Malcolm X's "Chickens coming home to roost speech" is so called because after the speech, he made a comment about Kennedy's Assassination, which had taken place two weeks before, to th the effect that"Kennedy never knew the chickens would come home to roost so soon."

He was much reviled because of the comment, and it led to his leaving the Nation of Islam, and it has since been regarded as a defining moment in the Civil Rights movement.

For those of us who were involved in the Civil Rights and Anti-War movements, those words and their implications were the beginning and/or the end of many long discussions and debates--they have as much significance and importance as "I have a dream", and when they are quoted, it is always with full understanding of what they imply.