Revolutionary Black Liberation Leader in the U.S.
1925-1965
I don’t come here tonight to speak to you as a Democrat or a Republican or an American or anything that you want me to be. I’m speaking as what I am: one of twenty-two million black people in this country who are victims of your democratic system. They’re the victims of the Democratic politicians, the victims of the Republican politicians. They’re actually the victims of what you call democracy. So I stand here tonight speaking as a victim of what you call democracy. And you can understand what I’m saying if you realize it’s being said through the mouth of a victim; the mouth of one of the oppressed, not through the mouth and eyes of the oppressor. But if you think we’re sitting in the same chair or standing on the same platform, then you won’t understand what I’m talking about. You’d expect me to stand up here and say what you would say if you were standing up here. And I’d have to be out of my mind.
Excerpt from Speech at Harvard University (March 18,1964)
