In 1964 was the height of the civil rights movement. This was also during election time, (when John F. Kennedy was elected into presidency). Malcolm X is giving a speech to Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio in April 3, 1964. The speech was given to warn African Americans that they must vote wisely in these elections that if could change legislature in regards of the Civil Rights Movement as well as black autonomy. His other purpose was to warn his enemies that if they could not gain rights through votes that they would resort to violence to gain their rights. In Malcolm X’s speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” he uses logos, asyndeton and allusion to emphasize his message of African American unifying through voting and to give a message
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In his eyes, “Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you walkin' around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the government has failed us.” His allusion to the 1963 March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. presents to the audience an example of how complacency and integration do nothing to appeal to the government. He allude to the start of the Civil Rights Movement legislature, “And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out we're right back where we were in 1954. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're behind where we were in 1954. There's more segregation now than there was in 1954.” He refers to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education. African Americans were hopeful of finally achieving black progress little have been executed and successfully implemented in society. He also alludes to the Korean War, “... Yes, they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes and a rifle and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks and his napalm and all that other action he’s supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu.” His usage of this is to give black people strength that if they fight hard enough the the U.S. government will be forced to give up on tyranny. Malcolm X’s use of logos, asyndeton, and allusion in his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” emphasizes his message of black autonomy through voting and by other means and to give a message to his enemies that the black community will never stop fighting for their
In his eyes, “Anytime you live in the twentieth century, 1964, and you walkin' around here singing “We Shall Overcome,” the government has failed us.” His allusion to the 1963 March on Washington led by Martin Luther King Jr. presents to the audience an example of how complacency and integration do nothing to appeal to the government. He allude to the start of the Civil Rights Movement legislature, “And I love my Brother Lomax, the way he pointed out we're right back where we were in 1954. We're not even as far up as we were in 1954. We're behind where we were in 1954. There's more segregation now than there was in 1954.” He refers to the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education. African Americans were hopeful of finally achieving black progress little have been executed and successfully implemented in society. He also alludes to the Korean War, “... Yes, they ran him out of Korea. Rice eaters with nothing but gym shoes and a rifle and a bowl of rice took him and his tanks and his napalm and all that other action he’s supposed to have and ran him across the Yalu.” His usage of this is to give black people strength that if they fight hard enough the the U.S. government will be forced to give up on tyranny. Malcolm X’s use of logos, asyndeton, and allusion in his speech, “The Ballot or the Bullet” emphasizes his message of black autonomy through voting and by other means and to give a message to his enemies that the black community will never stop fighting for their