ICONIC CIVIL RIGHTS LEADERS — HUEY

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Huey Newton was born in a small town in Louisiana and lat­er mov­ing with his fam­i­ly to Oakland, California as an infant, Huey P. Newton became the co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for over 2 decades. Dr. Newton, who found­ed the Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale, became one of the most charis­mat­ic sym­bols of black anger in the late 1960’s. After his con­vic­tion in 1967 in the death of an Oakland police offi­cer, rad­i­cals and many col­lege stu­dents took up the ral­ly­ing cry ”Free Huey.” At the same time, Dr. Newton and the Black Panthers were accused of being con­trolled by the Communist Party and were inves­ti­gat­ed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. In recent years Dr. Newton con­tin­ued to face numer­ous legal charges, served time in jail and fought to reha­bil­i­tate him­self from alco­hol and drug abuse. Newton Co-found­ing The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (lat­er short­ened to The Black Panther Party) with Bobby Seale in 1966, Newton and his com­pa­tri­ots were known for their strong left­ist pol­i­tics, all-black garb and sound intel­lec­tu­al debate. Beyond the activism and fight for equal­i­ty for African-Americans, the Panthers also start­ed “sur­vival pro­grams” designed to assist the less for­tu­nate such as meal pro­grams, self-defense class­es, med­ical clin­ics and first aid. The orig­i­nal Black Panthers would large­ly dis­solve the orga­ni­za­tion in 1982.http://www.biography.com/people/huey-p-newton-37369