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  years! Yet nobody spends money to go into the South and

  ask the racists to be martyrs or pacifists. But they always

  come to the downtrodden Negroes, who are already oppressed and too submissive as a group, and ask them not to fight back. There seems to be a pattern of some sort of

  strange coincidence of interest when whites preach a special

  doctrine to Negroes. Like the choice of theology when the

  plantation-owners saw to the Christianization of the slaves.

  Instead of the doctrines which produced the rugged aggressively independent and justice-seeking spirit that we associate with Colonial America as the New England Conscience, the slaves were indoctrinated in the most submissive "trust-your-master," "pie-in-the-sky after-you-die" form of Christianity.

  It is because our militancy is growing that they spend

  hundreds of thousands of dollars to convert us into pacifists.

  Because our militancy is growing they come to us out of fear.

  Of course, the respectable Negro leadership are the

  most outspoken exponents of non-violence. But if these people, especially the ministers, are such pure pacifists, why is it that so few, if any, criticize the war preparations of this

  country? Why is it that so few speak out against the Bomb?

  Isn't that the sort of preaching one expects and hears from

  sincere pacifists? The responsible Negro leadership is pacifist in so far as its one interest is that we do not fight white racists, that we do not "provoke" or enrage them. They constantly tell us that if we resort to violent self-defense we will be exterminated. They are not stopping violence-they are

  only stopping defensive violence against white racists out of

  a fear of extermination.

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  This fear of extermination is a myth which we have exposed in Monroe. We did this because we came to an active understanding of the racist system and grasped the relationship between violence and racism. The existence of violence is at the very heart of a racist system. The Afro-American

  militant is a "militant" because he defends himself, his family, his home and his dignity. He does not introduce violence into a racist social system-the violence is already there and

  has always been there. It is precisely this unchallenged violence that allows a racist social system to perpetuate itself.

  When people say that they are opposed to Negroes "resorting to violence" what they really mean is that they are opposed to Negroes defending themselves and challenging the exclusive monopoly of violence practiced by white racists.

  We have shown in Monroe that with violence working both

  ways constituted law will be more inclined to keep the

  peace.

  When Afro-Americans resist and struggle for their

  rights they also possess a power greater than that generated

  by their will and their hands. With the world situation as it is

  today, the most racist and fascist United States government

  conceivable could not succeed in exterminating 20,000,000

  people. We know there is a great power struggle going on in

  the world today and the colored peoples control the true

  balance of power. We also know, from the statistics of the

  Detroit race riots, that production in this country would fall

  in forty-eight hours. People everywhere in the world would

  be ready to support our struggle.

  Nor should we forget that these same deceiving pacifist-preaching well-to-do southern blacks profit from the struggle, living lives of lUxury while most Afro-Americans

  continue to suffer. Are they any better than the Negro Quisling in neighboring Charleston, North Carolina-a black man who rode around in a new pink Cadillac with anti-NAACP

  and anti-integration literature, a huge roll of money and an

  expense account, all the blessings of the White Citizens'

  Council? It is an ironic sign that black Judases are becoming

  more expensive as the white racist becomes desperate-

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  though it is small consolation to those of us who suffer from

  his betrayals.

  In Monroe, where we fought the Klan, we were being

  penalized. There are children there growing up without any

  education, children without shoes, children without food.

  Old people without medical attention. For the Monroe

  Negro, there is no work; there is no welfare. From all the

  money raised in the North by the official black leadership,

  no one would send a penny to Monroe because the white

  liberals who gave this money considered us to be outlaws

  and thugs. They preferred to let us suffer rather than to identify themselves with our position. They sent truck convoys into other places in the South but penalized us because we

  took a militant stand.

  But our children who are growing up without shoes are

  also growing up with a sense of direction they cannot obtain

  in the Jim Crow schools. There once was a threat, in Monroe,

  of Negro teen-age gang war. It abated as the teen-agers resolved their difficulties by coming to understand the problem. It is only natural to expect the black youth to be infected with a desire to do something. Frustrated by less

  active adults, this desire may be projected in the wrong direction. The vigor of the youth can be channeled into constructive militant actions. It is simply a matter of common sense to have these young Negroes constructively fight racial injustice rather than fight among themselves. Danger is not a respecter of color lines. It is better to bleed for a just

  cause than to bleed just for the thrill of the sight of blood.

  Rebellion ferments in modern youth. It is better that it expend itself against its true enemies than against teen-age schoolmates who can't even explain the reasons for their

  dangerous skirmishes.

