A Rhetorical Analysis of Malcolm X's 'The Ballot or the Bullet' Speech

This essay provides a detailed analysis of Malcolm X's influential speech, 'The Ballot or the Bullet,' delivered on April 12, 1964, at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. The analysis examines the speech's historical context, focusing on Malcolm X's advocacy for African-American rights and his critique of the mainstream civil rights movement. The essay explores the rhetorical devices employed by Malcolm X, including analogy, antithesis, and irony, to persuade his audience and convey his message of Black nationalism and self-governance. Furthermore, the essay assesses the speech through the lens of the four canons of rhetoric: invention, arrangement, delivery, and style, demonstrating how Malcolm X effectively used each canon to create a compelling and persuasive argument. The speech's significance lies in its indictment of American society and its call for African Americans to take control of their own destiny. The essay references key sources to support its analysis.

Running head: SPEECH ANALYSIS
SPEECH ANALYSIS
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

1SPEECH ANAYSIS
Malcolm Little, or more popularly known as Malcolm X, was an American minister of
Islam and a human rights activist, who was most popular for his advocacy for Afrrican-American
rights. He has been accused of preaching for racism and violence. He declared that the
mainstream civil rights movement was ingenuous for hoping that freedom could be obtained
through nonviolence and integration. On April 12th, 1964, Malcolm X gave his infamous ‘The
Ballot or the Bullet’ speech at the King Solomon Baptist Church located in Detroit. The
significance of this speech delivered in Detroit was that it indicted white America to its greatest
crimes of human exploitation (Smith, 2016).
The speech was addressed and delivered to a predominantly black meeting in the
Cleveland of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). This group was seeing a shift from non-
violent methods to Black Nationalism, which was more similar to Malcolm X’s style (Tyner,
2013). The speech helped in provoking this shift further and it was received enthusiastically by
the audience. His speech was persuasive in nature and several instances where he appeals to the
black people to take control of the governance in their hands or overthrow their dominating
congressmen who prevent their voting rights, perfectly sum up the type of individuals he is
addressing to.
Following are three examples of figures and tropes that the speaker used in his speech:
a. Analogy – In his speech, Malcolm X establishes an analogy between the international
cooperation between the two countries and the African American people belonging to
different religion when he says “If the late President Kennedy could get together with
Khrushchev and exchange some wheat, we certainly have more in common with each
other than Kennedy and Khrushchev had with each other.” (npatou, 2017).

2SPEECH ANAYSIS
b. Antithesis – While maintaining audience attention, a contrast of ideals, conceptions or
individuals presented is known as an antithesis. Malcolm X uses this figure in his speech
where he refers to African American people as victims of Americanism, stating that he
doesn’t visualise any American Dream but rather a nightmare (npatou, 2017).
c. Irony or Sarcasm – These are used in order to convey a sense of criticism in order to
make the audience realize that they have been a part of a politically biased system. In his
speech, Malcolm X uses irony when he states “Everything that came out of Europe, every
blue-eyed thing, is already an American. And as long as you and I have been over here,
we aren't Americans yet.” (npatou, 2017).
As far as the four canons of rhetoric are concerned, Malcolm X in his speech has successfully
incorporated a perfect use for all of them as discussed below:
a. Invention – Malcolm X showed elaborate inventive skills in this department by
addressing the specific issues that he knew would not only be relevant but also invoke
particular feelings of unity and rebellion in his intended audience by channelling his
discussion towards a black community specific issue (Tyner, 2013).
b. Arrangement – Malcolm X begins the speech by clarifying certain religious discussions
which he connects to black lives rights, oppression, governance and subsequently moving
to appealing his audience ta partake in necessary uprising, depicting skills of arrangement
(Lubin, 2015).
c. Delivery – Malcolm X uses strong language, steady vocal tone with proper rising and
falling intonation and emphasizes specific words like ‘governance’, ‘ballot’, ‘community’
and even culturally charged words like ‘negro’ in order to instil a holistic feeling of
communal equality (npatou, 2017).

3SPEECH ANAYSIS
d. Style – Malcolm X designed his speech in a way that involves multiple instances of
phrases and words pertaining to black community, black nationalism, oppression, rights,
religion, governance, protests etc. in order to emphasize the point that he in his speech is
urging his brothers and sister to rise against an oppressive system and claim ownership of
their lives and rights (Lubin, 2015).

4SPEECH ANAYSIS
References
Lubin, A. (2015). Between the Secular and the Sectarian: Malcolm X's Afro-Arab Political
Imaginary. Journal of Africana Religions, 3(1), 83-95.
npatou. (2017, Jun 06). Malcolm X's Legendary Speech: "The Ballot or the Bullet" (annotations
and subtitles) [Video file]. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=8zLQLUpNGsc
Smith, D. (2016). Ceding the Future. African American Review, 49(3), 183-191.
Tyner, J. (2013). The geography of Malcolm X: Black radicalism and the remaking of American
space. Routledge.