Malcolm's Contribution to Black Voting Rights
Nearly a century after the 15th Amendment granted the right to vote to Blacks, tactics which included "opening" the office to Blacks only a few hours a month, and refusing to process the voter registration applications of the few who managed to obtain them, ensured that Black political participation would not gain footing.
One of the few photos of MLK &
Malcolm X together.
Unsatisfied with SNCC's progress, local leaders asked Martin Luther King, Jr. to help promote the voter registration effort. Shortly after his arrival in Selma, King led a 400-person march to the Dallas County Courthouse, but was met by Sheriff James Clark, who said that the office was closed for the day. On February 1, 1965 King was arrested after a second attempt to register Blacks. Fearing that they would lose momentum by King’s incarceration, SNCC leaders invited Malcolm to speak in Selma.
Malcolm answered the call and preached a message of Black Nationalism and self-defense, a message that terrified and both inspired and disturbed Blacks. In his "Ballot or the Bullet" speech in 1964, Malcolm shared his political philosophy of Black Nationalism, which urged Blacks to recognize that their "ballots are like bullets," which should not be thrown away on politicians who were non-responsive to their specific needs. "You don’t [cast] your ballots until you see a target," he asserted, "and if that target is not within your reach, you keep your ballot in your pocket."
Notably, shortly after Malcolm's visit to Selma, a federal judge, responding to a suit brought by the Department of Justice, required Dallas County registrars to process at least 100 Black applications each day their offices were open.