Huey P. Newton

The Story of Huey P. Newton

Huey Percy Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana in 1942 and grew up in Oakland, California. He taught himself to read by studying the US Constitution and Plato. Together with Bobby Seale, he co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense in Oakland in October 1966 — armed Black men who legally monitored police patrols in Black neighborhoods to document and prevent brutality.

The 10-Point Program the Panthers developed demanded land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace for Black America — a comprehensive political platform that addressed the material conditions of Black life under American racism. Their willingness to carry firearms legally and patrol Black neighborhoods terrified white America and the FBI.

Under Newton's leadership, the Panthers established free breakfast programs for children that fed thousands daily, free health clinics that provided medical care, liberation schools, and legal aid offices. At their peak, the Panthers had chapters in over 68 cities. The FBI under J. Edgar Hoover declared them 'the greatest threat to the internal security of the country' and launched COINTELPRO to destroy them through infiltration, false imprisonment, and assassination.

Newton was imprisoned, exiled, and ultimately shot and killed in Oakland in 1989 in a dispute with a drug dealer — a tragic end shaped by years of government persecution. But the community programs the Panthers pioneered — free breakfast for children, community health clinics — became models that influenced US social policy for decades.