Huey Percy Newton was an African-American political and urban activist who, along with
Bobby Seale, co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. Newton had a long series of
confrontations with law enforcement, including several convictions, while he participated
in political activism. He continued to pursue an education, eventually earning a Ph.D. in
Social Science. Newton spent time in prison for manslaughter and was involved in a shooting
that killed a police officer, for which he was later acquitted. In 1989 he was shot and
killed in Oakland, California by Tyrone "Double R" Robinson, a member of the Black Guerrilla
Family.
Biography Background
Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana. He was the youngest of seven children of Armelia
Johnson and Walter Newton, a sharecropper and Baptist lay preacher. His parents named
him after former Governor of Louisiana Huey Long. In 1945, the family migrated to Oakland,
California as part of the second wave of the Great Migration of African Americans out of
the South to the Midwest and West. The Newton family was quite poor and often relocated
throughout the San Francisco Bay Area during Newton's childhood. But, he said his family
was close-knit, and he never went without food and shelter as a child. Growing up in
Oakland, Newton stated that "[he] was made to feel ashamed of being black." In his autobiography,
Revolutionary Suicide, he wrote,
"During those long years in Oakland public schools, I did not have one teacher who taught
me anything relevant to my own life or experience. Not one instructor ever awoke in me a desire
to learn more or to question or to explore the worlds of literature, science, and history.
All they did was try to rob me of the sense of my own uniqueness and worth, and in the
process nearly killed my urge to inquire."
Newton graduated from Oakland Technical High School in 1959, without being able to read.
He later taught himself to read, going on to read The Republic by Plato as his first
book. As a teenager, he was arrested several times for minor offenses, including gun possession
and vandalism at age 14. Newton supported himself in college by burglarizing
homes in the Oakland and Berkeley Hills areas, and by committing other petty crimes. Newton
once wrote that he began his law studies to become a better criminal, although he said
that he had been a "big-time fool" for having such narrow ambitions.
Founding of the Black Panther Party
As a student at Merritt College in Oakland, Newton became involved in politics in the
Bay Area. He joined the Afro-American Association, became a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma
fraternity, Beta Tau chapter; and played a role in getting the first African-American
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. During his time
at Merritt College, Newton and Bobby Seale organized the Black Panther Party for Self
Defense in October 1966. Based on a casual conversation, Seale became Chairman and Newton
became Minister of Defense. The Black Panther Party was an African-American
left-wing organization working for the right of self-defense for African Americans in the
United States. The Party achieved national and international renown through their deep
involvement in the Black Power movement and in politics of the 1960s and 1970s. The Party's
political goals, including better housing, jobs, and education for African Americans,
were documented in their Ten-Point Program. The group believed that violence - or the
threat of it - might be needed to bring about social change. They sometimes made news with
a show of force, as they did when they entered the California Legislature fully armed in
order to protest a gun bill. Newton adopted what he termed "revolutionary
humanism". Although he had earlier visited Nation of Islam mosques, he wrote that "I
have had enough of religion and could not bring myself to adopt another one. I needed
a more concrete understanding of social conditions. References to God or Allah did not satisfy
my stubborn thirst for answers." Later, however, he stated that "As far as I am concerned,
when all of the questions are not answered, when the extraordinary is not explained, when
the unknown is not known, then there is room for God because the unexplained and the unknown
is God." But Newton later decided to join the Church after the party disbanded during
his marriage to Fredrika. Newton would frequent pool halls, campuses,
bars and other locations deep in the Black community where people gathered, to organize
and recruit for the Panthers. Newton wrote in his autobiography, "I tried to transform
many of the so-called criminal activities going on in the street into something political,
although this had to be done gradually." He attempted to channel these "daily activities
for survival" into significant community actions. Eventually, however, the illicit activities
of a few members would be superimposed on the social program work performed by the Panthers,
and this mischaracterization would lose them support in both the white and black communities.
Newton and the Panthers started a number of social programs in Oakland, including founding
the Oakland Community School, which provided high-level education to 150 children from
impoverished urban neighborhoods. Other Panther programs included the Free Breakfast for Children
Program and others that offered dances for teenagers and training in martial arts. According
to Oakland County Supervisor John George: "Huey could take street-gang types and give
them a social consciousness". In 1982, Newton was accused of embezzling
$600,000 of state aid to the Panther-founded Oakland Community School. In the wake of the
embezzlement charges, Newton disbanded the Black Panther Party. After six years, the
embezzlement charges were dropped in March 1989, after Newton pleaded no contest to a
single allegation of cashing a $15,000 state check for personal use. Newton was sentenced
to six months in jail and 18 months probation. He has also expressed support for Palestinian
independence. Fatal shooting of John Frey
Newton had been convicted of assault with a deadly weapon for repeatedly stabbing another
man, Odell Lee, with a steak knife in mid-1964. He served six months in prison and by 27–28
October 1967 he was out celebrating release from his probationary period. Just before
dawn on 28 October, Newton and a friend were pulled over by Oakland Police Department officer
John Frey. Realizing that he had stopped Black Panther leader Huey Newton, Frey called for
backup. After fellow officer Herbert Heanes arrived, shots were fired, and all three were
wounded. Heanes testified that the shooting began after Newton was under arrest, and one
witness testified that Newton shot Frey with Frey's own gun as they wrestled. No gun on
either Frey or Newton was found. Newton stated that Frey shot him first, which made him lose
consciousness during the incident. Frey was shot four times and died within the hour,
while Heanes was left in serious condition with three bullet wounds. Black Panther David
Hilliard took Newton to Oaklands's Kaiser Hospital, where he was admitted with a bullet
wound to the abdomen. Newton was soon handcuffed to his bed and arrested for Frey's killing.
