In a 1963 speech made at the University of California, Malcolm X addressed the troubling state of families in the black community. Sadly, it takes on even more relevance today. "Our young girls, our daughters, our baby sisters become unwed mothers before they are hardly out of their teens. Our community has thousands of unmarried mothers [who] have no hope of ever getting a husband. And our community has tens of thousands of little babies who have no father to act as their provider or protector," he said.
"As a young minister I wouldn’t have considered it possible for me to love any woman. I had too much experience that women were only tricky, deceitful, untrustworthy flesh. I had seen too many men ruined or tied down, or in some other way messed up by women. Women talk too much, and to tell a woman not to talk too much, would be like telling Jesse James not to carry a gun, or telling a hen not to cackle. Can you imagine Jesse James without a gun, or a hen that didn’t cackle, and for anyone in leadership or position as I am. The worst thing in the world that a man could have, is the wrong woman. Samson was destroyed by the woman that slept in his arms. It had been 10 years since I thought anything about a woman or a mistress, and as a minister now I was thinking even less about getting a wife------"
MALCOLM X (from the Autobiography of Malcolm X)
"In my years as a Muslim minister, I had always taught so strongly on moral issues. That many Muslim sisters accused me of being anti-woman. I had not even touched a woman for 12 years------"
MALCOLM X (from the Autobiography of Malcolm X)
"I love Sister Betty, she’s the only woman that I ever thought about loving. She’s one of the very few women that I have ever trusted. She’s a good Muslim woman and wife. With me trying to wake up this brainwashed black man, and telling this arrogant white man the truth. Betty knows this is a full time job. I am only home 2 or 3 days a week, but if I have to do work while I’m home she allows me to have that quiet time that I need to work in---"
MALCOLM X ( from the Autobiography of Malcolm X)
"While in Beirut I went walking, and I could clearly see the European influence upon their women. It showed me how any country’s moral strength, or it’s moral weakness is quickly measurable by the street attire and attitude of it’s women, especially it’s young women-----"
MALCOLM X
"Look at the women in America , young and old. Hardly any moral values are left in them. You can measure this by their dress and attire. Their spiritual values are almost destroyed, because of their emphasis on material things---"