Huey P. Newton
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Dr. Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989), was co-founder and inspirational leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a black nationalist/racial equality organization that began in October 1966.
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[edit] Early life
Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana, the seventh and youngest child in his family, from Amelia 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 believed he understood after persistently reading it through five times. This success, he told an interviewer, was the spark that caused him to become a leader.[citation needed]
[edit] Founding of the Black Panthers
While at Oakland City College, Newton had become involved in politics in the Bay Area. 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[citation needed] that Newton, along with Bobby Seale, organized the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966. Bobby Seale assumed the role of Chairman, while Huey P. Newton became Minister of Defense[1]
[edit] Huey and the Black Panthers
Newton and Seale decided early on that the police abuse of power in Oakland against African-Americans 'must be stopped'. From his college study of law, Newton understood the California penal code and the state's law regarding weapons and was thus able to persuade a number of African-Americans to exercise their legal right to openly bear arms (concealed firearms were illegal). Members of the Black Panther Party carrying rifles and shotguns began patrolling areas where the Oakland police were said to commit racially-motivated crimes against the community's black citizens, in order to stop such crimes. This program was widely supported in the local African-American community. 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 (black panther) said the party was created with the goal to organize America for an 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.
[edit] 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. Within moments the police arrived where, even while he bled profusely from his bullet wound in the abdomen, the policemen continued to beat him into unconsciousness.[citation needed]
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 declined 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 was raised as the result of the co-operation with the only independent commerce in the area: drug dealers and prostitution-ring leaders. Bobby Seale later wrote about his belief in 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.[citation needed] This story, however, was never proven. It is suggested that this mutual paranoia between long-time friends and party co-founders, Seale and Newton, was created by Hoover and the FBI. The FBI sent numerous "brown" letters to Panther leaders causing great alarm. The letters would have a false name, acting as if a Panther member had written and sent the letter; they often included death threats. This fear caused a fall-off in number of members and eventually the failure of the Party.
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.
[edit] 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. [2] Later, Newton's widow, Frederika Newton, would discuss her husband's often-ignored academic learnings on C-SPAN's "American Perspectives" program on February 18, 2006, mentioning that Newton earned a Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz in 1980. [3]
In 1985, Newton was charged with embezzling state and federal funds from the Black Panthers' community education and nutrition programs. He was convicted in 1989. It was later rumored that Newton had embezzled the money 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 government grants.
[edit] Death
On August 22, 1989, Newton was shot and killed. Official accounts claim the killer was a man known for drug dealing in Oakland.[4] The media theorized Newton had become involved in drug dealing and was shot during a "drug deal gone sour".[5]
The 2Pac song, Changes (Tupac song), hints at his death being a conspiracy for his active involvement in the Black Panther Party, with the line "It's time to fight back, that's what Huey said/Two shots in the dark, now Huey's dead/"
[edit] In popular culture
- The song "Free Huey" by The Boo Radleys is about Huey Newton. Songwriter Martin Carr says of this song "I was reading up on the Black Panther Party and wrote this song around that. I think I may have stolen a couple of lines from a Martin Luther King memorial I had seen in the States but I couldn’t tell you which ones".
- The rallying cry "Free Huey" from protests in the late 1960s refers to Huey Newton.
- 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.
- In the song "Dreams" on the album The Documentary by The Game, Game says "The dream of Huey Newton that's what I'm living through"
- In the comic strip and cartoon show The Boondocks, the main character Huey Freeman, a ten year-old African-American revolutionary, is named after Newton.
- In the song "Welcome to the Terrordome" by Public Enemy, Chuck D raps "...The shootin' of Huey Newton, from a hand of a nig who pulled the trig!"
- Huey P. is mentioned numerous times throughout the music of Dead Prez and M1's solo album, Confidential.
- Political rappers The Coup and Talib Kweli in the song "My Favorite Mutiny" from the album Pick a Bigger Weapon, rap the lyrics, "...Riq, Boots and me/ Activate in the community/ Up in the bay like Huey P...
- In the Nas ft Lake song "Revolutionary Warfare" rapper Lake claims to be "the new Huey Newton."
- In the song "Propaganda" by Dead Prez, lyrics state: "You killed Huey cuz you knew he had the answer," referring to Huey Newton
- Earth Crisis dedicates their song "Firestorm" on the live album The California Takeover to 'Huey P. Newton.
- In the song "Gang Bangin' 101" by The Game (ft. Snoop Dogg and Xzibit) The Game raps "I am Huey P. Newton with Air Force One's on" DRA
- A line in the song "No Time For Love" by the Irish political folk-rock group the Moving Hearts reads: "They took away Sacco, Vanzetti, Connelly and Pearse in their time/ They came for Newton and Seale, Bobby Sands and some of his friends."
In the song "Sunny Kim" by Andre Nickatina he says "they say Huey Newton took two in the back, whats up with that?"
[edit] Bibliography
- Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power. (Anchor Books: 1993) ISBN 0-385-47107-6. This memoir by onetime Party Chairwoman 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.
- 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"
[edit] Books and Articles by, or with Dr. 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)
- Huey: Spirit of a Panther by David Hilliard (2006)
[edit] Notes
- ^ Seale, Bobby, "Seize The Time", p 62
- ^ Trivers, R.L. & Newton, H.P. Science Digest 'The crash of flight 90: doomed by self-deception?' November 1982.
- ^ Newton, H.P. Doctoral Dissertation, University of California Santa Cruz, 'War Against The Panthers: A Study Of Repression In America' June 1980.
- ^ "Huey P. Newton: Narrative Essay." Biography Resource Center, Gale Group, 2001. [1]
- ^ "Christian Science Monitor August 30, 1989, Editorial: Let Panthers Lie"
[edit] External links
- Online audiorecordings and video of Huey Newton via UC Berkeley Black Panther site
- 1968 interview with Newton
- A Huey P. Newton Story, Official Film Site
- A Huey P. Newton Story, directed by Spike Lee, as shown on PBS
- Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation
- Black Panther Tours
- Huey P. Newton's doctoral dissertation
- The Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements: Speech given by Huey Newton
Categories: Articles with unsourced statements since February 2007 | All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements since March 2007 | 1942 births | 1989 deaths | African Americans | African Americans' rights activists | American murder victims | American revolutionaries | Black Panther Party members | COINTELPRO targets | Deaths by firearm | Black Panther Party | Murdered activists | Phi Beta Sigma brothers
