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Huey P. Newton
Co-founder of the Black Panther Party
The co-founder who armed a movement for self-defense — and a survival program for the poor.
The rise
In 1966 Oakland, Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, organizing armed patrols to monitor police in Black neighborhoods.
What they did
The Panthers built survival programs — free breakfasts for children, health clinics and community schools — that reached tens of thousands and reshaped ideas of grassroots Black power.
The full picture
The party was targeted and disrupted by the FBI, torn by internal violence, and Newton's own later years were marred by legal trouble and addiction before he was killed in 1989.
Why it matters
Newton fused armed self-defense with community welfare, leaving a contested but influential model of Black self-organization.
“The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.”