Newton was convicted in September 1968 of voluntary manslaughter for the killing of
Frey and was sentenced to 2 to 15 years in prison. In May 1970, the California Appellate
Court reversed the conviction and ordered a new trial. After two subsequent mistrials,
the Alameda County Superior Court dismissed the charges after the district attorney said
he would not pursue a fourth trial. In his autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide, Newton
wrote that Heanes and Frey were opposite each other and shooting in each other's direction
during the shootout. In his book Shadow of the Panther, writer
Hugh Pearson alleges that Newton, while intoxicated in the hours before he was shot and killed,
claimed to have willfully killed John Frey. Although this claim has been repeated elsewhere
based on Pearson's account, the allegation remains contentious, and has not been corroborated
by others. Allegations of violence
On August 6, 1974, Kathleen Smith, a 17-year-old Oakland native, was shot; she died three months
later. According to the prosecutor handling the case, Newton shot Smith after a casual
exchange on the street during which she referred to him as "Baby", a childhood nickname he
hated. Pearson alleges that shortly after the killing, while staying with film producer
Bert Schneider in Beverly Hills, Newton referred to the Smith killing as his "first non-political
murder." Newton is also alleged to have assaulted his
tailor, Preston Callins, after Callins called him "Baby". Newton posted bond after being
arrested for pistol-whipping Callins. Newton was subsequently arrested a second time for
the murder of Smith, but was able to post an additional $80,000 bond, thus securing
his release until trial. Newton and his girlfriend Gwen Fontaine then
fled to Havana, Cuba, where they lived until 1977, which prevented further prosecution
on the two charges. Elaine Brown took over as chairperson of the Black Panther Party
in his absence. Newton returned to the United States in 1977 to stand trial for the murder
of Smith and the assault on Callins. In October 1977, three Black Panthers attempted
to assassinate Crystal Gray, a key prosecution witness in Newton's upcoming trial who had
been present the day of Kathleen Smith's murder. Unbeknownst to the assailants, they attacked
the wrong house and the occupant returned fire. During the shootout one of the Panthers,
Louis Johnson, was killed and the other two assailants escaped. One of the two surviving
assassins, Flores Forbes, fled to Las Vegas, Nevada, with the help of Panther paramedic
Nelson Malloy. Fearing that Malloy would discover the truth behind the botched assassination
attempt, Newton allegedly ordered a "house cleaning", and Malloy was shot and buried
alive in the desert. Although permanently paralyzed from the waist down, Malloy recovered
from the assault and told police that fellow Panthers Rollin Reid and Allen Lewis were
behind his attempted murder. Newton denied any involvement or knowledge, and said that
the events "might have been the result of overzealous party members".
During Newton's trial for assaulting Preston Callins, Callins changed his testimony several
times and eventually told the jury that he did not know who assaulted him. Newton was
acquitted of the assault in September 1978, but was convicted on two counts of illegal
firearms possession. After the assassination attempt on Crystal
Gray, she declined to testify against Newton. After two trials and two deadlocked juries,
the prosecution decided not to retry Newton for Smith's murder.
Peoples Temple In January 1977, Peoples Temple leader Jim
Jones visited Newton in Havana. After Jones fled to Jonestown, Guyana, Newton spoke to
Temple members in Jonestown via telephone patch supporting Jones during one of the Temple's
earliest "White Nights." Newton's cousin, Stanley Clayton, was one of the few residents
of Jonestown to escape the 1978 tragedy, during which more than 900 Temple members were ordered
by Jones to commit suicide. Writing and scholarship
Newton received 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 to take a reading course from famed evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers,
while in prison. He and Trivers became close friends. Trivers and Newton published an analysis
of the role of flight crew self-deception in the crash of Air Florida Flight 90.
Newton earned a Ph.D. in history of consciousness at the University of California at Santa Cruz
in 1980. His doctoral dissertation was entitled War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression
in America. 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.
