What classifies Huey Newton as an agent of change? Previously learning what one perceives change to be, allows oneself to elucidate the genuine meaning of change. To refresh one’s memory, change can have numerous interpretations whether they are personal or national, each depending on one’s perspective. In order to evaluate Huey P. Newton as an agent of change; it is imperative to elaborate on his background, historical context, key events during his lifetime, overall message and theme he portrayed, as well as who influenced him, and his impact on the world.
At a young age, Huey Percy Newton, was influenced by his father’s accomplishments to become an African American political activist. A biography, which includes detailed information about him, titled Huey P. Newton Biography: Childhood, Life Achievements and Timeline reveals that his “interest in radical politics came naturally to Newton whose father was an active member of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP); in fact, he was named after the radical politician Huey Long who was the former governor of Louisiana.” Born in Monroe, Louisiana on February 17, 1942, Newton was edified by others to become a man who was not afraid to fight for himself or for another individual. A famous quote conveyed by Newton himself, published in Brainy Quotes, titled Huey Newton
…show more content…
Quotes, explains his view point on fighting for what one believes in by acknowledging “Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.” The influential message that can be conveyed through Huey Newton’s wise words is that anyone has the power to advocate for change. Refuting the previous quote, a book titled The Columbia Documentary History of Race and Ethnicity in America edited by Ronald H. Bayor elaborates on the importance of the word “Black Power” by quoting Huey Newton’s response on “Black Power is people’s power. The Black Panther Program, Panther Power as we call it, will implement this people’s power. We have respect for all humanity and we realize that the people should rule and determine their destiny” (Bayor 741). Huey Newton is advocating for the equal rights for everyone. Newton also emphasizes the need to have a government that is run by the people instead of the government dictating to the populous how to behave. Huey Newton, although intelligent, found school to be arduous because he was made to feel ashamed of the color of his skin. Newton did not let this get in his way of becoming something special. The History Learning Site, titled Huey Newton highlights that he “left high school barely literate but wanted to prove those who classed him as failure, that they were wrong. He taught himself to read by studying poetry and he went to college where he gained an Associate of Arts degree. Newton also studied law at Oakland City College and at the San Francisco Law School.” Huey Newton wanted to make his life better. Although, at the age of twenty-two he fell back into his teen years of burglary; this was caused by the pressure to finance his studies. The result of this was a six-month jail sentence in a county jail. While Huey pursued his education at Merrit College he met Bobby Seale with whom he co-founded the Black Panther Party. The party had more than 10,000 members by 1969, expanding to several cities in the U.S. The Black Panther Party were willing to solve whatever problem may come their way and taking any action to do so. As a result, members of the panthers entered the California Legislature armed to protest a gun bill passed in 1967. Newton was then recognized as a leading figure in the black militant movement. Newton’s beliefs were formed from the ideals of “Marx, Lenin, Mao, and Fanon with precision and purpose,” examines Danny Haiphong in their article Huey Newton: A Revolutionary Hero. According to Adrian Wood & Nutan Rajguru in “The Black Panther Party for Self Defense” pamphlet, “The Panthers took the revolutionary philosophy and militant stand of Malcolm X, they were determined that although Malcolm X had been cut down, they would make his ideas come alive.” The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense was founded on his belief that the judicial system was against Black neighborhoods and so they took to their advantage their right to bear arms in order to protect their neighborhoods from police brutality. The group would seek out arrests in progress and watch for brutality and disputed with the officers several times, some of them being fatal. Malcolm X influenced the Black Panther Party’s idea of “violence when necessary” when face to face with what could be an act of discrimination. Huey Newton wanted to make, not a dent in the 1960s society, but a crater, and he did that by co-founding the Black Panthers next to Bobby Seale. With Bobby Seale as chairman and Huey Newton the minister of defense, they wrote the “Black Panther Party Platform and Program” with the title “What We Want. What We Believe.” also known as “The Ten-Point Program.” This declaration of the Black Panther Party guidelines is an amalgamation of a Bill of Rights and a Declaration of Independence, just like the Seneca Falls Declaration in 1848. Within this program, they called for an education, exempt from military service, decent housing, an end to police brutality, employment, trial by jury, freedom not only in choosing their destiny but those in prison, and the end of capitalism. In other words, they wanted peace. In Revolutionary Suicide, written by Huey Newton in 1973, Newton admits “But we soon discovered that weapons and uniforms set us apart from the community. We were looked upon as an ad hoc military group, acting outside the community fabric and too radical to be a part of it. Perhaps some of our tactics at the time were extreme; perhaps we placed too much emphasis on military action.” Throughout his lifetime he bounced in and out of jail for his moral and political beliefs. Newton was arrested in 1969 for allegedly killing an officer during a traffic stop. He was convicted for manslaughter and served with two to fifteen years in prison. Due to the major impact and influence he and the Black Panthers had on the black community, the popular slogan “Free Huey” helped his case, releasing him in 1970. During the 70’s, Newton wanted to change the role of the Panthers by having them work on connecting the community, democratic socialism, and service for the poor.
