality of life of our communities.

Some have said that 2024 is the most important election year in recent history. Others have suggested that it will be the ultimate test of democracy and that it can either save us from or plunge us into fascism. The truth is that no one, and certainly not any of the options in front of us, will save us from our oppression simply by being elected.

But if this election is truly consequential and Black people, as the Democrats' strongest supporters, will have an outsized contribution in delivering a Democratic victory, why is the value of our cumulative vote not enough to make matters that are important to us — that could quite literally be matters of life and death — a priority?

The time to center our collective needs is now. We owe it to the generations coming up after us to have the foresight and determination to use whatever power we possess to push for better outcomes for our communities. My attitude about this election year parallels Malcolm's in 1964: "It isn't that time is running out — time has run out!"

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The opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints expressed by the contributors on this website do not necessarily reflect the opinions, beliefs, and viewpoints of the Emerald or official policies of the Emerald.

Gennette Cordova is a writer, organizer, and social impact manager. She contributes to publications like Teen Vogue and Revolt TV and runs an organization, Lorraine House, which seeks to build and uplift radical communities through art and activism.

📸 Featured Image: Malcolm X speaks at a news conference in the Hotel Theresa, in New York, May 21, 1964. (Photo: AP/File)