SUMMARY
- Huey Percy Newton was a political activist and co-founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton’s early life was marked by poverty, racial discrimination, and involvement in crime.
- He met Bobby Seale in college, and together, they founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. The Black Panther Party aimed to address police brutality and improve the lives of Black communities. It established various social programs, including the Free Breakfast for Children Program.
- Huey Newton faced several legal challenges and accusations, including murder charges. His later years were marked by continued legal troubles and struggles with drug addiction.
- Huey Newton was shot and killed in 1989 following a drug-related dispute.
Huey Newton was the youngest of seven children, born to a Baptist minister on February 17, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana. The Newton family eventually moved to Oakland, California, where Newton, alongside Bobby Seale, would later establish the Black Panther Party in 1966. Although Newton played an important role in improving black lives, his life was not without controversy.
How Was Huey Newton Shaped by His Formative Years?
Huey Newton’s youth was shaped by urban unrest, police brutality, repression, and an education system that failed Black students. Upon moving to Oakland, he became involved in committing crimes like dislodging coins from parking meters, and later, in 1964, he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon, serving eight months in jail.
In high school, Newton realized that he was functionally illiterate, a struggle he traced back to white teachers. However, his older brother was a good student, and Huey borrowed his copy of Plato’s The Republic and worked hard to improve his reading skills (Jeffries, p. xxii). Newton would even go on to publish his own book, Revolutionary Suicide, in 1973.
While in Junior High School, Huey Newton and a classmate set up a gang called the Brotherhood to challenge racism at school. Although Newton’s early years in school were difficult, he graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1959.
He then continued his studies at Merritt College in Oakland. During this time, he met Bobby Seale. In the aftermath of Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, the two set up the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, or Black Party Panther (BPP) for short. During college, Seale and Newton joined the local Afro-American Association, where they read books by the likes of W.E.B. Du Bois and James Baldwin and began to look closer at the community and the problems they faced.
What Was the Black Panther Party?
The Black Panther Party was initially formed in response to police brutality in African American neighborhoods, but it soon expanded its work and was active across the US between 1966 and 1982. The party was known for its use of self-defense, violent rhetoric, and hyper-masculine image, but it was lesser known for its work to improve Black lives through community activism.
Newton and Seale wanted to maximize the potential and improve the lives of black communities. They knew that to achieve this goal, real change and improvement in several areas were needed (Seale, 413). To facilitate this, the party was organized around a Ten Point Program, which outlined areas requiring change, such as ending police brutality, decent housing, and full employment. To implement these changes, the party established 65 social programs between 1966 and 1982, including a Free Breakfast for Children Program.
The BBP soon attracted the attention of the FBI. The bureau (and J. Edgar Hoover) saw the organization as an enemy of the US government and sought to dismantle it through its counterintelligence program (COINTELPRO). In 1969, the FBI’s campaign against the BBP led to the death of Fred Hampton, a prominent local party leader, in Chicago during a raid in his apartment.
In the 1960s, the Black Panther Party educated and empowered Black communities across America and made real change, but it was also marked by controversy (both personal and political) and violence during its existence.
What Controversy Did Newton Face?
Although Newton contributed a lot to improving Black lives, his life was not without controversy, and he was often in and out of jail or having run-ins with the law. Members of the Black Panther Party were involved in several shoot-outs with the police—over a six-year period, 24 members were killed during gun fights. On 28th October 1967, Newton was wounded and, while in hospital, was charged with killing a police officer, John Frey, following a shoot-out (Hugh, p. 145-147). The following year, he was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter, but in May 1970, a new trial was ordered,
and the charges were dismissed.
In 1971, Huey Newton announced that he wanted the party to focus on assisting Black communities. This decision caused a rift with Eldridge Cleaver, who saw the BBP mainly as a revolutionary group.
In 1974, Newton was accused of murdering a 17-year-old prostitute, Kathleen Smith. He and his then-girlfriend, Gwen Fontaine, fled to Cuba and did not return until 1977. When he eventually came back to the US, Newton stood trial, but the charges were dismissed—he was also acquitted of assault on a tailor in September 1978. In 2007, party member Ericka Huggins stated in an interview that Newton repeatedly raped her and threatened to hurt her children if she told anyone.
How Did Newton Spend His Final Years?
Newton returned to his studies, and in 1980, he received a Ph.D. in social philosophy from the University of California Santa Cruz, but his later years continued to be troubled. In 1987, he served nine months in San Quentin for gun charges and, in March 1989, served six months for stealing $15,000 from an Oakland school. Newton also battled with drug addiction, heavily using cocaine and drinking alcohol (Jeffries, p. 11).
On August 21, 1989, Huey found out that a film project about his life was falling through. The next day, Newton was shot in the face three times outside of a residential complex in Oakland following a drug-related dispute with drug dealer Tyrone Robinson.
It is alleged that before he was shot, Newton’s last words were, “You can kill my body, but you can’t kill my soul. My soul will live forever!” Huey Newton is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland.
Sources
Jeffries, J.L. (2002). Huey P. Newton, the Radical Theorist. University Press of Mississippi.
Seale, B. (1991). Seize the Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (2nd ed.). Black Classic Press.
Pearson, H. (1995). The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. Da Capo Press.
FAQs about the Black Panther Party
Who were notable members of the Black Panther Party?
Notable members of the Black Panther Part included Eldridge Cleaver, who called for a more militant approach, and Elaine Brown, the only female chairman. Angela Davis was closely associated with the BPP. Also notable was Fred Hampton, whose death during a raid sparked outrage and exposed the FBI’s campaign against the political group.
What was the main goal of the Black Panther Party?
The Black Panther Party aimed to empower Black communities, challenge systemic oppression, and create a more equitable society. In particular, the party sought to ensure safe and affordable housing for African Americans, demanded accountability for police violence, called for education reforms and full employment, and asked for fair trials for all Black Americans. Believing economic exploitation was the origin of oppression, the BPP also called for the abolition of capitalism.
Why is the Black Panther Party important?
The Black Panther Party played a vital role in the fight for racial equality and continues to inspire movements for social justice today, including Black Lives Matter. It also inspired minority groups in other countries, from Australia to Vietnam, to fight for their rights.
Originally published: December 11, 2024. Last update: February 14, 2025, by Maria Anita Ronchini.
