Huey P. Newton

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section has multiple issues. Please help improve the article or discuss these issues on the talk page.

Huey Percy Newton
Born	February 17, 1942(1942-02-17) Monroe, Louisiana
Died	August 22, 1989 (aged 47) Oakland, California

Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989), was co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, a civil rights organization that began in October 1966.

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Early life 1.2 Founding of the Black Panthers 1.3 Huey Newton and the Black Panthers 1.4 Accusation of murder 1.5 Huey Newton's later life 1.6 Death 2 Quotations 3 In popular culture 4 Bibliography 5 Books and articles by, or with Huey P. Newton 6 References 7 See also 8 External links

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana to Amelia and Walter Newton, a sharecropper and Baptist minister; he was the youngest child in his family and he was named after Huey Long. Newton's family moved to Oakland, California when he was three. Despite completing his secondary education at Oakland Technical High School, Newton did not know how to read. During his course of self-study, he struggled to read Plato's Republic, which 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.^[1]

[edit] Founding of the Black Panthers

While at Oakland City College, Newton had become actively involved in politics in the Bay Area. He joined the Afro-American Association, became a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc. Beta Tau chapter, and played a role in getting the first black history course adopted as part of the college's curriculum. He read the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara. It was during his time at Oakland City College^[2] 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.^[3]

[edit] Huey Newton and the Black Panthers

This section does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

Newton and Seale decided early on that the police's abuse of power in Oakland against African-Americans 'must be stopped.' From his law studies at college, Newton was well-versed in the California penal code and state law regarding weapons, and was thus able to persuade a number of African-Americans to exercise their legal right to openly bear arms (as concealed firearms were illegal). Members of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense bore their rifles and shotguns and began patrolling areas where the Oakland police were said to commit racially-motivated crimes against the community's black citizens. The street patrols had broad support in the local African-American community. Newton and Seale were also responsible for writing the Black Panther Party Platform and Program, derived largely from Newton’s Maoist influences. Newton was instrumental in the creation of a breakfast program feeding hundreds of children of the local communities before they went to school each day. Former Panther Earl Anthony said the party was originally created to prepare America for an armed Maoist revolution in order to change the social structure for the benefit of black people. For Black Panthers, this meant the realignment of domestic economic policies to benefit citizens (including those of other races), who were being crushed under the weight of corporate America.

[edit] Accusation of murder

This section does not cite any references or sources. (April 2008) Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

In the predawn hours of October 28, 1967, Newton was stopped by Oakland police officer John Frey, who attempted to disarm and discourage the Panther patrols. But after fellow officer Herbert Heanes arrived for backup, shots were fired, and all three were wounded. Frey was hit four times and died within the hour, while Heanes was in left serious condition with three bullet wounds. With a bullet wound to the abdomen, Newton staggered into the city's Kaiser Hospital. He was admitted but was later shocked to find himself chained to his bed.

Charged with 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 Huey was imprisoned, his party's membership had declined significantly in several cities. The FBI, which deployed the counter-insurgency tactics of operation COINTELPRO, had actively campaigned to eliminate the Black Panthers' 'community outreach' programs such as free breakfasts for children, sickle-cell disease tests, free food and free clothing. Funding for several of the programs was raised courtesy of 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, further claiming that Newton attempted to 'shake down' pimps and drug dealers; as a result, a contract was taken out on Newton’s life.^{[citation needed]} This story, however, was never proven. It is suggested that such mutual paranoia between the long-time friends and party co-founders, Seale and Newton, was created by J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI. The FBI sent what became known as the "brown" letters — fabricated letters (often bearing death threats) seemingly written by Panthers.^{[citation needed]} The ensuing fear triggered sharp declines in membership, and the eventual failure of the Party.

Funding for the Black Panther Party survival programs included free Children's breakfast, free food give away, free clinics, free shoe give away, free sickle cell anemia testing, free led poisoning testing, free senior citizen security and free pet control always came from various sources. Primarily through the poor people from the communities it served, independent vendors, celebrities like Marlon Brando, Richard Pryor, Dick Gregory, Jim Brown, Jimi Hendrix and James Brown. The decline of the Panther membership only took place after the FBI was successful in dividing the Panther leadership in 1971. Panther membership at its height in 1970 was 5,000 to 7,000. The Black Panther Party information is often incorrect and should always be cross referenced through many sources including Its About Time website and Berkley University archives on the Black Panther 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.

In January 1977, Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones visited Newton in Cuba.^[4] After Jones fled to Guyana, Newton spoke to Temple members in Jonestown via phone patch supporting Jones during one of the Temple's earliest "White Nights."^[5] Newton's cousin, Stanley Clayton, was one of the few residents of Jonestown to escape the 1978 tragedy.^[6] Newton 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 Smith's murder after two trials were deadlocked.

