Huey P. Newton

Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989), was co-founder and inspirational leader of the Black Panther Party, a Black organization that existed in the 1960s and '80s.Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana, the seventh and youngest child in his family, from Armelia and Walter Newton, a sharecropper and Baptist minister. He was named after Louisiana governor Huey Long. Newton's family moved to Oakland, California when he was three. Despite "completing" his secondary education at Oakland Technical High School, Newton still did not know how to read. During his course of self-study, he struggled to read Plato's Republic, which he managed to understand after persistently reading it through five times. This success, he told an interviewer,was the spark that caused him to become a reader.He attended Merritt College, earning an Associate of Arts degree and also studied law at Oakland City College and at San Francisco Law School. One of his professors was Edwin Meese III, future Attorney General of the United States under the Reagan Administration. Newton said he studied law to deal with police because he witnessed frequent abuse of power by them. There were times however when he mis-directed his rage. In 1964, he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon after stabbing a man at a party, and was sentenced to six months in the Alameda County jail.While at Oakland City College, Newton had become involved in politics in the Bay Area, located in California. He joined the Afro-American Association, became a member of Phi Beta Sigma Fraternity, Inc., and played a role in getting the first black history course adopted as part of the college's curriculum. He read the works of Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Tse-tung, and Che Guevara. It was during his time at Oakland City College that Newton, along with Bobby Seale, organized the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966, with Seale as chairman and Newton as minister of defense.Newton and Seale decided early on that the police abuse of power 'must be stopped' in Oakland against African-Americans. From his college study of law, Newton understood the California penal code and the state's law regarding weapons and was thus able to convince a number of African-Americans to exercise their legal right to openly bear arms (concealed firearms were illegal). Members of the Black Panther Party carrying rifles and shotguns began patrolling areas where the Oakland police were said to commit crimes against the community's black citizens. This program was widely supported in the African American community for its efforts to stop reported racial crimes by their local police. In addition to patrolling, Newton and Seale were responsible for writing the Black Panther Party Platform and Program, which drew largely upon Newton’s Maoist influences. Newton was also instrumental in the creation of a breakfast program that fed hundreds of children of the local communities before they went to school each day. Former Panther Earl Anthony said the party was created with the goal to organize America for armed Maoist revolution to change the social situation to help black people. For Black Panthers this meant the realignment of economic policies in the United States to benefit everyone (including other races) who were being crushed under the weight of American big-business capitalism.In the predawn hours of October 28, 1967, Newton was stopped by Oakland police officer John Frey who attempted to disarm and discourage the patrols. But, after fellow officer Herbert Heanes arrived for backup, shots were fired, with all three individuals wounded. Frey was hit four times and died within an hour, while Heanes was in serious condition with three bullet wounds. Newton, also being hit by gunfire, but apparently not as seriously wounded, staggered into the city's Kaiser Hospital. He was admitted, but shocked to find himself chained to his bed.Accused of murdering Frey, Newton was convicted in September, 1968 of "voluntary manslaughter", and was sentenced from 2 to 15 years in prison. In May, 1970 the California Appellate Court reversed Newton's conviction, and ordered a new trial. The State of California dropped its case against Newton after two subsequent mistrials.While Newton had been imprisoned, party membership had decreased significantly in several cities. The FBI had been actively involved in a campaign to eliminate the Black Panthers 'community outreach' programs such as free breakfasts for children, sickle-cell disease tests, and free food and shoes.Newton earned 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 (while in prison) to take a reading course from famed evolutionary biologist Robert Trivers. He and Trivers became close friends. Trivers and Newton published an influential analysis of the role of flight crew self-deception in crash of Air Florida Flight 90.On August 22, 1989, Newton was shot and killed by a man known for drug dealing in Oakland.Media reports theorized Newton had become involved in drug dealing and was shot during a 'drug deal gone sour.'