Kwame Ture

I just want to leave you, Sista's and Brotha's, with these last words. If I am not for myself, who will I be? If I am for myself alone, who am I? If not now, when? And if not you, who? We need an undying love for black people, wherever we may be. All power to all the people.

Black Power also means that we must unite. We must unite and we must organize a base to fight racism! To fight our oppressors!

I'd rather see a Brotha kill a white racist cop than kill a Vietnamese. Because, at least, if he kills a racist cop he's doing it for a reason. Because, they are shooting black people in the backs, in these streets, right here, in this very country. They're killing us like dogs! Right here! Right here!

It takes time to become free of the lies and their shaming effects on the black mind. It takes time to reject the most Important lie: that black people can't do the same things that white people can do - unless a white person helps them.

Is beauty defined as someone with a narrow nose? Thin lips? White skin? Hell no! Cause you ain't got none of that. Our lips are thick. Our noses broad. Our hair is nappy! We are black and we are beautiful!

That war in Vietnam, it is not only Illegal, it is immoral. And you know what I tell them: Hell no, we won't go!

Thank you Sista Patrice and the Black Student Union. I want to thank all of you, my beloved Sista's and Brotha's, for comin' out tonight. But, I'm here tonight to tell you that it is time for you to stop running away from being black. It is time for you to stop running away from being black! You're college students, right? You should think. It is time for you to understand that you as the growing intellectuals of this country, that you must define beauty for black people. Now that's Black Power!

Arm yourself, Brotha. Get ready. Cause the Revolution is coming. Pick up a gun and arm yourself. Because, trust me, it's coming.

You all dig Tarzan? Tarzan! I'm gonna be honest, when I was a boy, I used to go to the Saturday matinees watch Tarzan all the time. And white Tarzan used to beat up the black natives. And I would sit there yelling, "Kill the beasts. Kill the savages. Kill 'Em! Kill 'Em! Kill 'Em! Kill 'Em!" But, what I was saying, was, "Kill Me!" It was as if a young Jewish boy saw Nazis taking Jews off to Concentration Camps and cheered them on. Today, I want those Chiefs to beat the Hell out of Tarzan and send his Lilly white ass back to the caves of Europe!

The vast majority of negroes around this country, they live in captive communities and they must endure their oppression and their conditions because and only because they are black and powerless. And now, now we are being shot down like dogs in the streets by white racist cops. I said we are being shot down in the streets by white racist cops! We can no longer endure this kind of oppression without retribution.

My Name is Kwame Ture.