Huey P. Newton

(1942 - 1989)

Huey P. Newton’s family left their sharecropper’s plot in Louisiana for Oakland, where Newton attended high school and went to college. Newton founded the Black Panther Party with his college classmate Bobby Seale. Under their leadership, the Panthers focused on surveilling police officers in Oakland and informing citizens of their rights during arrests. In 1968 Newton was convicted of the voluntary manslaughter of a police officer. “We’ve never advocated violence,” Newton said after his conviction was overturned in court. “Violence is inflicted upon us.”