Huey P. Newton was born in Monroe, Louisiana, on February 17, 1942. Huey Newton and his family moved to Oakland, California when he was a young child. He was the youngest of his siblings. Although he was close to his family he had some struggles early in life, which caused him to display unpredictable behavior both around his neighborhood and in school. “Settling in Oakland, the close-knit family struggled to shelter young Huey but could not stop the mores of the ghetto from shaping his life. Years later, those same ghetto neighborhoods became the springboard of the Black Panther Party that thrust Newton into national prominence.”(Cleaver 2014)
In spite of the fact that he was often in trouble with the law and being suspended from school, he
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Unlike many of the other social and political organizers of the time, they took a more militant stance to the plight of black communities in America. The Black Panther Organization abided by the laws set forth from the Constitution. The Black Panther Organization could be considered as Revolutionary Radicalists. The Black Panthers already had an influence at a time when the BLM (Black Liberation Movement) was widespread across America fighting for civil rights, women's rights, anti-war, and many other social issues. They played a short but important part in the civil rights movement. The Black Panthers believed that the non-violent campaign of Martin Luther King had failed and any promised changes to their lifestyle via the ‘traditional’ civil rights movement, would take too long to be implemented or simply not …show more content…
Newton studied many philosophers and that resulted in him giving his own life to the revolution for the advancement of African-Americans. He created a philosophy connecting "Reactionary suicide vs. Revolutionary Suicide.
Newton argued that Reactionary Suicide is simply the reaction to a certain situation and the reaction being the reason for your physical, mental, or emotional murder or “death’. Revolutionary Suicide however he describes as committing your life to a cause and in turn the revolution is what brings your physical, mental or emotional death but the death in itself still defines or embodies the truth of that revolution.
I agree with this philosophy and personally would choose Revolutionary Suicide to die for fighting for my rights than just simply to react to something that is happening to me and not doing anything to try and change the circumstance. Huey Newton showed that he was about more than fighting back or being violent towards law enforcement that have oppressed African Americans for years. He displays this in establishing the four desires of the Black Panther Party and including a ten point plan to achieve them. Huey Newton's commitment to the empowerment of the people for liberation through knowledge and not violence was truly an amazing aspect of his character as a human