Huey P. Newton

Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989), was co-founder and inspirational leader of the Black Panther Party, a Black organization that existed in the 1960s and '80s.

Early Life

Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana, the seventh and youngest child in his family, from Armelia and Walter Newton, a sharecropper and Baptist minister. He was named after Louisiana governor Huey Long. Newton's family moved to Oakland, California when he was three. Despite "completing" his secondary education at Oakland Technical High School, Newton still did not know how to read. During his course of self-study, he struggled to read Plato's Republic, which he managed to understand after persistently reading it through five times. This success, he told an interviewer,was the spark that caused him to become a reader.

College

He attended Merritt College, earning an Associate of Arts degree and also studied law at Oakland City College and at San Francisco Law School. One of his professors was Edwin Meese III, future Attorney General of the United States under the Reagan Administration. Newton said he studied law to deal with police because he witnessed frequent abuse of power by them. There were times however when he mis-directed his rage. In 1964, he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon after stabbing a man at a party, and was sentenced to six months in the Alameda County jail.

Founding of the Black Panthers

While at Oakland City College, Newton had become involved in politics in the Bay Area, located in California. He joined the Afro-American Association, became a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and played a role in getting the first black history course adopted as part of the college's curriculum. He read the works of Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Tse-tung, and Che Guevara. It was during his time at Oakland City College that Newton, along with Bobby Seale, organized the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966, with Seale as chairman and Newton as minister of defense.

Huey and the Black Panthers

Newton and Seale decided early on that the police abuse of power 'must be stopped' in Oakland against African-Americans. From his college study of law, Newton understood the California penal code and the state's law regarding weapons and was thus able to convince a number of African-Americans to exercise their legal right to bear arms. Armed members of the Black Panther Party began patrolling areas where the Oakland police were said to commit crimes against the community's black citizens. This program was widely supported in the African American community for its efforts to stop reported racial crimes by their local police. In addition to patrolling, Newton and Seale were responsible for writing the Black Panther Party Platform and Program, which drew largely upon Newton’s Maoist influences. Newton was also instrumental in the creation of a breakfast program that fed hundreds of children of the local communities before they went to school each day. Former Panther Earl Anthony said the party was created with the goal to organize America for armed Maoist revolution to change the social situation to help black people. For Black Panthers this meant the realignment of economic policies in the United States to benefit everyone (including other races) who were being crushed under the weight of American big-business capitalism.

Accusation of Murder

In the predawn hours of October 28, 1967, Newton was stopped by Oakland police officer John Frey who attempted to disarm and discourage the patrols. But, after fellow officer Herbert Heanes arrived for backup, shots were fired, with all three individuals wounded. Frey was hit four times and died within an hour, while Heanes was in serious condition with three bullet wounds. Newton, also being hit by gunfire, but apparently not as seriously wounded, staggered into the city's Kaiser Hospital. He was admitted, but shocked to find himself chained to his bed.

Accused of murdering Frey, Newton was convicted in September, 1968 of "voluntary manslaughter", and was sentenced from 2 to 15 years in prison. In May, 1970 the California Appellate Court reversed Newton's conviction, and ordered a new trial. The State of California dropped its case against Newton after two subsequent mistrials. While Newton had been imprisoned, party membership had decreased significantly in several cities. The FBI had been actively involved in a campaign to eliminate the Black Panthers 'community outreach' programs such as free breakfasts for children, sickle-cell disease tests, and free food and shoes. Funding for several of their programs were raised as the result of the co-operation of the only independent commerce in the area, drug dealers and prostitution ring leaders. Bobby Seale later wrote about his belief of Newton’s involvement and attempted takeover of the Oakland drug trade. Seale further claimed Newton attempted to 'shake down' pimps and drug dealers, and as a result, a contract was taken out on Newton’s life. This story, however, was never proven.