[edit] Huey Newton's 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 the crash of Air Florida Flight 90.^[7] Later, Newton's widow, Frederika Newton, would discuss her husband's often-ignored academic leanings on C-SPAN's "American Perspectives" program on February 18, 2006, mentioning that Newton earned a Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz in 1980.^[8] His doctoral dissertation was entitled "War Against The Panthers: A Study Of Repression In America."^[9]

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. He volunteered for alcohol/drug treatment at Alta Bates' treatment center in Berkeley and was successfully completing treatment when San Francisco Chronicle columnist, Herb Caen, made Doctor Newton's circumstances public. Under a barrage of news coverage, Newton left Alta Bates prematurely.

[edit] Death

On August 22, 1989, Newton was fatally shot in the Acorn Projects neighborhood in Oakland by 24-year-old Tyrone Robinson.^[10] Robinson was convicted of the murder in August of 1991 and sentenced to 32 years for the crime. ^[11] Official accounts claimed that the killer was a known drug dealer in Oakland.^[12]

It is reported that Newton and Mr. Robinson, who had known each other for two years, argued over a cocaine deal and that Mr. Robinson then shot the 47-year-old former leader of the Black Panthers.

Mr. Robinson contended that Newton pulled a gun when the two met at a street corner in the drug-torn neighborhood, Sergeant Mercado said, but investigators said they found no evidence Newton had been armed.

The killing occurred in a neighborhood where Newton, as minister of defense for the Black Panthers, once tried to set up social programs to help destitute blacks.

The police said Mr. Robinson told them he refused to sell Newton drugs and that the two argued for about a minute. Investigators believe that Newton stole drugs from the gang.^[13]

[edit] Quotations

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (May 2008)

In his doctoral dissertation (1980) on tactics employed by the FBI and operation COINTELPRO in order to discredit the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton wrote: "The FBI was most disturbed by the Panthers' survival programs providing community service. The popular free breakfast program, in which the party provided free hot breakfasts to children in Black communities throughout the United States, was, as already noted, a particular thorn in the side of J. Edgar Hoover. Finding little to criticize about the program objectively, the Bureau decided to destroy it."

The tactics employed to ruin the breakfast program illustrate the lengths to which the bureau would go. In 1969, for instance, party leaders rejected a so-called "comic book", without captions or words, that was drawn by an alleged party member. It depicted police as caricature pigs and was submitted by the member to party leaders for possible purposes of political propaganda. After its rejection by party leaders, however, an informant for the FBI stole one of the few drafts of this proposed publication and delivered it to the FBI. Thereupon the FBI added captions advocating violence, printed thousands of copies bearing the Party's name, releasing it under the title of "Black Panther Coloring Book", and circulated them throughout the country, particularly to merchants and businesses who contributed to the breakfast program. Those who received these so-called Panther "comics" were falsely told and led to believe by the FBI that they were given out by the Panthers to children participating in the breakfast programs. Not surprisingly, many merchants who supported the program withdrew from it, as did others who had lent their support.^[14]

On Himself

I'm actually a rather shy individual. I wouldn't consider myself to be very charismatic; I never did anything hero-like, I just worked on some little community programs. I do have a role to play however - I'm a theorist of sorts - I work on theories. But I really do not enjoy discussing the details of my personal life except as it relates to the movement. I hate cameras, microphones stuck up in my face. To tell you the truth, I hate stages cause they put you up on a stage and expect for you to entertain them and I keep trying to tell them I'm not an entertainer. Came to New York and I was supposed to speak at the Apollo Theater - 125th Street. And somebody called me, said Huey we gonna have to cancel the rally, somebody's gonna assassinate you from the balcony. I said listen if I'm ever foolish enough to get up on stage at the Apollo Theatre they wouldn't need to assassinate me, that man will just come out and hook me off the stage. What's his name? The sandman? Yeah, the sandman cometh.

On his PhD

'My foes have called me bum, hoodlum, criminal. Some have even called me nigger. I imagine now they'll at least have to call me Dr. Nigger.'^[15]

His Principles

And my father came out to California with another good friend of his who was also trying to support a large family. And this friend of his got a good job with the Oakland Public Works Department, something like that, but he quit that job cause he took a new job with the Oakland Police Department. He must have been one of the first black police officers on the force - we're talking way back in 1952 '53, something like that. And my father broke friendship with him, not because he joined the police force, he had to support his family just like my daddy; he broke his friendship with him because his friend was only allowed to arrest black people. So my father broke friendship with him on principle, cause that's the kind of man my father was, he was a man of high standing principle.

[edit] In popular culture

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

This article or section may contain spam. Wikipedia spam consists of external links mainly intended to promote a website. Wikipedia spam also consists of external links to websites which primarily exist to sell goods or services, use objectionable amounts of advertising, or require payment to view the relevant content. If you are familiar with the content of the external links, please help by removing promotional links in accordance with Wikipedia:External links. (You can help!)

