FREE ESSAY ON FOUNDER OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY, HUEY P. NEWTON: A FORGOTTEN LEGACY

FOUNDER OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY, HUEY P. NEWTON: A FORGOTTEN LEGACY

In the late 1960's and early '70's posters of the Black Panther Party's co-founder, Huey
P. Newton were plastered on walls of college dorm rooms across the country. Wearing a
black beret and a leather jacket, sitting on a wicker chair, a spear in one hand and a
rifle in the other, the poster depicted Huey Newton as a symbol of his generation's anger
and courage in the face of racism and classism. He is the man whose intellectual capacity
and community leadership abilities helped to found the Black Panther Party (BPP). Newton
played an instrumental role in refocusing civil rights activists to the problems of urban
Black communities. He also tapped the rage and frustration of urban Blacks in order to
address social injustice. However, the FBI's significant fear of the Party's aggressive
actions would not only drive the party apart but also perpetuated false information
regarding the Panther's programs and accomplishments. In recent years, historians have
devoted much attention of the early 1960's, to Malcolm X and Martin Luther King and have
ignored the Black Panthers. The Panthers and Huey P. Newton's leadership of the Party are
as significant to the Black freedom struggle as more widely known leaders of the Civil
Rights Movement. A typical American history high school textbook not only neglects to
mention Huey Newton but also disregards the existence of the Black Panthers altogether .
Therefore, we must open this new chapter in American history and discover the legacy and
story of Huey P. Newton's Black Panthers, which has been hidden for far too long.
Huey's experiences growing up were central in his conception of the Black Panthers.
Unlike King and many other civil rights leaders who were religious Southerners, from
middle class and well-educated families, Huey P. Newton was a working class man from a
poor urban black neighborhood. Born February 17, 1942, in Oak Grove Louisiana, Huey moved
to Oakland, California shortly after his second birthday. During childhood, his baby
face, light complexion, medium height, squeaky voice and his name Huey, forced him to
learn how to fight early on in life . Huey's remarkable quick wit and strength earned him
the respect of his peers and the reputation of being a tough guy.
Upon his enrollment in Merrit College Huey's academic achievements quickly began to
surpass other students, while at the same time he was still able to relate to those he
grew up with on the streets of Oakland. Autobiographer, Hugh Pearson in Shadow of the
Panther reports that Huey remained comfortable on the street corners with young Negro men
who drank wine all day...and fought one another - young men whom most college-bound
Negroes shied away from.  Huey's ability and desire to develop his intellect and receive
a college education while still identifying with his peers on the street played an
influential role in his effective leadership in the Black Panther Party.
Early in life Huey experienced regular hostility from local police. He recalled going to
the movies as a child where the police would often force him out of the theatre and call
him a nigger. Huey reflected upon the mis-treatment in his book To Die for the People;
The police were very brutal to us even at that age . Police harassment and physical abuse
of Black people became part of every daylife for many Blacks across the country. 
Although the Civil Rights movement was mainly a Southern phenomenon, the non-violent
ideology and integrationist focus of the movement became according to historians Floyd W.
Hayes and Francis A. C. Kiene as sources of increasing frustration and disillusionment
for many Blacks in Northern and Western cities . As the Civil Rights Movement approached
the end of the 1960's northern Blacks became angered by the television coverage of police
beatings, incarcerations of Southern non-violent Blacks, employment discrimination along
with the police brutalities in Northern Black neighborhoods. Huey Newton recalls in his
autobiography Revolutionary Sucide,
We had seen Martin Luther King come to Watts (1965) in an effort to calm the people and
we have seen his philosophy of nonviolence rejected. Black people had been taught
nonviolence; it was deep in us. What good, however, was nonviolence when the police were
determined to rule by force. 
Newton and other urban Black people believed nonviolence was ineffective in the South and
in the North. This view serves as the catalyst for the development of the increasing
popular, radical approach of Black power. It was against this backdrop that Huey attended
Merritt College where the idea for the Black Panther Party would be born. 
At Merrit College Huey met Bobby Seale who would soon become Huey's co-founder of the
BPP. The initial friendship between Huey and Bobby proved quite productive, as they both
shared the frustrations of social injustices towards the Oakland Black community .
