Help Self: What Must Be Done With The Negroes?

"Since our being brought in chains to the shores of America our brain power, labor, skills, talent and wealth have been taken, given, and spent toward building and adding to the civilization of another people. It is time for you and me, the so-called Negroes to start doing for ourselves. We must not let our children be as we, beggars of another man for his home, facilities, clothing, food, and the means of providing a living. Man depends on land for the necessities, food, clothing and shelter for survival. A prime requisite for freedom and independence is having one's own land. There can be no freedom without a people having their own land."


"As a people we must become producers and not remain consumers and employees. We must be able to extract raw material from the earth and manufacture them into something useful for ourselves. This would create jobs in production. We must remember that without land there is no production. The surplus of what we produce we would sell. This would develop a field of commerce and trade as other free and independent people whose population is less than that of the 20 million so called Negroes who are dependent in North America"


Message to the Black Man p. 56 By The Honorable Elijah Muhammad