This article or section may contain material not appropriate for an encyclopedia. Please discuss this issue on the talk page.

This article or section may contain poor or irrelevant examples. Articles should only contain pertinent examples. Please improve the article or discuss proposed changes on the talk page. You can edit the article to add more encyclopaedic text. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions.

• Huey Newton was mentioned in the song "Forest Ranger" by the ignorant infamous band Plexi. The line is "Just like Huey Newton, I'm a forest ranger." The singer does slur lines a little so you can make out "Just like Huey Newton, I'm a far a stranger."
• 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 "...It's time to 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, he raps "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; another reference comes when Freeman starts an independent newspaper, dubbing it the "Free Huey" .
• In the song "Welcome to the Terrordome" by Public Enemy, Chuck D raps "...The shootin' of Huey Newton/from a hand of a nigga who pulled the trigga!"
• 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."
• Earth Crisis dedicates their song "Firestorm" on the live album The California Takeover to Huey P. Newton.
• In the song "Gang Bangin' 101" by Snoop Dogg and The Game, the latter raps "I'm Dr. Martin Luther King with two guns on/I am Huey P. Newton with Air Force 1's on"
• 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 "Tha Points (DJ U-Neek Remix)" by various artists, which is featured on The Panther Soundtrack, Big Mike says "with that rootin'/tootin'/southside shootin'/brutin' any nigga who ain't troopin'/for Huey Newton"
• In the song "Sunny Kim" by Andre Nickatina he says "...they say Huey Newton took two in the back/what's up with that?"
• The Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation markets a product called "Revolutionary Hot Sauce" with the slogan "Burn Baby Burn."^[16] In 2004 the Foundation sought to trademark the two phrases.^[17]
• Dead Prez mention Huey P. Newton in at least three songs.
  • In the song entitled "Propaganda" off of their album Let's get free, they rap "I don't believe Bob Marley died from cancer/Thirty-one years ago I would've been a Panther/They killed Huey because they knew he had the answer/The views that you see in the news is propaganda." This song also concludes with an audio clip of Huey P. Newton taken from an interview during his time in prison.
  • In the song "Police State" they rap "I'll take a slug for the cause like Huey P. / while all you fake niggaz try to copy Master P". "Big up Huey P." is heard in the song "It was written".
  • Further, in the Dead Prez remake of the Notorious B.I.G. hit "Juicy" they rap "Malcolm X and Huey P, who I wanna be".
  • They also reference Huey in "We Want Freedom" saying "We need more than MCs/ We need Hueys and revolutionaries/ The niggas on the street today/ It's kind of scary."
• Richard Pryor asked Huey P. Newton, who was present at one of his shows, to stand up, at which point the audience applauded.
• Is pictured on the cover of Robert Reid-Pharr's book Once You Go Black: Choice, Desire, and the Black American Intellectual.
• The song "Same Thing" by the Denver, CO activist band Flobots starts with the line "Somewhere between prayer and revolution, between Jesus and Huey P. Newton".
• He is also mentioned in The Game's controversial song '911 Is A Joke'. 'I'm mad that the KKK traded the sheets and the robes for a gun and a muthaf***in badge. And I ain't never shot a cop but if they do me like Huey P Newton, I'm pullin' glocks'
• The song "You Can't Murder Me" by Papoose featuring Murder Mook (in which he claims that certain deceased rappers/civil rights leaders/others, are all apart of him in some way) mentions him when it states the line "Tell me how you gon' kill Papoose, he already dead you stupid, he died as a black panther, my name Huey Newton."

[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 Huey P. Newton

• Revolutionary Suicide, 1973 memoir republished in 1995 with introduction by J. Herman Blake
• To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton, by Huey P. Newton, Toni Morrison (Editor) (1972)
• 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 by Huey P Newton
• War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America by Huey P. Newton (September 2000)
• 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 by Huey P Newton
• Huey P. Newton, The Radical Theorist by Judson L. Jeffries (2002)
• Huey: Spirit of the Panther by David Hilliard (2006)
• Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton by Bobby Seale

[edit] References

This article or section needs to be wikified to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please help improve this article with relevant internal links. (March 2008)

[edit] See also

• Black Panther Party
• Cointelpro
• George Jackson
• Soledad Brothers
• Political prisoner
• New Left
• White Panther Party

[edit] External links

• Video interview on African American History Channel
• 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

Persondata
NAME	Newton, Huey P.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	co-founder of the Black Panther Party
DATE OF BIRTH	17 February 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH	Monroe, Louisiana, United States
DATE OF DEATH	22 August 1989
PLACE OF DEATH	Oakland