Huey P. Newton is an icon in American history but despite his lasting, impactful legacy, he was also just a man. Alongside co-partner Bobby Seale, the two college students founded what would go on to be the revolutionary Black power and liberation group, the Black Panther Party in 1966.
Newton and Seale based their politics on teachings from Malcolm X, socialist and communist ideology and championed the self-determination and defense of Black people by taking up arms. However, while those may be the founding principles of the Panthers, their cause served so much more than their misrepresented, violent tactics. In their Bay Area community, they built a sanctuary for poor Black people, starving and illiterate Black children and created a unified Black community that relied on each other – not the government or larger white America that rejected, segregated and brutalized Black people.
