Notes from Malcolm X: March 1964
Since the civil rights bill — I used to see African diplomats at
the UN crying out against the injustice that was being done to Black people in
Mozambique, in Angola, the Congo, in South Africa, and I wondered why and how
they could go back to their hotels and turn on the TV and see dogs biting Black
people right down the block and policemen wrecking the stores of Black people
with their clubs right down the block, and putting water hoses on Black people
with pressure so high it tear our clothes off, right down the block. And I
wondered how they could talk all that talk about what was happening in Angola
and Mozambique and all the rest of it and see it happen right down the block
and get up on the podium in the UN and not say anything about it.
All the nations that signed the charter of the UN came up with the
Declaration of Human Rights and anyone who classifies his grievances under the
label of “human rights” violations, those grievances can then be brought into
the United Nations and be discussed by people all over the world. For as long
as you call it “civil rights” your only allies can be the people in the next
community, many of whom are responsible for your grievance. But when you call
it “human rights” it becomes international. And then you can take your troubles
to the World Court. You can take them before the world. And anybody anywhere on
this earth can become your ally.
So one of the first steps that we became involved in, those of us
who got into the Organization of Afro-American Unity, was to come up with a
program that would make our grievances international and make the world see
that our problem was no longer a Negro problem or an American problem but a
human problem. A problem for humanity. And a
problem which should be attacked by all elements of humanity. A problem that
was so complex that it was impossible for Uncle Sam to solve it himself and
therefore we want to get into a body or conference with people who are in such
positions that they can help us get some kind of adjustment for this situation
before it gets so explosive that no one can handle it.
But I went and discussed it with some of them. And they said that
as long as the Black man in America calls his struggle a struggle of civil
rights — that in the civil rights context, it’s domestic and it remains within
the jurisdiction of the United States. And if any of them open up their mouths
to say anything about it, it’s considered a violation of the laws and rules of
protocol. And the difference with the other people was that they didn’t call
their grievances “civil rights” grievances, they called them “human rights”
grievances. “Civil rights” are within the jurisdiction of the government where
they are involved. But “human rights” is part of the charter of the United
Nations.
