REVOLUTIONARY SUICIDE: OUTLINE

A MANIFESTO
Huey spent 22 months at California Mens Colony at San Luis Obispo
Almost continually in solitary confinement
Hueys first trial: for the death of Patrolman John Frey
No reading allowed, but magazine that stood out to him slipped under his cell by one of
the inmates: May 1970
Ebony
magazine issue
Written by Lacy Banko summarizing work of Dr. Herbert Hendin
Hendins work: studied disproportionately high suicide rates among black men
aged 19-35
Article reminded him of Durkheims study claiming that suicide is a result of social
conditions which led him to the idea of revolutionary suicide
Huey studied at Oakland City College
Reactionary suicide: a man taking his own life in response to social conditions that
overwhelm him and condemn him to helplessness
Analogy: Dostoevskys Crime and Punishment
While society may drive the poor man out with a stick, the beggar will be
swept out with a broom.
Relates to a spiritual death in the Black community
Revolutionary suicide: When reactionary forces crush us, we must move against these
forces, even at the risk of death. We will have to be driven out with a stick.
Huey doesnt believe life will change for the better without an assault on the
Establishment (the power structure)
Che Guevara: said revolutionary death the reality and victory the dream
Bakunin thought the same in
Revolutionary Catechism
Fidel Castros men didnt understand this rule, his men thought revoltuion to be
more romantic
Huey Newton doesnt expect to live to see the end of his revolution
Huey says black radicals are different from white radicals in that white radicals are not
facing genocide
Scholars consider Black Panthers suicidal, Huey says they are not
Said prison made him stronger, did not cooperate (He considered it reactionary)
CHAPTER ONE: STARTING OUT
Hueys fathers father was a white rapist
Doesnt know his grandparents, says racism ruined his family
Parents: Walter Newton and Armelia Johnson
Both parents born in Deep South: father born in Alabama, mother in Louisiana
Parents families moved to Arkansas
Married in Parkdale, Arkansas
Moved to Louisiana after for employment prospects
Hueys father believed in family; his mother never worked outside of the home

 Father ran through many jobs, was also a minister at Bethel Baptist Church in Monroe,
Louisiana
Oldest child: Lee Edward
Mother helped family see the light side, carried Huey through most difficult days
Huey born in Monroe, Louisiana
Last of seven children
Grew up baby-faced, maybe why he fought so often in school
Named after Huey P. Long, former Governor of Louisiana
Liked him since he was racist, but his policies ended up helping black
communities
Hueys family had a tradition of giving a newborn to an older brother or sister
Given to his brother Walter, Jr.
Huey said this ritual was a surviving Africanism
1945: Hueys family moved to Oakland in black exodus for wartime work in North and
West
Oaklands unemployment rate is high, horrible history of police brutality
2 Oaklands:
Hills: also rich area called Piedmont, home to upper-middle and upper class
Home to US Senator William Knowland, owner of ultraconservative Oakland
Tribune
Flatlands: sub-standard income families, low-income minorities (many of them
Blacks)
Huey moved many times growing up since it was difficult to find decent homes for large
families
First house: corner of Fifth and Brush streets
Later: two-room apartment at Castro and Eighteenth streets
Slept in kitchen
Poor but happy, had many playmates
Especially his brother Melvin, who was four years older
Never went hungry, ate poor food
Cush: Corn bread mixed with leftovers
Even his toys were a reminder of his familys status
Dirt, rats, and cats were the games and toys of the poor
In his family it was important that everyone get along with each other
Father served as an impartial judge
CHAPTER TWO: LOSING
In school Huey was constantly ashamed of being black
Enforced in curriculum: black cowardice in
Little Black Sambo
compared with
bravery of white knights in
Sleeping Beauty
Found himself wanting to be one of those white characters, and began to cringe at
the mention of the word Black
We not only accepted ourselves as inferior; we accepted the inferiority as
inevitable and inescapable

