Huey P. Newton - Founding of The Black Panther Party For Self Defense

Founding of The Black Panther Party For Self Defense

As a student at Merritt College in Oakland, Newton became involved in politics in the Bay Area. He joined the Afro-American Association, became a prominent member of Phi Beta Sigma fraternity, Beta Tau chapter, and played a role in getting the first African-American history course adopted as part of the college's curriculum. He read the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Zedong, and Che Guevara. It was during his time at Merritt College that Newton and Bobby Seale organized the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966. Based on a casual conversation, Seale became Chairman and Newton became Minister of Defense.

The Black Panther Party was an African-American left-wing organization working for the right of self-defense for African-Americans in the United States. The Party achieved national and international impact and renown through their deep involvement in the Black Power movement and in politics of the 1960s and 1970s. The group's "provocative rhetoric, militant posture, and cultural and political flourishes permanently altered the contours of American Identity".

Newton adopted what he termed "revolutionary humanism". Although he had earlier visited Nation of Islam mosques, he wrote that "I have had enough of religion and could not bring myself to adopt another one. I needed a more concrete understanding of social conditions. References to God or Allah did not satisfy my stubborn thirst for answers." Later, however, he stated that "As far as I am concerned, when all of the questions are not answered, when the extraordinary is not explained, when the unknown is not known, then there is room for God because the unexplained and the unknown is God." But Newton did later decide to join the Church after the party disbanded during his marriage to Fredrika.

Newton and the Panthers started a number of social programs in Oakland, including founding the Oakland Community School, which provided high-level education to 150 children from impoverished urban neighborhoods. Other Panther programs included the Free Breakfast for Children Program and others that offered dances for teenagers and training in martial arts. According to Oakland County Supervisor John George: "Huey could take street-gang types and give them a social consciousness".

Despite some involvement in social programs, the Black Panthers in Oakland, California, as well as other U.S. cities, never transcended their reputation for violence and criminality. In 1982, Newton was accused of embezzling $600,000 of state funds from the Panther-founded Oakland Community School, which shut the school down. Just before the end of his life, the charges were reduced to a single count of cashing a $15,000 check for personal use, and Newton was sentenced to six months in San Quentin Prison and 18 months probation.