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Huey P. Newton

Shoulders of Giants

January 12, 2014
From the Inkwell of: Bartholomew J. Worthington III
The Youth Shall Inherit the Revolution. The Legacy of Huey Newton. Shoulders of Giants
Born - February 17, 1942
Died - August 22, 1989

Huey Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1942, and would become one of the most influential Black movement leaders of his time. Huey's family moved to Oakland, California while he was still young, and despite frequent run-ins with law enforcement as a teenager, Huey would eventually graduate from high school. Even though he had completed high school, Newton was functionally illiterate, and taught himself to read by studying poetry

Huey would enroll in Merritt College where he would meet fellow student Bobby Seale, and in 1966, the two would organize the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. Seale served as the Black Panthers' chairman, while Newton took the title of the Minister of Defense.

The Black Panther Party was initially formed to protect members of the Black community from discrimination and police brutality. While his father had been an active NAACP member, Newton's Panthers were considered more militant than other prominent civil rights groups.

Together with Bobby Seale, Newton set forth the Black Panther Party's Ten Point Program, a manifesto that outlined their goals, which included Better Housing, Jobs and Education of Blacks. The Ten Point Plan also called for an end to the systematic police brutality that plagued many Black communities in large urban area.

Unlike most of the better known civil rights organizations of the era, Huey's Black Panthers advocated for aggressive Black self defense against systematic violence. In one notable instance, to protest a gun control bill proposed by then Governor of California, Ronald Reagan, Newton and other Panther members marched into the California Legislature fully armed. This single act cemented Newton as one of the leading personalities in the Black militant Movement.
  
this notoriety became a double edged sword. While the Panthers would expand to have over 10,000 members in chapters in major cities such as Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore and Philadelphia, it also earned Newton a spot on the FBI's Most Want List.

In 1968, Huey was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the death of an Oakland police officer. In 1970, this conviction was overturned, and two subsequent trials ended with hung juries.

While the Mainstream narrative of the Black Panthers would focus largely on their militant stance, and their frequent clashes with law enforcement, their most enduring legacy was the impact of the social programs they enacted in their communities. During their heyday, the Panthers established and operated educational facilities, food security programs and martial arts training for teenagers. The Panthers provided free breakfast for hundreds of neighborhood children before school, donated free shoes and sponsored schools.

While Huey's personal legacy would be marred by additional arrests for a murder in 1974 (he was acquitted after two trials), charges of stealing federal and state money disbursed to operate the Panthers' community and education fund in 1985, and additional embezzlement charges in 1989; there is no way to diminish the positive impact the Panthers had on thousands of lives on a daily basis.

Huey's late years were stained by allegations of his struggle with drug addiction, and on August 22, 1989, Newton was shot and killed in his hometown of Oakland by a member of the Black Guerrilla Family, a rival Black Power organization.

3 Lessons


  1. The importance of Community: Newton's strategy of providing resources for the members of Black communities that the Panthers had chapters in was an effect strategy that made a real difference in the everyday lives of the individuals served.
  2. The movement for equality in this country has largely been led by the young people. When he formed the Black Panther Party as a college student in 1966, Huey Newton was only 24 years of age.
  3. The Right to Aggressively Defend Oneself is a Right the Applies to Black People as well. The Black Panthers support of the 2nd Amendment right to bear arms, specifically, Black people exercising this Constitutional right, made many people nervous. Stern faced rifle carrying Black men and women marching came to define the Panthers as they were the anti-thesis of the passive non-violence civil rights movement that had preceded them.

"Our position was: if you don't attack us, there won't be any violence; if you bring violence to us, we will defend ourselves."

Huey Newton

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  • Home
    • About Us: The BlackPrint Statement of Purpose
    • Today in Blackness >
      • May in Blackness
      • Quote of the Day >
        • Quote of the Day March
        • Quote of the Day February
        • Quote of the Day January
        • Quote of the Day December
        • Quote of the Day November
        • Quote of the Day October
        • Quote of the Day September
        • Quote of the Day August
        • Quote of the Day July
        • Quote of the Day June
        • Quote of the Day May
  • Learn To Fish
    • The Case For Black Entreprenuership
    • How to File For A Tax ID Number
    • Getting Organized For Business >
      • Getting Organized For Business 2
    • The Case Against the 40 Hour Workweek
  • Shoulders of Giants
    • Giant: Patrice Lumumba
    • Giant: Nat Turner
    • The Donkey's Sin - Ethiopian Parable
    • Giant: Haile Selassie
    • Giant: Madame CJ Walker
    • Giant: Hannibal Barca
    • Giant: George Washingon Carver
    • Giant: Sojourner Truth
    • Giant: Toussaint L'Ouverture
    • Giant: Harriet Tubman
    • Giant: Huey Newton
    • Giant: Marcus Garvey
  • Mind On My Money
    • 6 Terms to Master Financial Literacy
    • Black Wealth By The Numbers
    • Blackonomics 102: State of The Black Owned Businesses
    • Blackonomics 101: State of the Black Economy
    • 25 Resources For Getting Your Business Off the Ground
    • Black Investing 101: Invest In Stocks For Your Kids
    • How to Introduce Your Child to Money - Infographic
    • Black Investing 101: Invest In Companies You Support
    • Black Personal Finance 101
    • Getting on Track
    • Managing Debt >
      • Addicted To Debt
      • THEY Don't Want You to Know
      • Dirty Little Secrets
      • Your Rights As a Consumer
    • Understanding Credit >
      • Why Credit Matters
      • About Your Credit Score
      • Optimize Your Credit Score
      • By the Numbers
  • Unruly Intellectual Blog