When deciding a rhetorical piece to analyze, I chose ”Message to the Grass Roots” by Malcolm X. “Message to the Grass Roots” happened on November 9 and 10, 1963 at the two-day Grass Roots Northern Negro Leadership Conference at the King Solomon Baptist Church in Detroit. The conference was held at the same time that the Detroit Council for Human Rights held a Northern Negro Leadership Conference in Detroit because the Detroit Council for Human Rights sought to exclude Black Nationalists and Freedom Now Party advocates from that rally. I chose this speech because it gave an in-depth perspective to the radical side of the Civil Rights Movement.
Therefore, this particular rhetorical act intrigued me. Malcolm X’s stance on action in the Civil Rights Movement was that of violent protest, radically different than Martin Luther King JR.’s stance of non-violent civil disobedience. Malcolm X pointed out, “Our society, but more importantly America as a whole has a very serious problem.” The serious problem that he pointed out is that black people are not wanted by white society. By persuading his audience that there was an urgent need for social change and to no longer have a non-violent stance, Malcolm X encouraged them to turn and fight. He was able to persuade the black community to start a revolution against their “common enemy.” He felt strong action may be his only option left. Thus, he addressed the audience of non-Muslim African Americans as instigators of change, able to empower the Civil Rights movement and pave the way towards racial justice.
Consequently, because Malcolm X represented the frustration of the community at that time through his speech, it became one of the most significant speeches given in the time of the Civil Rights movement. Within the speech his purpose is to convince the black community to come together, yet through his extremist views on the use of violence, he is essentially alienating many of the people in the black community. Also through his use of violent examples in his speech it tells us that the Civil Rights movement struggle in America had reached its low point. This is the case because Martin Luther King Jr. failed to desegregate Birmingham in the weeks before the speech was given. Also the Southern Leadership conference was in financial trouble and was not taking any action. This made the Negros of the south frustrated with the non-violent approach of the Civil rights movement and they decided to take their own course of action. These events helped Malcolm X gain support for his violent approach to the Civil Rights Movement. He showed his audience through his forceful tone and motivational words that he would do anything to gain rights as an American citizen.
He motivated his audience by telling them “revolution is bloody, revolution is hostile, revolution knows no compromise, revolution overturns and destroys everything that get in its way. . . No you need a revolution.” His use of “bloody” and “hostile” shows his violent approach. In his speech, Malcolm X motivated his audience further when he encouraged his audience to stand up for their rights through black revolution. Malcolm X expressed his encouragement when he said,“ When you study the historic nature of revolutions . . . You may devise another program, you may change your goal and you may change your mind.” Malcolm X is responding to the non-violent approach of other activists within the group by saying that when you look at a revolution, a revolution has never been a revolution without violence. He is using specific rhetorical word choices invoke motivation within his audience.
In his speech “Message to the Grassroots” he also used a forceful tone when speaking to his audience. He showed his forceful tone when he said in his speech “ So I cite these various revolutions, brothers and sisters, to show you . . . there’s no such thing as a non-violent revolution.” In the sound bite of speech at this point he pauses and then raises his voice. This change is voice emphasizes his rhetorical choice of a forceful tone.
In the end his speech became memorable because he created a connection to the audience. He connected to the audience through his appeal to pathos, which in turn helped his appeal to ethos. He gave is speech to almost all black and non-Muslim, so he could not create a connection with the audience on a religious level. Instead, he connected to his audience by appealing to their feeling of frustration through his use of select words. An example of his use of select words is when he said, “They control you, but they never incited you or excited you. They control you, they contain you, they keep you on the plantation.” Malcolm X is telling his audience that the society is doing just enough for the Civil Rights Movement to keep them quiet, but not really fixing anything. Therefore, he uses his personal rhetorical connection to the situation to invoke pathos within his audience. In turn he creates a connection with his audience by showing that they are one community. He show this when he says, “ we have a common oppressor, a common exploiter and a common discriminator, but once we all realize that we have a common enemy, then we unite- on the basis of what we have in common.” Malcolm X is showing the audience that they are community who share the same beliefs and need to come together as one. By showing this he uses rhetoric situations to invoke ethos within the audience. These were often a tactic used by many speakers in the Civil Rights movement, including Martin Luther King Jr.
Malcolm X’s “Message to the Grass Roots” had a lasting and meaningful effect on Civil Rights movement. In his speech he gave us an in-depth view to the radical side of the Civil Rights Movement. Through the motivational words and forceful tone in his speech he showed us his rhetorical use of ethos and pathos. He then demonstrated that it motivated the audience to make a change and start a revolution. The speech then effectively responded to the situation surrounding it by giving the audience hope that even with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference in trouble, they can still continue on the path towards racial justice. Most importantly, through his speech he was trying to get people to take more immediate action.
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