We must understand the politics of our community and we must know what politics is supposed to produce.
-Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” 1964
Zaheer Ali, a friend, Malcolm X scholar and History Editor at Sapelo Square, and Julie Golia of the New York Public Library held a conversation today examining Malcolm X’s handwritten notes for “The Ballot or the Bullet,” one of his most iconic speeches and discussed the evolution of Malcolm’s oratory and beliefs.
Check out their conversation here and watch my 2015 X Speaks Project which includes the performative reading of Malcolm X’s February 14th, 1965 speech , Educate Our People in the Science of Politics.