  The Montgomery bus boycott was perhaps the most

  successful example of completely pacifist action. But we

  must remember that in Montgomery, where Negroes are riding in the front of buses, there are also Negroes who are starving. The Montgomery bus boycott was a victory-but

  it was limited. It did not raise the Negro standard of living. It

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  did not mean better education for Negro children, it did not

  mean economic advances.

  Just what was the issue at hand for the white racists?

  What sacrifice? Remember that in Montgomery most white

  Americans have automobiles and are not dependent on the

  buses. It is just like our own experience in Monroe when we

  integrated the library. I called the chairman of the board in

  my county. I told him that I represented the NAACP, that we

  wanted to integrate the library, and that our own library had

  burned down. And he said, "Well, I don't see any reason why

  you can't use the same library that our people use. It won't

  make any difference. After all, I don't read anyway." Now,

  this is the attitude of a lot of white Southerners about the

  Montgomery bus boycott. The white people who control the

  city didn't ride the buses anyway. They had their own private cars, so it didn't make any difference to them.

  But when Afro-Americans get into the struggle for the

  right to live as human beings and the right to earn the same

  amount of money, then they'll meet the greatest amount of

  resistance, and out of it will come police-condoned or inspired violence. When that happens, the racist must be made to realize that in attacking us he risks his own life.

  After al
l, his life is a white life, and he considers the white

  life to be superior. So why should he risk a superior life to

  take an inferior one?

  I believe, and a lot of other Negroes do too, that we

  must create a black militancy of our own. We must direct

  our own struggle, achieve our own destiny. We must realize

  that many Afro-Americans have become skeptical and extremely suspicious of the so-called white liberals who have dominated "Negro" freedom movements. They just feel that

  no white person can understand what it is like to be a suppressed Negro. The traditional white liberal leadership in civil rights organizations, and even white radicals, generally

  cannot understand what our struggle is and how we feel

  about it. They have always made our struggle secondary and

  after all these years we really never got any place.

  They have a patient sense of good public relations. But

  we're not interested in a good press. We're interested in be-

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  coming free. We want to be liberated. To me oppression is

  harmful. It is painful. I would wake up in the morning as a

  Negro who was oppressed. At lunchtime, I would eat as a

  Negro who was oppressed. At night I would go to bed as a

  Negro who was oppressed. And if I could have been free in

  thirty seconds, it would not have been too soon.

  "Too long have others spoken for us," began the first

  editorial in the first Afro-American newspaper, which began

  publication in 1 827. The truth of these words has not

  dimmed in the century and a half since they first appeared

  in Freedom's Journal. They are more appropriate than ever.

  There are white people who are willing to give us aid

  without strings attached. They are willing to let us direct our

  own struggle. They are genuinely interested in the liberation

  of the Negroes. I would not have been able to remain in the

  South as long as I did if it had not been for the support that

  I got from some white people in the North. And I might never

  have succeeded in escaping the legal-lynching manhunt fomented by the FBI or have reached Cuban sanctuary but for the help of whites. They will be willing to continue helping

  us for the sake of justice, for the sake of human decency.

  "Every Freedom Movement in the U.S.A.

  Is Labeled 'Communist' "

  I am not a member and I have never been a member of

  the Communist Party. But most decent-minded Americans

  should realize by now that every movement for freedom that

  is initiated in the United States; every movement for human

  dignity, for decency, every movement that seeks fairness

  and social justice, every movement for human rights, is

  branded as "Communistic." Whenever a white person participates in a movement for black liberation, the movement is automatically branded as "under the domination of Moscow." I can't expect to be an exception.

  This Communist-thing is becoming an old standard. An

  old standard accusation now. Anyone who uncompromisingly opposes the racists, anyone who scorns the religious 79

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  fanatics and the super-duper American conservatives is considered a Communist.

  This sort of thing gives the Communists a lot of credit

  because certainly many people in my movement in the South

  don't know what a Communist is. Most of our people have

  never even heard of Marx. When you say Marx some of the

  people would think that maybe you were talking about a

  fountain pen or a New York City cab driver. Or the movie

  comedians.

  But people aspire to be free. People want to be liberated when they are oppressed. No matter where the leadership comes from. The enslavement and suppression of Negroes in the American South were going on before Karl

  Marx was born, and Negroes have been rebelling against

  their oppression before Marxism came into existence. As far

  back as the 1 6th century, and the beginning of the 1 7th century, Negroes were even rebelling on the slave ships. The history of American Negro slavery was marked by very many

  conspiracies and revolts on the part of Negroes.