“The Panthers would go out and get donations of food from businessmen. Any chain of stores that refused even a small donation would be boycotted,” provides Wood and Rajguru. They organized the Free Breakfast for Children Program that gave food to children in poverty so they did not go to school hungry. Huey Newton had formed a revolution from his beliefs that evidently influenced today’s society, but the Panthers soon started to fall apart due to
factionalism. Newton was later convicted of more criminal charges such as murdering a 17-year old sex worker and assaulting a tailor. To avoid going to prison, Newton fled to Cuba for 3 years in 1974 and returned to the U.S. The case was dismissed after two trails. Huey then returned to school gaining a Ph. D in social psychology. However, Newton began to suffer from major drug and alcohol abuse, serving more time in prison for weapon possessions and parole violations. Newton was later released, but on August 22, 1989, Newton was killed on the streets of Oakland. His last words to his killer were said to be, “You can kill my body, and you can take my life, but you can never kill my soul. My soul will live forever!” Further into the article by Danny Haiphong, the blogger writes about Newton’s belief “that while people could be imprisoned or die, ideas could not.” To this day there are stories, movies, plays, and books to tell about the life of Newton and the Black Panther Party. Hugh Pearson later wrote the 1994 biography, The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. As his story continues to live on, it was made into the one-man play “Huey P. Newton” in 1996, and created into a film in 2015 that told the history of the Panthers called The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution by Stanley Nelson. Huey Newton is considered an agent of change because he created lives for so many people living in black communities all around the United States. Because of the discrimination and school problems he faced growing up, Huey wanted to prove people wrong in his own way. He wanted to prove to his former teachers that he was not the failure they perceived him to be and did that by continuing his education and gaining many degrees. Huey became agent of change in the way he saw possible. Based from his perception on how he thought the world should be, he tried everything in his power to make it that way. Although Huey may have had some struggles, he changed the world in his own way. He will forever be known for the work he created in the Black Panther Party for self-defense and the people in the black community whose lives he changed. His movements created further movements in the black community, creating a life of liberty and freedom for all the people in the world today.
Power Struggle. Revolutionary Suicide: Controlling the Myth of Huey P. Newton. 17 Mar. 2004 .
Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), professionally known as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz artist and artist musician with a vocation traversing almost thirty years. Nicknamed "Woman Day" by her companion and music accomplice Lester Young, Holiday affected jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, firmly propelled by jazz instrumentalists, spearheaded another method for controlling stating and rhythm. She was known for her vocal conveyance and improvisational aptitudes, which compensated for her restricted range and absence of formal music instruction. There were other jazz vocalists with equivalent ability, however Holiday had a voice that caught the consideration of her crowd.
Ella was born in Newport News, Virginia on April 25, 1917. When alled “The First Lady of Song” by some fans. She was known for having beautiful tone, extended range, and great intonation, and famous for her improvisational scat singing. Ella sang during the her most famous song was “A-tiscket A-tasket”. Fitzgerald sang in the period of swing, ballads, and bebop; she made some great albums with other great jazz artists such as Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Louis Armstrong. She influenced countless American popular singers of the post-swing period and also international performers such as the singer Miriam Makeba. She didn’t really write any of her own songs. Instead she sang songs by other people in a new and great way. The main exception
...nd unfair laws then Huey could do anything about. Huey was of the first to use this power in order to get something to the regular people of Louisiana, rather than the rich and affluent like other politicians did. Huey Long transformed the perception of a governor for the people in a do nothing political society that put money over its citizens.Huey Long was poised to run for president in the 1936 to run for president against Franklin Roosevelt, and with Huey's Share Our Wealth program he would have surely one. He was a man unlike no other, he fought through political gridlock to actually accomplish things. He was one the most influential and controversial politicians in Louisiana. Some of our most cherished government institutions like social security, veteran benefits, student financial aid to public works projects were call pushed by the peoples champ Huey Long.