 Got his white peers to do his math homework, felt he could not learn the material
This shame led to rebellion
Remembers two things of elementary school in particular, both taking place at Lafayette
Elementary School
Fifth grade: called out for not paying attention by teacher, forced to write the word
business on board but instead he froze up and walked out
Created a reaction of freezing up any time he was forced to speak in public
or read in public or perform in public
Dumping sand out of shoes from recess at too slow of a pace for the teacher,
teacher hit him and Huey hit her back with his shoe, gained respect from his peers
Lower class schoolkids valued anyone who bucked authority
Only teacher Huey never had a problem with: Mrs. McLaren from Santa Fe Elementary
School
Had his older brother Melvin who she thought to be a model student
Developed a tough reputation in school, so there was no need to start fights with
teachers-- they began to instigate them
Huey found that not one teacher taught him anything of use in Oakland public schools
CHAPTER THREE: GROWING
All real learning Huey learned outside of school
First thing a Black child must learn: how to fight
Huey used to feign sickness or find an excuse to miss school each day, his mother
caught on and had Walter, Jr. take him
Huey learned how to stand his ground because Walter taught him how to
fight well
Huey wanted to be a fighter when he was younger
Looked up to Joe Louis as his saint; Jersey Joe, Kid Gavilan, and Sugar Ray were
their pantheon
He didnt need a nickname when fighting, Huey was enough
Would fight on the streets for winos (someone who drinks an excessive amount
of wine or is homeless)
who loved it
Huey was considered by them to be a prize fighter
Huey would train to fight at the Campbell Street Center with Walter, also had a few
bouts at the Boys Club
Also learned a lot about fighting from Lee Edward, his oldest brother
In retrospect, Huey says their fighting was their way of affirming their masculinity
and dignity in reaction to social pressures
When fighting, Huey met his friend David Hilliard
Current Black Panther Party member
Huey met him right after elementary school in North Oakland where they could
finally buy a house
Both started junior high school at Woodrow Wilson
Davids wife: Patricia Parks, who was terrified of Huey but less so once she and
David got married

 Another good friend of junior high: James Crawford

Would fight constantly, but stopped once they formed a gang called the
Brotherhood in 1953
Gang was a direct response to white aggression
James dreamt of being a singer or of opening a restaurant; educational system
failed him and he became an alcoholic and found himself in and out of state
mental hospitals
Hueys middle school years were just like elementary in the sense of constant ridicule by
teachers and learning little
Only class that Huey didnt think was painful: a cooking class taught by Miss Cook,
the only Black teacher he had
Mrs. Gross: taught Crawford and Huey in the dumb class and kicked them out
constantly
Huey associated reading with being an adult
His refusal to learn became a matter of defiance, a way of holding onto his dignity in an
oppressive system
CHAPTER FOUR: CHANGING
Hope is considered a scarce commodity in the Black community
Illustrated by Claude Brown who grew up in Harlem and wrote of it in
Manchild in
the Promised Land
Hueys father had a dignity and pride seldom seen in southern Black men
Hueys fathers survival may be because his father was half white
Through generations, mothers have tried to curb their sons masculine aggressiveness for
fear of death from a hostile white community
All of Hueys siblings influenced him, particularly his three brothers
His brother Melvin (who went on to teach sociology at Merritt College in Oakland)
opened up the possibilities of intellectual growth
Huey began to appreciate poetry through his brother Melvin
He particularly loved Macbeths speech that begins: Tomorrow, and tomorrow,
and tomorrow/ Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
Adonais also impacted him: talks of a friend who died and how life is seen
differently over time
Made him think that marriage, family, debt, etc. were another form of
slavery
Ozymandias also impacted him:
Could mean a mans life is like the myth of sisyphus
Could mean the king wanted to take peoples eyes off of achievements and
instead to look with despair
Obsession with poetry led to his desire to read, which changed his life profoundly
CHAPTER FIVE: CHOOSING
One of the most long-lasting influences on Hueys life was religion
Mother would read the Bible to Huey and Melvin when they were little

Hueys favorite story from the Bible: the Samson story, followed by David and
Goliath
Huey heavily involved in the Antioch Baptist Church: belonged to the Baptist Young
Peoples Union, the Young Deacons, the junior choir, attended Sunday school and
worship services
Father was a fire and brimstone preacher, a burner
Everyone in the family involved in the church
Would read at church (not well) but compensated with acting, where he had
attained an eloquence from reciting poetry with Melvin
Huey studied piano for seven years with great music theorists and pianists
Huey saw later that with church, he and his friends were heading for a hell on earth and
trying to reach heaven through church
Pastor at Antioch Baptist Church: Reverend Thomas
For Huey, church offered a countermeasure against the fear and humiliation he
experienced in school
Huey relates to James Baldwins experience with religion in
The Fire Next Time
Thought about becoming a minister in college, studied philosophy instead as he began to
question God and the foundation of his beliefs
Religion impacted Huey in different ways
He never used profanity
Huey saw the sense of community and the belief in a common goal as what the
Black community should be doing outside of church, too
The life of a hustler appealed to Huey
Admired them because he felt they were free, as they defied authority
Hueys second-oldest brother, Walter, Jr., known as Sonny Man in Hueys family,
was a hustler
Huey: To be a hustler means to be a survivor.
Relates to George Jacksons belief on bills and how they take away a mans freedom
Hueys father always paid his bills on time, and never mailed them for fear of being
overcharged
Huey and Melvin would pay bills for their father, which is what Huey was doing
when he was arrested in 1967
Huey hated bills and vowed to never have them, hated how bills affected his father
who worked so hard yet had so little
Huey blames his fathers hard work on the state of his fathers health
Huey thought that these bills were peoples own fault
In avoiding these responsibilities, he became a hustler for a while
Huey says that all Black men face the dilemma that if youre a moral, hard-working man
then you get nothing, while hustlers get all things desired
Huey says that Black boys grow up learning to distrust authority, and that the system can
affect every aspect of life in the Black community
Many Black boys turn to rebellion, finding it to be their only weapon
Huey avoided chores and other responsibilities like his paper route

