Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-mp689 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-24T00:28:12.635Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Nightmarish landscapes: geography and the dystopian writings of Malcolm X

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 May 2010

Robert E. Terrill
Affiliation:
Indiana University, Bloomington
Get access

Summary

“I have a dream that one day every valley will be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed . . . So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire . . . from the mighty mountains of New York . . . from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado . . . From the curvaceous peaks of California . . . let freedom ring from Stone Mountain Georgia . . . from every hill . . . of Mississippi . . . when we let it ring . . . from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing . . . thank God almighty, we are free at last.” Speech by Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered on August 28, 1963, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC / “I see America through the eyes of the victim. I don't see any American dream; I see an American nightmare.” So argued Malcolm X in his “Ballot or the Bullet” speech delivered at the Cory Methodist Church in Cleveland, Ohio, just months after King's “I Have a Dream” Speech. Malcolm X explained that he was not an American. Rather, he considered himself to be “one of the 22 million black people who are victims of Americanism. One of the 22 million black people who are victims of democracy, nothing but disguised hypocrisy.” Consequently, Malcolm X spoke “not as an American, or a patriot, or a flagsaluter, or a flag-waver” but instead “as a victim of [the] American system.” Malcolm X viewed the American landscape as a nightmare. He did not see a Promised Land; America - at least for African Americans - was not a bright “City on a Hill” illuminating the world in all its glory.

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×