  Certainly the Marxists have participated in the human

  rights struggle of Negroes, but Negroes need not be told by

  any philosophy or by any political party that racial oppression is wrong. Racial oppression itself inspires the Negro to rebellion. And it is on this ground that the people of Monroe

  protested and on this ground that the people of Monroe refused to conform to the standard of Jim Crow life in a Jim Crow society. It is on this basis that they have struck out

  against the insanity of racial prejudice. We know that the

  Southern bigot, the Southern racist is mentally ill, that he is

  sick. The fact that Jim Crow discrimination and racial segregation may very well be based on economic exploitation is beside the point.

  We are oppressed and no matter what the original

  cause or purpose of this oppression, the mind and personality of the racist doing the oppressing have been warped for so long that he is a mental case. Even if the economic situation is changed it will take quite a while and require quite a shock to cure this mental disease. I've read that one of the

  best treatments for some forms of mental illness is the shock

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  treatment. And the shock treatment must come primarily

  from the Afro-American people themselves in conjunction

  with their white allies, in conjunction with the white youth.

  This movement that I led was not a political organization. It had no political affiliations whatsoever. It was a movement of people who resented oppression. But I would

  say one thing about our movement. What happened in Monroe, North Carolina, had better become a lesson to the oppressors and the racists of America. Because it is symbolic of a new attitude, symbolic of a new era. It means that the

  Negro people are becoming restless. It means that there will

  be many more racial explosions in the days to come. Monroe

  was just the beginning. I dare predict that Monroe will become the symbol of the new Afro-American, a symbol of the Afro-American determined to rid himself of the stigma of

  race prejudice and the pain and torture of race hate and

  oppression at any cost.

  Black Nationalism: Another Label

  The label "Black Nationalist" is as meaningless as the

  Communist label. The Afro-American resents being set aside

  and oppressed, resents not being allowed to enter the mainstream of American society. These people who form their own groups because they have been rejected and start trying to create favorable societies of their own are called

  "Black Nationalists. "

  This i s a misleading title. Because the first thing you

  must remember is that I am an Afro-American and I've been

  denied the right to enter the mainstream of society in the

  United States. As an Afro-American I am rejected and discriminated against. We are the most excluded, the most discriminated-against group in the United States; the most discriminated-against class. So it is only normal that I direct

  most of my energy toward the liberation of my people, who

  are the most oppressed class.

  As for being a "Black Nationalist," this is a word that's

  hard to define. No, I'm not a "Black Nationalist" to the point

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  that I would exclude w
hites or that I would discriminate

  against whites or that I would be prejudiced toward whites.

  I would prefer to think of myself as an Inter-Nationalist. That

  is, I'm interested in the problems of all mankind. I'm interested in the problems of Africa, of Asia, and of Latin America.

  I believe that we all have the same struggle, a struggle for

  liberation. Discrimination and race hatred are undesirable,

  and I am just as much against racial discrimination, in all

  forms, every place in the world, as I am against it in the

  United States.

  What do we mean by "nationalism"? When you consider the present white American society it can be classified as nothing but a nationalistic society based on race. Yet as

  soon as an Afro-American speaks out for his people and is

  conscious and proud of his people's historical roots and culture, he becomes a "nationalist." I don't mind these labels. I don't care what they call me. I believe in justice for all people. And because the Afro-American is the most exploited, the most oppressed in our society, I believe in working foremost for his liberation.

  Non-Violence and Self-Defense

  The tactics of non-violence will continue and should

  continue. We too believed in non-violent tactics in Monroe.

  We have used these tactics, we've used all tactics. But we

  also believe that any struggle for liberation should be a flexible struggle. We should not take the attitude that one method alone is the way to liberation. This is to become

  dogmatic. This is to fall into the same sort of dogmatism

  practiced by some of the religious fanatics. We can't afford

  to develop this type of attitude.

  We must use non-violence as a means as long as this is

  feasible, but the day will come when conditions become so

  pronounced that non-violence will be suicidal in itself. The

  day is surely coming when we will see more violence on the

  American scene. The day is surely coming when some of the

  same Negroes who have denounced our using weapons for

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  self-defense will be arming themselves. There are those who

  pretend to be horrified by the idea that a black veteran who

  shouldered arms for the United States would willingly take

  up weapons to defend his wife, his children, his home and

  his life. These same people will one day be the loud advocates of self-defense. When violent racism and fascism strike at their families and their homes, not in a token way but in