In 1974, several charges were filed against Newton, and he was also accused of murdering a 17 year-old prostitute, Kathleen Smith. Newton failed to make his court appearance. His bail was revoked, a bench warrant was issued, and Newton's name was added to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's 'most wanted' list. Newton had jumped bail and escaped to Cuba, where he spent three years in exile. He returned home in 1977 to face murder charges because, he said, the 'climate' in the United States had changed, and he believed he could get a 'fair trial'. Because the evidence was largely circumstantial and not solid beyond hearsay, Newton was acquitted of the murder of Kathleen Smith after two trials were deadlocked.

Later Life

Newton earned a bachelor's degree from University of California, Santa Cruz in 1974. He was enrolled as a graduate student in History of Consciousness at UC Santa Cruz in 1978, when he arranged (while in prison) to take a reading course from famed evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers. He and Trivers became close friends. Trivers and Newton published an influential analysis of the role of flight crew self-deception in crash of Air Florida Flight 90. Trivers, R.L. & Newton, H.P. Science Digest 'The crash of flight 90: doomed by self-deception?' November 1982.

In 1985, Newton was charged with embezzling state and federal funds from the Black Panthers' community education and nutrition programs. In 1989, he was convicted. And the rumor for the motive was that he did it to support an alcohol and drug addiction. By this time, however, the Panthers had toned down its image and activism in order to get and maintain the government grants.

Death

On August 22, 1989, Newton was shot and killed by a man known for drug dealing in Oakland."Huey P. Newton: Narrative Essay." Biography Resource Center, Gale Group, 2001. ^* Media reports theorized Newton had become involved in drug dealing and was shot during a 'drug deal gone sour.'

In Popular Culture

In the song Changes, Tupac Shakur raps "...We gotta fight back/ that's what Huey said/ two shots in the dark/ now Huey's dead," in reference to Huey Newton. Shakur's respect for Newton is unsurprising considering Newton's influential role in the Black Panther Party, of which Shakur's mother, Afeni, was a member.

Notes

Bibliography

Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power. (Anchor Books: 1993) ISBN 0385471076. This memoir by an alledged fellow panther and close friend, Elaine Brown, contains a section on Huey P. Newton that critiques both his personal life and many of his political views. The book includes Newton's theory of "reactionary intercommunalism," in which he foresaw the weakening of the nation-state under the power of the market economy. This memoir is not the source of the material in this Wikipedia article.
The Black Panthers Speak - The Manifesto of the Party: The First Complete Documentary Record of the Panther's Program by Philip S. Foner (Editor), et al (1970)
"People of the state of California, plaintiff & respondent, vs. Huey P. Newton, defendant and appellant: Appellant's opening brief" (ERIC reports)
Obituary in New York Times by Dennis Hevesi, (August 23, 1989). "Huey Newton Symbolized the Rising Black Anger of a Generation"

Books and Articles by, or with Huey P. Newton

Revolutionary Suicide, 1973 memoir republished in 1995 with introduction by J. Herman Blake
The Huey P. Newton Reader by Fredrika Newton, et al (2002)
Insights and Poems by Huey P. Newton, Ericka Huggins 1975)
Essays from the Minister of Defense (The collected plays of Noel Coward) by Huey P Newton
War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America by Huey P. Newton (September 2000)
To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton by Huey P. Newton, Toni Morrison (Editor)
Revolutionary Intercommunalism and the Right of Nations to Self-Determination by Huey P. Newton, et al
The Genius of Huey P. Newton by Huey P. Newton
War Against the Panthers by Huey P. Newton
The original vision of the Black Panther Party by Huey P Newton
"Huey Newton talks to the movement about the Black Panther Party, cultural nationalism, SNCC, liberals and white revolutionaries" (Hydrology papers) by Huey P Newton

Huey P. Newton, The Radical Theorist by Judson L. Jeffries (2002)

External links

Online audiorecordings and video of Huey Newton via UC Berkeley Black Panther site
1968 interview with Newton
A Huey P. Newton Story, directed by Spike Lee, as shown on PBS

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