Warrior with a PhD

Huey P. Newton

The logo: a bird of prey readying for launch. The image: black leather overcoats, black berets perched atop afros, a gun slung over the shoulder. The Black Panthers didn’t want to be sheep. They’d had enough of Martin Luther King’s peaceful campaigning. The racism and brutality of the police demanded more decisive action.

The Black Panther Party was founded in 1966 in Oakland, California. The founding fathers were Bobby Seale (who became chairman of the organization) and Huey Percy Newton (who got the Ministry of Defence ‘portfolio’). Self-defence was one of the goals of the party – since the law allowed the carrying of arms, an armed group of African Americans began to patrol the streets of the city. What mattered was a show of strength. But most important of all was the famous 10-point programme of support for the Black community. Among other things, the Panthers demanded freedom, jobs, education, exemption for African Americans from military service, and an end to police brutality. They set up food and clothing banks, housing associations and also invented the ‘Free breakfast for children’ programme.

Huey P. Newton knew very well what it felt like to be hungry and persecuted. He was born in 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana, a parish with an infamous history. Between 1877 and 1950, 37