Excerpt from speech delivered in Corn Hill
Methodist
Church Rochester, New York - Feb. 16, 1965.
So I point this out to show that it was not
change of heart on Uncle Sam's part that
permitted some of us to go a few steps forward.
It was world pressure. It was threat from outside.
Danger from outside that made it - that
occupied his mind and forced him to permit you
and me to stand up a little taller. Not because he
wanted us to stand up. Not because he wanted us
to go forward. He was forced to.
And once you properly analyze the ingredients
that opened the doors even to the degree that
they were forced open, when you see what it
was, you'll better understand your position
today. And you'll better understand the strategy
that you need today. Any kind of movement for
freedom of Black people based solely within the
confines of America is absolutely doomed to fail.
As long as your problem is fought within the
American context, all you can get as allies is
fellow Americans. As long as you call it civil
rights, it'965s a domestic problem within the
jurisdiction of the United States government.
And the United States government consists
of segregationists, racists. Why the most
powerful men in the government are racists.
This government is controlled by thirty-six
committees. Twenty congressional committees
and sixteen senatorial committees. Thirteen
of the twenty congressmen that make up the
congressional committees are from the South.
Ten of the sixteen senators that control the
senatorial committees are from the South.
Which means, that of the thirty-committees
that govern the foreign and domestic directions
and temperament of the country in which we
live, of the thirty-six, twenty-three of them are
in the hands of racists. Outright, stone-cold,
dead segregationists. This is what you and I are
up against. We are in a society where the power
is in the hands of those who are the worst breed
of humanity