Huey P. Long frequently refers in “Every Man a King” to how much there is to eat in the United States, and uses starvation to form the pathos argument that not supporting him is to make others suffer. Long grew up in an agricultural town where he saw greed and poverty firsthand. Unlike the rest of Louisiana, the town
Although Robert Penn Warren denies the assumptions that Willie Stark was created as a fictional representation of Huey Long, the correlations between the novel, All the King’s Men and Huey Long’s life are indisputable. Warren’s development of Willie Stark’s character perfectly mimics Huey Long through his political advances, his sexual indiscretions, his personality, and his assassination in the Capital building. The historical parallels shine clearly throughout the plot of the novel, but the internal detail of All the King’s Men clearly demonstrates the connections between Huey Long and Willie Stark.
The Black Panther Party’s initial success came about without having to address these roots, but, as the Party expanded and wished to move ahead, the Party’s shifts in policy can be directly attributed to the wishes and needs of the community. Murch profiles the Oakland Community School and the People’s Free Food Program, which were social institutions created by the Black Panther Party to address the needs of the community; though these approaches were used to bring about more members and to garner support, these tactics worked because of their correlation to the needs of Oakland’s African American community.
The Party’s fight for redistribution of wealth and the establishment of social, political and social equality across gender and color barriers made it one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for working class liberation and ethnic minorities (Baggins, Brian). The Black Panther Party set up a ten-point program much like Malcolm X’s Nation of Islam that called for American society to realize political, economic and social equal opportunity based on the principles of socialism, all of which was summarized by the final point: "We want land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace" (Newton, Huey P). The Black Panther Party wanted to achieve these goals through militant force. In the words of Che Guevara, “Words are beautiful, but action is supre...
In the text, “From Slavery to Freedom: A History of African Americans,” the authors mention that the Black Panthers were more focused on black men then woman, who they saw as inferior and wanted men “who can control”. On the other hand in “ A Huey P. Newton Story”, the Black Panthers are described as a party based on a group or a whole not one gender over the other; however, it does emphasize that the leaders were male. No matter one’s observation of the attitudes of the party in “The Ten Point Plan”, there is no separation by gender when it explains the wants of the party but only a whole community. The message of sticking together is very clear throughout the plan as words such as, “We” and “people” are used in almost every point to exaggerate the idea that the plan will only work if everyone is
Martin Luther King was one of the greatest civil right activists in American history. Martin Luther King impacted American society in many ways and one of the most important things he did for America was weakening racism in America. At the time when he was living, colored people living America were treated differently with white people. For example colored people needed a pass to go through certain places, they could not go to the same school as white people and it was much harder for colored people to get a job compare to white people. Martin Luther king thought these were wrong. He also thought these were against American dream. For him American dream meant every people having equal rights, opportunity and freedom. What was happening in America were completely against these. To fix this problem, Martin Luther King moved around the country and did nonviolent protest and organized a peaceful marching which attracted national attention showing brutality of police that were trying to stop the march. Martin Luther King also delivered a lot of speeches that inspired many people all over the world and one of his speeches include “I have a Dream.” One of the most famous speeches in America. In this speech he clearly explain his own opinion of how he think everyone should be treated
The dominant culture perceived the Black Panther Party to be a threat, prevented their success whenever possible, and greatly contributed to their ultimate demise. In 1968 FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover proclaimed: “The Black Panther Party is the single greatest threat to the internal security of the United States” (156). The Party’s founder, Huey Newton, came to represent “the symbol of change for Americans, (by) questioning everything scared to the American way of life” (237).
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. When most Americans hear that name the first thing that comes to mind is his “Dream”. But that is not all he was. His life was more than a fight against segregation, it was segregation. He lived it and overcame it to not only better himself but to prove it could be done and to better his fellow man.
The Black Panther Party was started in Oakland, California in 1966, when “Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton took up arms and declared themselves apart of a global revolution against American imperialism” (Bloom). They wanted to empower the black people to stand up for themselves and defend themselves against the police and their unjust ways. The police were the oppressor’s that kept blacks down and kept blacks from gaining any self-rights. In the book “The Forbidden History of the Black Panther Party”, Bloom quoted from Huey P. Newton stating that “Because Black people desire their own destiny; they are constantly inflicted with brutality from the occupying army, em...
...le. He worked through the struggles and difficulties to make sure that his goals were accomplished. The actions he took allowed African Americans to gather hope and lead a change in our world.
The Black Panther had a huge background of history, goals, and beliefs. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale in Oakland, Ca 1966, founded the Panthers. They were originally as an African American self defense force and were highly influenced by Malcolm X’s ideas. They were named after Lowndes County Freedom Organization or LCFO. The Panthers had many goals like; giving back to the ghetto, protecting blacks from police brutality, and to help blacks get freedom and jobs. They also had many beliefs like; Malcolm X was a great person, and they believed that gun use was ok if necessary, or if people were oppressing the poor.