Together, they initiated a drive to organize the African American students on campus by
creating the Soul Students Advisory Council (SSAC). This new organization soon fell apart
when they wouldn't agree on a common agenda. Some favored lobbying and protesting to
bring Black Studies into the college curriculum while others (including Huey and Bobby)
proposed the SSAC's organize an event dubbed Brothers On the Block that would bring an
armed squad of urban youths onto campus, in commemoration of Malcolm X's birthday, the
year after his assassination. The death of Malcolm X was yet another event which led
Black youth to question the traditional leadership of the Civil Rights Movement and its
philosophy of nonviolence. It is out of this change of the movements focus where Huey
arrives at the idea for Black youth to openly display weapons. This action would be soon
to serve as a founding principal within the Panthers. Eventually serving as a founding
principal of the Panthers, Huey's suggestion for a demonstration of armed protest was
inspired by Malcolm X's philosophy for self-defense. The SSAC's rejection of Brothers On
the Block, eventually led to Huey and Bobby's resignation from the Campus Organization.
Fed up with the increasing police brutality towards African Americans and the SSAC
rejection of Brothers On the Block, Huey and Bobby decided to form an organization to
monitor police behavior in Black neighborhoods and protect the rights of African
Americans. This organization was the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP).
The Panthers stormed into American history in 1966 when Huey P. Newton wrote the platform
for the party. The platform made an aggressive call for power to determine the destiny of
our black community.... with the immediate emphasis on the need for....organizing Black
defense groups...to end police brutality . Huey and Bobby created a uniform for the
Panthers demonstrating the seriousness and discipline of the Party's platform. The Black
Panthers' first action was to follow Oakland Police cars, either on foot or in cars,
while dressed in black pants, black leather jackets, starched blue shirts and black
berets, carrying loaded shot guns.
The Oakland Black community's response to the new Panther Party was intense. The BPP's
uniform and operations served as a testament that Blacks could stand up to the police .
Sundiata Acoli, an ex-panther said that one of the Panthers' greatest accomplishments was
that the party created an image of Black manhood that people could be proud of . Huey had
a profound knowledge of political thought and a unique grasp of social issues. His sharp
thinking led him to create an organization to building Blacks confidence and self-esteem.

As the Party's chief theoretician, Huey's thinking and the Black Panther outlook are
significant because they represent the continuation of radical African American political
thought, which dates back to W.E.B. Du Bois . Huey demonstrated a remarkable ability to
understand complex social philosophies. Huey spent a significant amount of time analyzing
political theory while he studied at Merritt College. Influenced by Malcolm X's
nationalism, Frantz Fanon's and Che Guevara's theory of revolutionary violence along with
Marx's theory of socialism and revolutionary change, he used their social philosophies as
a foundation for the Party's Platform. 
Huey drew upon political theorist Frantz Fanon's book entitled The Wretched of the Earth
. Fanon looks at Marx's concern that the lumpen proletariat, (prostitutes, criminals and
gamblers) would threaten a revolution to overthrow the capitalist society. Fanon argues
that one needs to view the role of lumpen proletariat in a modern context. He raises the
idea that the lumpen proletariat, stricken with poverty and unemployment, constitutes one
of the most spontaneous and most radically revolutionary forces of a colonized people .
After introducing Huey to Fanon's book, Bobby Seale recalled that Huey grasped the
significance of the article for organizing the BPP:
Huey understood the meaning of what Fanon meant about organizing the lumpen
proletariat....[or] brother who's pimping, brother who's unemployed....or robbing banks.
If you don't relate to these cats then the power structure would organize these cats
against you. 
In essence, Huey realized from Fanon's article that if you don't engage those whom
society has labeled as a delinquent then these delinquents would become an organized
threat to the Panthers. In organizing Panthers Huey tapped the determination and
readiness for revolution among societies' outcasts. Huey's deliberate recruitment of
young blacks who engaged in robbery and other crimes into the party, testifies to his
commitment to uniting and empowering all Blacks in a movement in which they could play an
important role in the quest for social change. Based on Huey P. Newton's sharp social
analysis he formed an inclusive Party which united African Americans in a collective
effort demonstrating a power that they didn't know existed within themselves. In
addition, Huey's ability to support his rhetorical statements with examples let him stand
out among the other leaders of the Black Power Movement . 
