Black Panthers

8 Pages 2061 Words

"We will not fightand kill other people of color in the world who, like black
people, are being victimized by the white racist goverment of america."

Huey P. Newton

If you haven't already guessed it my essay is on a Civil Right's leader who's
legacy has alternately been neglected, distorted, and discounted. For example
in my research I found in one wide ranging account of the "African American
freedom strugle" by historian Robert Weisbrot, that only one page out of 317
was devoted to the activities of the Black Panther Party. Another account would
be in this class, where there was only a passing refrence to the presence of the
party, that was established in our college. The most important person to have
made a significant change in the rights of Blacks was Huey P. Newton. He had
great courage and passion to defeat injustices and racism that existed in the
United States towards blacks and other minority groups, and it was his influence
to all the Blacks to defy white supremacy and his belief in arming themselves
for self-defense that helped lead to the success of the Civil Rights movement.

Huey P. Newton was born on Febuary 17, 1941 in Louisiana, the youngest
of seven children. When Huey Newton was three, his family moved to Oakland.
Where Walter Newton, a handyman and longshoreman, found work. The Newton's
were part of the surge of 50,000 black migrants who headed to the West Coast
to work in the shipyards and other war industries in the area. During World War II.
After the war, however, many blacks and women were forced to give up their
jobs to returning white soldiers. The black population of the area rose again
as black GIs came back from the war fronts and brought their families.
Black unemployment soared, as did antiblack sentiment. Although segregation
was supposedly illegal, black residents of Oakland found themselves restricted
to the neighborhoods around the East Bay. And...