Malcolm X: The Ballot or The Bullet

A detailed Summary of Malcolm X: The Ballot or The Bullet


One of the top 100 speeches of all time, Malcolm X: "The Ballot or the Bullet", presents examples of all four ways to persuade. In this speech, Malcolm X attempts to persuade his audience that blacks are not actually American citizens, just African's living in America. He uses each type of persuasion in order to have the audience appeal to his point of view.

First, Malcolm X uses many different ways to intensify, or make his argument look good. He repetitively stresses the fact that Negroes are not welcome in the United States. "Everything that came out of Europe, every blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as I have been over here, we aren't Americans yet." This, with out a doubt, makes his argument look good. He also says that his ancestors


He directly downplays certain points to better exemplify is argument, one of these being violence. He repetitively mentions the "ballot or the bullet", the bullet being the primary support. Stereotypically, many of the blacks that live in the city perform crimes that anger the American people. This causes the people to further segregate the Negroes from our society for fear that one day they could harm us. Malcolm X explains that the "bullet" represents taking an action, not necessarily a violent one, against the country. Still, the idea of the "bullet", to the average person, hints violence. He downplays this idea, still appealing to the black population, and hopefully to some of the white.

worked in this country for three hundred years, with nothing in re

Some common words found in the essay are:
African Americans, African American's, Ballot Bullet, African American, United Europe, Supreme Court, America Malcolm, , deprive decent, ballot bullet,

Approximate Word count = 519
Approximate Pages = 2 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: History

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