Huey P. Newton

CTL-E-5391 · Person · activist · 1942–1989

VERIFIED evidence grade of this record

Huey Percy Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana, in 1942 and raised in Oakland, California, where he graduated from high school, by his own account, without having learned to read — then taught himself, beginning with Plato, and went on through Merritt College and law study to a doctorate in social philosophy from the University of California, Santa Cruz, in 1980. In Oakland in 1966, with Bobby Seale, he co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, drafted its Ten-Point Program, and served as minister of defense. The party married armed self-defense rhetoric and community survival programs — free breakfasts for children, health clinics, and schools — into a Black Power politics that spread to chapters nationwide and drew intense federal surveillance and repression. Newton's 1967 arrest in the shooting death of an Oakland police officer made 'Free Huey' an international rallying cry; his manslaughter conviction was overturned and he was freed in 1970. Later years brought exile in Cuba from 1974 to 1977, further trials ending without conviction, internal party collapse, and addiction. He was shot and killed in Oakland on August 22, 1989, aged forty-seven. His flowers are complicated and honest: CTL honors the Oakland organizer who fed children and built a political vocabulary of self-determination, while recording the violence and decline that shadowed his final years.

The record

• Also known as: Huey Percy Newton, Dr. Huey P. Newton

Notes

Statistics: Born February 17, 1942, Monroe, Louisiana; co-founded Black Panther Party in Oakland, 1966; party reached about 2,000 members at its late-1960s height (Britannica); manslaughter conviction overturned and released 1970; Ph.D. 1980, UC Santa Cruz; died August 22, 1989, aged 47, Oakland (Britannica, accessed 2026-10-15). · Curator's Judgment: DRAFT — Newton's flowers come with the full record attached: breakfast programs and Ten-Point clarity alongside turmoil. CTL honors the institution-building Oakland years without laundering the rest. · Photo slot: CLEARED — Wikimedia Commons File:Huey Newton, portrait photograph by Blair Stapp.jpg, Blair Stapp, Public domain, verified via Commons API 2026-10-15; direct URL https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b9/Huey_Newton%2C_portrait_photograph_by_Blair_Stapp.jpg/1280px-Huey_Newton%2C_portrait_photograph_by_Blair_Stapp.jpg; master in packet photos/huey-p-newton.jpg.

Sources

• Encyclopaedia Britannica, "Huey P. Newton" — http://www.britannica.com/biography/Huey-P-Newton (primary source)
• ThoughtCo, "Huey Newton, Co-Founder of Black Panther Party" — https://www.thoughtco.com/huey-newton-biography-4579802

Record CTL-E-5391 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · evidence grade: VERIFIED · 2 sources (1 primary) · CTL research: PPL-001.
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