Huey P. Newton’s Family: Roots of a Revolutionary Suicide

Huey P. Newton’s Family: Roots of a Revolutionary Suicide. was undertaken by the author at the request of Prof. Emeritus Melvin Newton (older brother of Huey Newton), Melvin’s daughter Tracy Newton and son David Lautaro Newton. The project involved extensive family interviews and research to cover the background of Melvin and Huey P. Newton’s parents, Walter and Armelia Newton, the tribal nature of family interactions, the lives of their siblings and other close relatives, their seven children and the collective family impact on Walter and Armelia’s youngest son, iconic Black militant Huey P. Newton, who co-founded the Black Panther Party. Newton wrote in his autobiography Revolutionary Suicide -- and testified to a captivated audience in his 1968 death penalty trial -- that an understanding of the treatment of African-Americans since colonial days was necessary to understand who he was and where he came from. That testimony had a profound impact on the jury that had Newton’s life in their hands, particularly affecting middleclass Black banker David Harper, who became the jury’s revolutionary choice for foreman.

This book puts Huey P. Newton’s experiences and those of his family into historical context. It starts with Walter Newton’s heritage and his wife Armelia Johnson Newton’s family background from their primarily African roots: to their Caucasian ancestors; to the slavery of their African-American ancestors; to their upbringing in the segregated South; their hard-scrabble adult lives in Arkansas and Louisiana in the early 20th century; their move West to Oakland as part of the Great Migration; the racism they faced in California; Huey and Melvin Newton’s disparate school experiences; Huey’s teenage years: his involvement in the Afro-American Association’s informal studies of Black authors; Melvin’s role in creating a pioneering ethnic studies program at Oakland’s Merritt College; the formation of the Black Panther Party; the shootout with two Oakland police officers for which the Panther leader was arrested and that became the focus of international attention to the treatment of Black men by the American justice system; Huey Newton’s historic 1968 death penalty trial; his Mafia phase; his subsequent Cuban exile; his frayed and reestablished family relationships: his death; the murder trial of his assailant; and Huey Newton’s extraordinary lasting impact.

SUBJECTS COVERED:

Newton family history within the fabric of African-American history; the Great Migration; Alabama race history; Black Baptist churches; Louisiana race history; California race history; Oakland, CA race history; the 1968 death penalty trial of Huey Newton; Vietnam War protests; the murder trial of Tyron Robinson for the death of Huey Newton; Huey Newton’s legacy.