 Huey attributed his resistance to his need to be a separate person, separate from his
family
Huey has always hated to see people go without their needs, an idea he thinks came from
his fathers sermons
Huey received punishment when he was young; his parents never spared the rod
Huey believes this punishment came from a place of caring, and that they didnt
want to see him get eaten up by the system
CHAPTER SIX: HIGH SCHOOL
Huey constantly battled with instructors throughout high school, led to his transfer out of
the Oakland school system and into Berkeley High School in Berkeley with his oldest
sister, Myrtle
Before Berkeley, Huey started out high school in tenth grade at Oakland Technical
High School
Started to get into real trouble with the police at Berkeley
Started a fight with Mervin Carter over some girls where he was arrested
Huey refused to give up Mervs name, thinks it to be immoral within the Black
community since youre giving someone up to white authority
Huey retaliated by threatening him with a hammer and a gun, when somebody
called the police on him and he was taken to Juvenile Hall
Huey also had stolen frequently in his adolescent years, although he dint think of it as
stealing, and ratheer as something he was owed
Released from Juvenile Hall and had to leave Berkeley since his parents lived in Oakland
After that, things went well at Oakland Tech
Became a hustler and a hipster just like Sonny Man
Was called crazy, but he liked the label
His first car, Gray Roach, helped solidify his reputation as crazy
Began to feel as though he could outmaneuver death
The film
Black Orpheus
inspired him, and even though the main characters died he
would always think of what he could do differently so that he wouldnt die
Began to learn how to perform hypnotic trances from his brother Melvin (who was taught
by Solomon Hill, a fellow student at Oakland City College)
Hypnosis began to be about styling, so he found it boring and quit
At parties he would recite poetry since he couldnt dance
Davids favorite poem:
Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
Supported Fidel Castro and the Communist Cuban people and Paul Robeson since his
teachers taught him to hate them
On his way to becoming a revolutionary
CHAPTER SEVEN: READING
Huey was a functional illiterate by his last year of high school
His high school counselors told him that he wasnt college material
Warranted this allegation by testing him to find out he has an IQ of 74
He decided to learn how to read in order to rebel against authority, also to be more
like Melvin

 Taught himself to read, was ashamed to ask others, especially Melvin who was
disgusted when Huey didnt know certain words
Huey taught himself by reading Platos
Republic
and looking up words he didnt
know in the dictionary
When talking about the shame of not knowing how to read, Huey says nothing is
more painful than shame
Huey said shame hurt more than the pain he endured during fights
CHAPTER EIGHT: MOVING ON
Huey began a period of confusion in his last two years of high school that lasted until he
and Bobby Seale formed the Black Panther Party
Began to question everything
Desperately wanted to know why his father and others, despite working so hard,
never got ahead
Wanted to know why so that this would never happen to him
Questioned religion
Wanted to join a monastery so that he could answer these questions in
peace
Torn between college like Melvin and the life of a hustler like Sonny Man
Valued Melvins detachment
Didnt appreciate that Sonny Man and hustlers rejected family that
Huey valued so highly
Ashamed to question religion
Related to Stephen Dedalus in James Joyces
Portrait of the Artist as a
Young Man
Ended up going to Oakland City College in the fall of 1959
His lifestyle of a beatnik alarmed his parents
Grew a beard, which his parents rejected and considered bohemian
His father demanded that he shave it, one night cornered him and
demanded that he shave it
Hueys love for his family and need for independence, symbolized by the
beard, were clashing
Huey would not shave his beard, moved out and lived with Richard Thorne
Hueys room was kept for him in his fathers house until his arrest in 1968
CHAPTER NINE: COLLEGE AND THE AFRO-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION
Huey started at Oakland City College (now Merritt College) in 1959
Still ran with his brothers on the block in college, all of his money came from petty
crime
One of his first friends at Oakland City College: Richard Thorne
He was a tall, Black guy who wore his hair natural
He excited some, frightened others
Huey stayed with him for a month after he left home
After he stayed with Richard, Huey moved into the Poor Boys Hall