Death Relations between Newton and factions within
the Black Guerrilla Family had been strained for nearly two decades. Former Black Panther
members who became BGF members in prison had become disenchanted with Newton for his perceived
abandonment of imprisoned Black Panther members and allegations of Newton's fratricide within
the party. On August 22, 1989, Newton was fatally shot
on Center Street in the Lower Bottoms neighborhood of West Oakland by 24-year-old BGF member
and drug dealer Tyrone Robinson shortly after Newton left a crack house. Robinson was convicted
of the murder in 1991 and sentenced to 32 years in prison for the crime.
Robinson said that Newton pulled a gun when the two met at a street corner in the neighborhood,
but the police found no evidence that Newton was armed. The murder occurred in a neighborhood
where Newton, as minister of defense for the Black Panthers, once organized social programs
that helped destitute African Americans, such as feeding poor, young children in the community
before they headed off to school. Newton's last words, as he stood facing his
killer, were, "You can kill my body, and you can take my life but you can never kill my
soul. My soul will live forever!" He was then shot twice in the face by Robinson.
He was interred at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland. Popular culture
There are many references to Huey Newton in popular music, including in the songs "Changes"
by Tupac Shakur, "Welcome to the Terrordome" by Public Enemy, "Queens Get the Money" by
Nas, "Huey" by Cyhi the Prynce, "Sunny Kim" by Andre Nickatina, "Just A Celebrity" by
The Jacka, "Same Thing" by Flobots, "Dreams", "Gangbangin' 101", "Murder" and "911 Is A
Joke" by The Game, "You Can't Murder Me" by Papoose, "Police State" by Dead Prez, "Propaganda"
by Dead Prez "We Want Freedom" by Dead Prez, "Malcolm, Garvey, Huey" by Dead Prez, "SLR"
by Lupe Fiasco, "Bill Gates Freestyle" by Fabolous, "Wake Up" by Black the Ripper, "The
Martyr" by Immortal Technique, "Lick Shots" by Immortal Technique, "Huey Newton" by Wiz
Khalifa & Currensy, "HiiiPoWeR" by Kendrick Lamar, "My Favorite Mutiny" by The Coup, "National
Anthem" by Sir Mix-a-Lot, "Bobby Seale" by Lil Tweezii, "Dream Team" by Spearhead, From
Here To Utopia Ramshackle Glory, "Free Huey" by The Boo Radleys, "Free Lance" by HD of
Bearfaced, "When Will They Shoot?" by Ice Cube, "Pacific Heights" by Pep Love, "No Time
for Love" by Jack Warshaw, "Million Man March" by Lowkey, "Huey Newton" by St. Vincent on
her eponymous fourth album, Married With Children episode Rites of Passage in which "Marcy"
tells what was happening when she turned 18. The movie Panther is a loose depiction of
the history of the Black Panther Party and features Marcus Chong as Huey P. Newton.
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 World Report. In 1996, A Huey
P. Newton Story was performed on stage by veteran actor Roger Guenveur Smith. The one-man
play later was made into an award-winning 2001 film directed by Spike Lee.
Richard Pryor, in his 'Live in Concert' film, briefly has the house lights turned on to
greet Huey Newton who is in the audience. Works
Huey Newton Speaks oral history by Huey P. Newton
Huey!: Listen Whitey! protest songs/spoken word by Huey P. Newton; produced by American
Documentary Films; released by Folkways Records To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey
P. Newton Toni Morrison Revolutionary Suicide with J. Herman Blake
Insights and Poems by Huey P. Newton, Ericka Huggins 1975)
War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America by Huey P. Newton
The Huey P. Newton Reader David Hilliard and Donald Weise
Essays from the Minister of Defense by Huey P Newton, Black Panther Party, 1968, Oakland
The Genius of Huey P. Newton by Huey P. Newton, Awesome Records
The original vision of the Black Panther Party by Huey P Newton, Black Panther Party
Huey Newton talks to the movement about the Black Panther Party, cultural nationalism,
SNCC, liberals and white revolutionaries by Huey P Newton
Huey Spirit of the Panther by David Hillard with Keith and Kent Zimmerman
To Die for the People by Huey Newton See also
Angela Davis COINTELPRO
George Jackson New Left
People v. Newton Soledad Brothers
White Panther Party References
Further reading Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power. ISBN 0-385-47107-6.
Foner, Philip S. The Black Panthers Speak – The Manifesto of the Party: The First
Complete Documentary Record of the Panther's Program
"People of the state of California, plaintiff & respondent, vs. Huey P. Newton, defendant
and appellant: Appellant's opening brief" Obituary in the New York Times by Dennis Hevesi,.
"Huey Newton Symbolized the Rising Black Anger of a Generation"
External links Civil Rights Greensboro: Huey P. Newton
Video interview on African American History Channel
Online audiorecordings and video of Huey Newton via UC Berkeley Black Panther site
1968 interview with Newton Newton Discography on Folkways
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
"Huey P. Newton". Find a Grave. Retrieved June 11, 2013.