The Panthers engaged young people who had given up society that they could make a
difference and stop the daily brutality of police, which haunted many cities. Hugh
Pearson argues that the Panthers 'in your face' action has shaped the way police officers
act in neighborhoods today . The party's message spread across the country like wildfire,
engaging young Blacks in Northern Black communities. Branches of the Party in New York,
Chicago and Oakland worked with gangs, trying to turn them away from violence and into
community organizing . Vincent Harding historian of the civil rights movement said:
The Panthers offered the young urban black male a purpose in their life. They were saying
to these folks, 'you are not simply society's problems. You have the potential to enter
the struggle to reorganize society .'
Huey insisted that BPP address the immediate needs of urban African Americans, helping
them maintain their current situations until they had the chance to rise above thier
financial and social hardships . Beginning in Oakland in 1969 the survival programs
included breakfast programs for schoolchildren, clothing and food giveaways, escort
services for the elderly and health care services which offered sickle-cell anemia
testing and research. Due to its success, survival programs spread to all of the Panther
chapters across the country In addition, Huey created the The Black Panther Community
News Service, a weekly community newspaper that several branches distributed to inform
member of Party activism, events and philosophies. By 1970 the paper has a distribution
of 125,000 copies. Sold for 25 cents per issue, the paper provided the major source of
revenue for the Panthers . Panther chapters also had been involved in local community
struggles for decent housing, welfare rights, citizens' police review panel, Black
history classes, and traffic lights on dangerous intersections in Black neighborhoods.
The BPP's creation of survival programs allowed Blacks to unite and take responsibility
for their community. Sociologist Herbert H. Haines has suggested that the community
service activities of the BPP contributed to the public safety and welfare of Black urban
individuals arguing that the Panthers' s breakfast program was the precursor for free
public school breakfasts and lunches. The survival programs also granted poorer Black
citizens with security, food, clothing, political influence and an education.
While Huey primarily focused on improving Black People's self-esteem and quality of life,
he also advocated the commitment to the virtue and dignity of all individuals of all
races, genders and sexual orientations.  The mainstream media and White people assumed
that since the BPP was a Black Nationalist Organization, they hated White people. 
Unlike other organizations within the Black Liberation Movement, the Black Panthers had
several biracial alliances. The first alliance created in 1967 with the Peace and Freedom
Party (PFP). Huey approved the BPPs working with the Peace and Freedom Party to collect
signatures for getting PFP candidates on the California ballot . 
Moreover, The Black Panthers were early advocates of homosexual rights during the very
early stages of the gay rights movement. Placing of gay rights on the 1970 agenda of the
BPP distinguishes the role the Panthers play in American history . This role definitely
contracts with the media's image of the BPP. Huey P. Newton made a historic statement
encouraging members of Black community to refrain from language that would turn our
friends (referring to gays) off. Newton also said we must relate to the homosexual
movement, because it is the real thing. Newton also believed that gays could very well be
the most oppressed group of people in America . Alycee Lane and William B. Kelley, two
prominent gays activists, praised the Panthers for becoming the first non-gay Black
organization and radical group to compare the struggle of gays and Blacks and request
that they work together to bring about change. As a result of Newton's stand on gay
rights and racial justice, many grassroots organizations were created. Some of these
organizations were based on the Panther philosophy such as the Brown Berets, a
Chicago-based Puerto Rican civil rights group. 
While the Black Panthers restored hope among many Blacks and strived to improve the
conditions of other marginalized groups, the Black Panther Party also frightened people.
The Panthers represented many aspects of what some people feared in the Black struggle
for Civil Rights. The Panthers symbolized what ex-panther and political prisoner,
Sundiata Acoli calls the United States racial nightmare . This nightmare which Acoli and
many other historians identify is a country so polarized by racism that Blacks would take
up guns against Whites in armed rebellion. J. Edgar Hoover, Director of the FBI denied
that BPP's stated purpose was to 'protecting the community', for he claimed the Party's
stated objective of preventing police brutality by a cover for the BPP harassment of
police officers whose primary objective was to 'serve and protect' citizens . 