Enjoyed it here because he was among boys who were also getting their life
together
Richard Thorne was always talking to Huey about books he intended to write
Richard had a theory that nonpossessive love was pure love, and that possessive love was
a mockery of pure love
Richard was critical of bourgeois love relationships
He thought a partner should not be owned like cars or houses
Huey was an angry man at this time
Found himself drinking and fighting on the block, committing burglary in Berkeley
homes, and going to school in Oakland
Began to move away from family and church
Huey was a member of Phi Beta Sigma, a social fraternity where he expressed his anger
about society
Someone there told him like he sounded like Donald Warden who was preaching
Blackness at the Berkeley campus at the University of California
Huey went to Berkeley to find Donald Warden and his Afro-American Association
The first person he met there was Maurice Dawson, who shamed Huey for not
understanding what he meant about Afro-Americans
This taught Huey never to shame people who do not understand, and he
applies this lesson to the Black Panther Party
Huey began to attend meetings of the Afro-American Association, who taught Black
people to develop pride in their culture and contributions to society
Much of it was book readings of authors like W. E. B. Du Bois, Ralph Ellison, Booker
T. Washington, and James Baldwin
On Saturdays they would speak on street corners of the Black communities of
Oakland or San Francisco
While many of the members were bourgeois college students, Huey brought in his
poor, uneducated brothers off the block
Hueys family did not believe Warden was up to any good, thought this was all a ploy to
expand his law practice
Hueys disillusionment with Warden began when he saw that Warden stood up to
no one
One time a group of white guys came down to fight at a meeting in San
Francisco; Huey began to throw hands but saw that Warden had run away
Oakland
Tribune
ran an article saying the City Council made derogatory
remarks about the Association,
Warden wrote asking to be on the agenda of the Councils next
meeting, but when they went to City Hall, Mayor John Houlihan said
that they could not speak since important people from Piedmont (an
all-white, upper class area within Oakland) were there
Houlihan said to wait until last and Warden didnt object, and after
Piedmonts speech they said the agenda was closed

 One of the councilmen insisted they be heard, and Warden spoke to

say that the Afro-American Association did not want trouble, instead
wanted to get welfare-collecting Black people off of the streets
The councilmen and Mayor Houlihan ate it up
Huey found that without white people there, Warden could tear them up,
but that he had little interest in Black people
He did have interest in Barry Goldwaters daughters donation to his
sisters sewing shop
Huey left the Association, disillusioned by Wardens inability to deal with the Black
present
In the end, Warden really was just interested in building his law practice and when
Huey went to him for consultation, Warden wouldnt even give him a discount and
instead his prices were higher than any other
Huey took a lesson from this and applied it to the Black Panther Party: do not take
a stance just because it is popular
Huey believes Warden got attention because he lead people away from the truth of
the Black communitys situation
Others also drifted from the Afro-American Association
Richard Thorne left to found the Sexual Freedom League, and later he organized a
spiritual cult called Om Eternal, where he is considered the unquestionable high
priest, and changed his name to Om
Ron Everett went to Watts, Los Angeles and established his own cultural nationalist
group, US, which became a cult
Ron called himself Karenga (the original) and later US had confrontations
with the Black Panthers, killing two of Hueys finest comrades
CHAPTER TEN: YEARNING
Life began to open up for Huey, found himself beginning to enjoy the learning process
Sometimes at college he would skip classes and go to the library to find more
information on the subject
For example, he would read about psychology of biological behaviorism of
John B. Watson, also works of B. F. Skinner and Pavlov
Huey also enjoyed philosophy
Felt the need to understand definitions before engaging in dialogue, a
theory he applied to the Black Panthers
Huey was impressed by A. J. Ayers logical positivism and his distinction
between the analytical statement, the synthetic statement, and statements
of assumption
Black Panther Party stands on Ayers idea that nothing can exist without
being conceptualized, articulated, and shared
Huey began to move towards existentialism- read Camus, Sartre, and Kierkegaard
Found their teachings to be similar to the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible,
Huey finds the Preacher to be the first existentialist
From then on, Huey would always engage in existentialist discussions

