Newton, Huey P. (1942-1989), was a civil rights activist who cofounded the Black Panther Party, a radical political organization in the United States. A chief goal of the party was to protect African Americans from police actions that many blacks considered brutality.
Huey Percy Newton was born on Feb. 17, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana. In 1945, he moved with his family to Oakland, California. As a teenager, Newton was arrested several times. In 1964, he was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and sentenced to six months in jail.
In the early 1960’s, while attending Merritt College in Oakland, Newton joined the Afro-American Association (AAA), a campus organization that stressed black separatism and self-improvement. Through AAA, he met another student activist, Bobby Seale. In 1966, inspired by the ideas of the African American leader Malcolm X, Newton and Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The party later dropped “for Self-Defense” from its name.
The Black Panthers had many clashes with the police. In 1967, during an exchange of gunfire between Panthers and police in Oakland, Newton was wounded and charged with killing a police officer. In 1968, Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter and given a 2- to 15-year sentence. In 1970, the California Court of Appeals reversed Newton’s conviction, and he was released from prison. In 1977, Newton faced charges for a 1974 murder, but the state reluctantly dropped the case in 1979.
Newton received a Ph.D. in social philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1980. He was shot and killed during a dispute with a drug dealer on Aug. 22, 1989. Newton’s autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide, was published in 1973.
See also African Americans (Black militancy) ; Black Panther Party ; Seale, Bobby .