Police Officers were in fact terrified of the Panthers. Carrying law books and equipped
with tape recorders Panthers would follow the police around during their beats. Huey
implemented Panther's monitored the police's behavior by pointing out legal violations to
them and documenting unjust police action . As the BPP rapidly grew across the nation,
the Panthers threatened police from local, state and federal branches of government. 
COINTELPRO's intervention called for a quick collapse of the BPP. The increasing success
of the Black Panther Party prompted the FBI to believe the BPP was the most likely to
become a catalyst for a mass united Black violent uprising. On September 8, 1968, J.
Edgar Hoover let it be known in the pages of the New York Times that he considered the
Panthers the single greatest threat to the internal security of the country. Therefore
FBI launched a counter-intelligence program over the Black Panthers, which sought to
disrupt and neutralize the number of what he called Black Nationalist Hate Groups.
COINTELPRO was responsible for the murders and beating of hundreds of Panthers. In 1969,
practically every branch and chapter of the Black Panther Party throughout the United
States was attacked not less than once and as much as many as five times. COINTELPRO
called for federal, state and local police to eliminate the Party. For the FBI sent agent
William O'Neal to act as a spy and become a BPP member of the Chicago chapter. Eventually
O'Neal became a BPP bodyguard to charismatic chairman of Chicago branch, Fred Hampton.
O'Neal's murder of Hampton earned him a $300.00 bonus from the FBI. COINTELPRO also
attempted several assassination attempts on to Huey. The murder of several branch leaders
as well as the destruction of BPP headquarters and survival programs led to the Parties
demise by 1973.
Black Panther historians have conducted little research investigating the specific
reasons for the omission of the Black Panthers and Huey P. Newton in American history.
However, it is likely that the FBI's opinion and brutal destruction of the Party along
with the negative coverage by the media of the BPP, has instilled Americans with a
negative attitude towards the Black Panther Party causing them to feel that the Party is
deeply rooted in violence and crime.But before their demise, the Black Panther Party for
Self-Defense was able to make a huge impact on America, both physically and
inspirationally. Huey's ability to think critically while analyzing the needs of others
acts as beacon of hope for others committed to social change. The Black Panthers brought
attention to the problems of the African-American community in America, and the issue of
police brutality, at the time of the large urban riots of 1968, and Martin Luther King's
assassination. Their free breakfast program provided meals to 200,000 children daily.
Most amazingly they proved that grassroots movements could make a difference, even when
the US government resists against it. Huey P. Newton's legacy of the Black Panther Party
lives on.
Bibliography
James Kirby Martin et. All, America and Its Peoples (New York:Longman, 1997)
Huey P Newton,. Revolutionary Suicide (Harcourt Brace: Jovanich, 1979), 115.
Pearson, Hugh. The Shadow of The Panther. Addison Wesley: Massachusetts. 1994
Huey P. Newton, To Die for the People, (New York: Writers and Readers Publishing, 1973),
53
Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. Kiene, All Power to the People, in The Black Panther Party
Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones ( Black Classic Press: Baltimore, 1998,) 159.
Huey P Newton,. Revolutionary Suicide (Harcourt Brace: Jovanich, 1979), 110
Hugh Pearson,. The Shadow of The Panther (Addison Wesley: Massachusetts. 1994),234.
Black Panther Party for Self-Defense: Party Platform available from:
www.blackpanther.org/platform.html; Internet; accessed 10 April 1999.
Hugh Pearson,. The Shadow of The Panther (Addison Wesley: Massachusetts. 1994),75.
Sundiata Acoli,. A Brief History of the Black Panther Party. Available at:
www.cs.oberlin.edu/students/pjagues/etext/acloi-hist-bpp.html; Internet; accessed 11
April 1999.
Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. Kiene, All Power to the People, in The Black Panther Party
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Floyd W. Hayes and Francis A. Kiene, All Power to the People, in The Black Panther Party
Reconsidered, ed. Charles E. Jones ( Black Classic Press: Baltimore, 1998,) 159
Frantz Fanon, The Wretched of the Earth (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1963). 129-230.