Racial Autonomy Quotes

We reject segregation even more militantly than you say you do! We want separation, which is not the same! The Honorable Elijah Muhammad teaches us that segregation is when your life and liberty are controlled, regulated, by someone else. To segregate means to control. Segregation is that which is forced upon inferiors by superiors. But separation is that which is done voluntarily, by two equals - for the good of both!

The political philosophy of black nationalism means that the black man should control the politics and the politicians in his own community; no more.

The true Negro does not want integration... He realizes his potential is far better among his own race.

Every man has a right to his own opinion. Every race has a right to its own action; therefore let no man persuade you against your will, let no other race influence you against your own.

Black people cannot and will not become integrated into American society on any terms but those of self-determination and autonomy.

To the Negro People of the World, Greeting: We hereby beg to inform you that acting under instructions from the Universal Negro Improvement Association and African Communities League of the World, an international convention of Negroes, representing every country in the world, was called, and said convention was held in New York, United States of America, in sitting from the 1st to the 31st of August, 1920. The purpose of the convention was to elect world leaders for the Negro people of the world. After several weeks of discussion and probing into the merits of the most able representatives of the race, the convention elected the following dignitaries as leaders of the Negro people of the world …. The time has come for the race to establish centralized authority in the control of its own affairs.

Our [black people's] path is clear: We refuse to be inferior. We want to be exactly what Allah (God) has desired for us to be and we can't be that in their [white people's] house. We either have to take over their house or go and build a house of our own.

Our goal—a Racial Nation of and by ourselves—nothing less.

Negro producers, Negro distributors, Negro consumers! The world of Negroes can be self contained. We desire earnestly to deal with the rest of the world, but if the rest of the world desire not, we seek not

If the black man is allowed to separate and go into some land of his own where he can solve his own problems, there won't be any explosion, and the Negroes who want to stay with the white man, let them stay with the white man - but those who want to leave, let them go to The Honorable Elijah Muhammad.

Complete right of self-determination must include the right to governmental separation.... The Communist Party must stand ... for the establishment of a Negro republic in the Black Belt.

I think that the negro should reserve the right to execute.