“The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.”—Huey P. Newton
February 17th marks the birthday of one of the founders of the historic Black Panther Party. Huey P. Newton would be 76 years-old today and in honor of Black History Month, Hip Hop Enquirer found it fitting to remember the legacy he left behind.
Born on February 17, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana. Huey P. Newton was the youngest of seven siblings, his family moved to Oakland California when he was just a toddler. Huey grew up exhibiting antisocial behavior early in life and spent his childhood in a state of war with his teachers. Despite being labeled as functionally illiterate by his teachers and counselors Huey began to take his education seriously when his older brother Melvin earned a Masters Degree in Social Work.
In the mid-1960s, Newton decided to pursue his education at Merritt College, he later attended the University of San Francisco School of Law. It was at Merritt where he met Bobby Seale and the two started the Black Panther Party. The Black Panther Party was a grassroots organization whose original purpose was to patrol African American neighborhoods to protect residents from acts of police brutality. The social group was a part of the larger Black Power movement, which emphasized black pride, community control and unification for civil rights.
The Black Panther Party was a group with a purpose
Newton and Seale drew on Marxist ideology for the party platform. They outlined the organization’s philosophical views and political objectives in a Ten-Point Program. The Ten-Point Program called for an immediate end to police brutality; employment for African Americans; and land, housing, and justice for all.
While the Black Panther Party was often portrayed as a gang by politicians and mainstream media. Their militant behavior overshadowed some of the great programs they brought to the African American community. Some of their popular community social programs included free breakfast programs for school children and free health clinics in 13 African American communities across the United States. By the early 1970s, FBI counterintelligence efforts, criminal activities and an internal rift between group members weakened the party as a political force.
A New Direction Never Sought
In the 1970s, Newton wanted to take the Panthers in a new direction that had a core focus on democratic socialism, community interconnectedness. Unfortunately, the Panthers began to fall apart due interference from the FBI, under the command of J. Edgar Hoover.
Newton returned to school, earning a Ph.D. in social philosophy from the University of California, in 1980. In his final years, he suffered from major drug/alcohol problems and faced prison time for weapons possession, financial misappropriations, and parole violations. Huey P. Newton died on August 22, 1989, in Oakland, California, after being shot on the street.
A Timeline of Huey P. Newton
- Newton grew up in Oakland where he experienced rampant racial discrimination.
- He attended Oakland Technical High School but no teacher there had ever tried to instill in him a thirst for knowledge; he graduated in 1959 without possessing any real education.
Undaunted, he embarked on a path of self-education by teaching himself to read.
Newton began committing petty crimes as a teenager and was arrested many times.
He enrolled at Merritt College where he joined the Afro-American Association and became involved in politics. A voracious reader, he read the works of Karl Marx, Malcolm X, Vladimir Lenin, etc. which influenced his political thoughts.
- Newton, along with a fellow student from Merritt College, Bobby Seale, formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defence in October 1966.
- The party was founded with the objective of protecting the black community from racial discrimination and police brutality.
- The Black Panthers were closely involved with the Black Power movement that focused on promoting political and cultural interests of black.
- The party expanded to several cities in the U.S. like Baltimore, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, etc. by 1968.
- The Black Panter party had more than 10,000 active members by 1969.
