Explore "The Night Malcolm X Spoke at the Oxford Union" by Stephen Tuck on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Tony Abrahams told me afterwards that it really shocked them when I laid that quotation on them. -Malcolm X to Jan Carew, in Ghosts in Our Blood
Malcolm X concluded his speech by calling on historical greats to support his argument. First he mentioned the American founding father Patrick Henry and his famous cry, "Give me liberty or give me death. " He had made much of Henry and the American revolution in previous speeches back home. But whether out of sensitivity to his British audience or an awareness that Henry would be little known, Malcolm X swiftly changed tack and summoned the greatest of all English writers, William Shakespeare.