Huey P. Newton
Huey Percy Newton co-founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October 1966 with Bobby Seale in Oakland.
Born to a Louisiana sharecropper's family, Newton overcame functional illiteracy by teaching himself to read using Plato's Republic.
He became a self-taught intellectual, deeply influenced by Malcolm X, Fanon, and Marxist theory.
Newton led the Panthers' ten-point program advocating employment, housing, healthcare, education, and ending police brutality in Black communities.
He established community programs like free breakfast for children while practicing armed legal defense against police harassment.
Newton was tried for murder, imprisoned multiple times, and later struggled with drug addiction before his death in 1989.
