| Huey
P. Newton
"Huey P. Newton, Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party, the baddest motherfucker ever to set foot in history. Huey P. Newton, the brother, black man, a nigger, the descendant of slaves, who stood up in the heart of the ghetto, at night, in alleys, confronted by racist pigs with guns and said: 'My name is Huey P. Newton. I'm Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party. I'm standing on my constitutional rights. I'm not going to allow you to brutalize me. I'm going to stop you from brutalizing my people. You got your gun, pig, I got mine. If you shoot at me, I'm shooting back.'"
-- Black Panther Party Chairman, Bobby Seale
 Huey P. Newton, BPP Minister of Defense Huey Newton was born the youngest of seven children in Monroe,
Louisiana in 1942 but moved with his family to Oakland, California
shortly thereafter. At Oakland's Merritt College, Huey met Bobby
Seale and the two founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense
in October, 1966. Huey Newton became the organization's Minister of
Defense and organized armed patrols of the police in the Black
community. The Black Panther Party membership began to expand, and
following Huey's example, soon found itself in numerous
confrontations with the police. Huey was arrested in 1967 for the
murder of Oakland police officer John Frey after a routine traffic
stop. Huey himself had been critically wounded in the confrontation
and was found guilty of manslaughter in 1968, but the charges were
eventually overturned. Huey would remain in prison until 1970,
attempting to direct the actions of the Black Panther Party from
prison during it's most critical phase, a task proving to be too
much even for the "genius" of the by now legendary Huey P.
Newton. Upon release from prison, Huey redirected much the focus of
the Party which by now was national in scope with members numbering
in the thousands and was besieged by the FBI and local authorities
across the country. Huey would attempt to internationalize the Black
Panther Party by actively seeking solidarity with oppressed peoples
engaged in "third world" struggles against imperialism
around the globe. As part of this strategy, he would change the
organization's newspaper from The Black Panther: Black Community
News Service to The Black Panther: Intercommunal News Service.
In 1973, Huey Newton fled the U.S. to avoid arrest and passed
leadership of the Party over to Elaine Brown. He returned in 1977,
but the impact of the Party had faded with most of its leadership
either dead, jailed, or in exile. In 1980, Huey received a PhD from
the University of California. Huey Newton was shot to death in 1989
in a drug-plagued area of Oakland, California.
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