Revolutionary Black Liberation Leader in the U.S.
1925-1965
The greatest weapon the colonial powers have used in the past against our people has always been divideand-conquer. America is a colonial power. She has colonized 22 million Afro-Americans by depriving us of first-class citizenship, by depriving us of civil rights, actually by depriving us of human rights. She has not only deprived us of the right to be a citizen, she has deprived us of the right to be human beings, the right to be recognized and respected as men and women. And in this country the black can be fifty years old and he is still a “boy.”
I grew up with white people. I was integrated before they invented the word and I have never met white
people yet—if you are around them long enough—who won’t refer to you as a “boy” or a “gal,” no matter how
old you are no matter what school you came out of, no matter what your intellectual or professional level is.
In this society we remain “boys.”
So America’s strategy is the same strategy as that which was used in the past by the colonial powers: divide
and conquer. She plays one Negro leader against the other. She plays one Negro organization against the
other. She makes us think that we have different objectives, different goals.
Excerpt from Speech: The Black Revolution(April 8, 1964)
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