Liberty or Death

         America can stand for many things to different people: patriotism, freedom, sovereignty, righteousness, good will, strength, or wise leadership.  However, one thing America should never stand for is injustice. Through the Revolutionary War, the Civil War, and all of the suffrage, Americans have struggled for independence and the right to self-government. The majority of American citizens are familiar with Patrick Henry’s famous quote, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Through an inspiring speech, Henry fought for individual freedoms and denounced corruption in the government. He argued for the American dream, a promise of prosperity and equality. Yet the following essay, using the cases of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., shows how in the late 1900s the American dream became the American nightmare as the oppressed become the oppressors.

         In a letter penned by Martin Luther King Jr. while he was held in a Birmingham jail, it is written, “I am here because I was invited here. I am here because I have organizational ties here. But more basically, I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.”  Serving as the President of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, King had an obligation to his organization to be in Birmingham, but he also stressed his obligation to be anywhere where an injustice or great wrong was being committed. As the Apostle Paul was compelled to carry the gospel of Jesus to the rest of the world, King felt he was obliged to carry the gospel of freedom to others. He continued on in his letter to explain that while people were angered by the demonstrations going on, they were oblivious to the causes behind those demonstrations; while they protested against the acts of the oppressed, they failed to protest against the acts of prejudice and discrimination that were occurring. King was appalled by the white power structure that left the Negro community with no voice, no rights, and no justice.

         Traveling back in time to the Revolutionary War, white colonists faced this same inequality as they strove to reject government without representation. They objected to tyranny and being ruled by tyrants who took power by their own means and ruled over another group of people. Using this same definition, by taking away the rights and freedoms of blacks, whites became what they most feared and opposed. King pressed this point, alleging, “Lamentably, it is a historical fact that privileged groups seldom give up their privileges voluntarily. Individuals may see the moral light and voluntarily give up their unjust posture, but groups tend to be more immoral than individuals. We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor, it must be demanded by the oppressed.”  When protest after protest in the black community went unheard, the only option left was action. Just as the colonists demanded their liberty, King recognized that blacks had to do the same. In order to do so through a nonviolent campaign, so as to avoid another war, there were four steps that had to be taken.

         The first step in King’s nonviolent campaign was to gather facts that prove an injustice exists. While colonists objected to the British trying to take complete control, taxes without consent, and the suppression of liberty and individual rights, Martin Luther and other blacks were standing up against segregation, bombing, and unjust courts; however, the idea behind each was the same: There is an injustice, and it will not be stood for. The second and third steps King discussed in his letter were negotiation and self-purification. An effort towards negotiation should come first when trying to resolve an injustice, yet in both the cases of the colonists and those suffering from racial discrimination, attempts were ignored and promises were broken. Thus, protestors reached the fourth and final step, direct action. Nonviolent actions, King explained, only enforce the negotiations that have been previously overlooked or disregarded. “Oppressed people can not remain oppressed forever,” he wrote, “The yearning for freedom eventually manifests itself, and that is what has happened to the American Negro. Something within has reminded him of his birthright of freedom, and something without has reminded him that it can be gained.”  Upon finally winning its independence and creating its own Constitution, America guaranteed liberty and justice to all, not to a select group.

         King’s voice was not the only one to speak out against racial injustice. Malcolm X gave the speech “The Ballot or the Bullet” in 1964 (a year after King’s letter was written). He brought to surface the political oppression, economic oppression, and social degradation blacks faced on a daily basis. He claimed, “No, I’m not an American. I’m one of the 22 million black people who are the victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are the victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.”  Rather than feeling rescued by America and its promise of liberty, this speech went so far as to say the African Americans were victimized by America. Malcolm X suggested that the “American Dream” had become an American lie. Like King, he encouraged people to open their eyes and recognize the wrongs being done to them; however, his strategy involved providing awareness of the power the black voting population held over the Democratic Party.

         This speech could also be compared to the colonists’ battle for independence. Many of the key ideas held during the revolution rang true in the philosophy of Black Nationalism. Malcolm asserted, “So the economic philosophy of Black Nationalism means in every church, every civic organization, in every fraternal order, it’s time now for our people to become conscious of the importance of controlling the economy of our community.”  The fight for independence, and the determination to have a say in their own future were the building points for both the American Revolution as well as the revolution Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr. threatened would occur if the black community’s rights as citizens were not granted.

         While King supported direct action, Malcolm X promoted a form of indirect action: attack the Democratic Party through ballots. He realized the influence and power the African American community gained with their right to vote, and stressed the importance of knowing what politics would bring the community in return. “Don’t be throwing out any ballots. A ballot is like a bullet. You don’t throw your ballots until you see a target, and if that target is not within your reach, keep your ballot in your pocket.”  Malcolm urged African Americans not to waste their voting rights, but instead to use them only if they could get something in return. If there was nothing to be given, and the black community was still restricted from gaining their just rights, then it would be time to pick up their arms. It was the ballot or the bullet.

         Just as the colonists feared tyranny and communism, the black community shared a common fear of helplessness and inferiority. Harry Truman suggested that communism was based on a belief that man was too incompetent to rule himself, thus requiring a master to rule him. He believed that by subjecting individuals to unfair trials, forced labor, and unwarranted arrests, communism was the antithesis of American values; yet, these were the same conditions African Americans were protesting against. The same ideas and beliefs held by Americans were the ones being challenged by its courts and judicial systems. As cited earlier, Malcolm X claimed that democracy was nothing but disguised hypocrisy; by taking away the very rights it demanded, democracy’s enforcement of racial inequality supported that claim.

         The oppressed are not the only ones who should be angered by injustice. In his speech at Wheeling, West Virginia, Joseph McCarthy stated, “One of the most important reasons for the graft, the corruption, the dishonesty, the disloyalty, the treason in high government positions—one of the most important reasons why this continues—is a lack of moral uprising on the part of the 140 million American people.”  The main reason that injustice exists in any place is because of the simple acceptance of it by a majority. As a country that stressed liberty, justice, freedom, and equality as its founding qualities, Americans should be offended, or even outraged, anytime a group’s personal rights are questioned or removed. As Martin Luther King Jr. wrote, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”  If Americans refuse to secure the rights of all of its citizens, then no one’s rights can be guaranteed. King Jr., Malcolm X, and all of the others who battled for equality not only recognized the promises behind the Constitution, they were also brave enough to stand up and fight for them.



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¹ Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” 1963 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 654

² Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” 1963 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 655

³ Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” 1963 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 658

⁴ Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” 1964 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 665

⁵ Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” 1964 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 671

⁶ Malcolm X, “The Ballot or the Bullet,” 1964 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 671

⁷ Joseph McCarthy, “Speech at Wheeling, West Virginia,” 1950 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 519

⁸ Martin Luther King, Jr., “Letter From a Birmingham Jail,” 1963 in Scott J. Hammond, Kevin R. Hardwick, and Howard L. Lubert, eds., Classics of American Political &Constitutional Thought, Volume 2, Reconstruction to the Present, (Hackett, 2007), p. 654