The American civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s was marked by a divide amongst African-Americans over the methodology that would ensure their becoming first-class citizens.  Malcolm X's "Message to the Grassroots" was an appeal to the black community to adopt his view of the need for violence and black separatism, which he did through allusion, imagery, and his low register diction.

Malcolm X was a student of world history and used his knowledge to lend his arguments more credibility.  In this speech, Malcolm X alludes to various revolutions throughout history; American, French, Russian, Mau Mau, Algerian, Cuban, and the Chinese Revolution.  By alluding to all of these successful revolutions, Malcolm X is pointing out that his methodology of violence is the only way to ensure success.  While Malcolm's knowledge of world history and revolution makes his arguments seem academically sound, his strongest allusion is to Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin.  That novel was a major factor in the popularity of the abolition movement before the American Civil War.  This novel really brought the idea of the "house Negro" into popular culture.  This comparison of the types of slaves on the plantation, the "house Negro" vs. the "field Negro", and Malcolm X's extension of that historical example to modernity were his strongest arguments.  Malcolm X describes the house Negro/Uncle Tom as essentially a puppet, discussing how the master would give the "house Negro" a little education, some nicer clothes, his leftovers, and let them sleep in the attic or basement.  Then the house Negro would be used to control the field Negros on their master's behalf.  Malcolm X then goes on to say that this is the same strategy employed by the white man today, and the Negro leaders are actually being used against the black revolution.  Malcolm X's next point after this allusion is talking about Martin Luther King Jr.  Without explicitly calling out the non-violent movement a bunch of Uncle Toms, Malcolm X is alluding to that fact.  With his depiction of how the house Negro is willing to sellout his own people just because he was slightly elevated by the white man, Malcolm X immediately makes following the non-violent leaders an unattractive option because they would be following the Uncle Toms.

Malcom X also employs metaphor to lure supporters away from the non-violent movement.  The most notable example is his coffee metaphor.  He uses an everyday example to relate it to all the people in the audience while also perfectly demonstrating his own personal philosophy of separatism.  Malcolm X's call for separatism came from his father being a huge supporter of Marcus Garvey.  Garvey is best known for the Black Star Line, a shipping line that was supposed to rival the White Star Line (of which the Titanic belonged) and would ferry black people back to Africa.  Garvey thought that the common geographical ancestry of African descendants would unite the black people of the world and allow them to rise up out of their inferior positions in the rest of the world.  Malcolm X's personal views of the need to separate from the "white man" are related in an easy to understand image of coffee.  Any amount of cream will dilute the strength of coffee, and that metaphor represents Uncle Toms and JFK attempting to dilute the strength of the black revolution by integrating instead of pushing for self-sustaining separate communities like Marcus Garvey pushed for.

Perhaps his most important methods of trying to convince the audience are his diction and tone.  His opening line of having an "off-the-cuff chat" is a way of humbling his own position as a keynote speaker.  Malcolm X then goes on with his message of the need to follow something other than the Uncle Tom pacifist civil rights leaders with non-academic diction.  This was during the 1960s, back when black schools were oftentimes of lower quality and academic rigor.  Malcolm X is choosing to do this for a very deliberate reason; part of his speech was denouncing the "house Negro" and their desire to be like their master.  This desired included education, so in this regard; an educated black person is automatically more akin to the white man than other black people.  This factor forces Malcolm X (who was well-educated) to speak in more common phrases and examples.  He used the image of coffee and of plantation times.  He merely referenced the revolutions as a way of showing that historically; his philosophy of violence is what is needed.  But he paraphrased the purposes of these revolutions to be about land.  That concept was easily understood by many in the audience as they faced housing discrimination.  

Malcolm X is arguably most well-known for his comment on JFK's assassination, simply saying it was a case of the "chickens coming home to roost."  However inflammatory his rhetoric may be, Malcolm X was immensely successful in relating his message of the need for black separatism during the American civil rights movement because of his ability to relate to his target audience.  Through his allusions to historical events and uniquely black facets of American culture, Malcolm X establishes his authority on the black identity.  At the same time, through deliberate use of low-register diction Malcolm X manages to entrench himself with the audience while also distancing himself with the sell-out, "cream" leaders of the peaceful civil rights movement like Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.  Additionally, Malcolm X uses easily-relatable anecdotes and imagery to simply and efficiently convey his message of the need to meet the violence of whites against civil rights with the push for separate all-black communities. 