 College did not give him the answers he had been seeking, but it did give him a better
understanding of people
Realized the system wanted him to fail and wanted to label him as dumb; in college
another IQ test labeled him at a level of dull normal while another indicated that
he was intelligent
Huey concluded only he knew what was happening inside of himself
Huey was free to pursue his education in his own style since he supported himself
through activities on the block
He ran gambling sessions at his apartment, served as the houseman
Hueys studying and reading led him to become a socialist
His progression from nationalist to socialist was slow, but he was around a lot of
Marxists and occasionally went to meetings of the Progressive Labor Party
Supported Castro and read of Mao Tse-tung and the Chinese Revolution
Realized the benefits of collectivism, began to see the link between racism and the
economics of capitalism
Created the belief that you could not destroy racism without wiping out its
economic foundation
Despite his ideas, Huey did not identify with the campus lifestyle, preferred to hang out
with his brothers on the block
Loved college so much because he wasnt forced to go
Thought of groups like the Afro-American Association as a training ground for Muslims
Began to investigate Black Muslim rhetoric, read C. Eric Lincolns
Black Muslims in
America
, but he really was attracted to Minister Malcolm X
First saw Malcolm X speak at McClymonds High School in Oakland at a
conference sponsored by the Afro-American Association, Muhammad Ali
(Cassius Clay) was there, too
Huey was impressed with Malcolm X and believed in his program: armed
defense when attacked, and reaching the people with ideas and programs
that speak to their condition
Would have joined Black Muslims and started going to mosques, but already
questioning religion and didnt need another one
Back at college, Kenny Freeman and others began to organize a West Coast branch of
RAM, the Revolutionary Action Movement
Bobby Seale tried to get Huey into the chapter, but they wouldnt let him in, finding
him to be too bourgeois (which was a lie)
Huey found RAM to be a lie, and thought that while they talked of revolution, they
were all bourgeois and were headed for occupations within the system
Huey thought they really didnt want him because he hung out with boys off the
block
RAM formed a front group called the Soul Students Advisory Council, dedicated to
getting a Black history course into the curriculum
Once this was achieved, the group disbanded
CHAPTER ELEVEN: THE BROTHERS ON THE BLOCK

 Huey noticed that so many of his friends were on their way to be forever in debt and
paying bills like his father
Huey said this system was like a modern-day sharecropping on an urban
plantation
Huey thought that no organizations existed to help his brothers within this cycle,
and he desperately wanted to help
At college, Huey found that many of his peers still wanted to be a part of the system,
having pipe dreams of success
Huey found that he could not relate to these goals, associated possessions with
nonfreedom
On the block, Sonny Man was only involved with brothers who didnt go to college
Huey thinks that one of the reasons that he got into so many fights on the block was
because he weighed only about 130 pounds
Sonny Man taught Huey how to fight, and Huey got a reputation as a bad dude
Occasionally a tush hog (tough street fighter) would challenge him
On the block, Huey would sometimes bring up philosophical ideas
Some of his brothers thought he was a pedant, putting them down, and rap
sessions would occasionally start
Told his brothers about the cave allegory from Platos
Republic
, and they enjoyed it
Street philosophy crept into Hueys academic work
Huey began studying police science and law so he would know how to
outmaneuver the police; his mother always wanted him to be a lawyer
His first time he stood a policeman down: 1965 he was walking across Grove
Street and saw a white man sideswipe a brothers car
The officer was about to write a ticket to the brother when Huey challenged
him
CHAPTER TWELVE: SCORING
Huey studied law to be a better burglar
Studied the California penal code with books like
California Criminal Evidence
and
California Criminal Law
by Fricke and Alarcon
Later learned how to deal with the police since he now knew his rights
His studying worked, since every time he was arrested he got off with no charges
He found the court would convict you, but if you were familiar with your
right and the law that they would let you go since you were indoctrinated
into their way of thinking
Huey was doing a lot that was unlawful
He and his friends would steal or buy or sell blank checks
They burglarized Berkeley and Oakland homes in broad daylight, would use
lawnmowing ploy
Huey would go car prowling by himself
Huey would short-change, where he scored best
Once he had gotten into petty crime, Huey stopped fighting, shifting his anger from the
community onto the establishment

 He would never score on Blacks, but he would score on Whites since he thought it to be
retribution
He would stay home and read whenever he scored enough money to have a stretch of
free time
Particularly, he read and reread
Les Miserables
, since he related to Jean Valjean,
who spent thirty years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread
Camus
The Stranger
and
The Myth of Sisyphus
made Huey feel even more justified in
his liberating property from the oppressor
He never wanted to hurt poor whites, however
At the time he admits that he still associated having money with whiteness
Hueys purpose then was to have as much leisure time as possible
Eventually he got caught, but by then he was educated of the law and decided to defend
himself, which gave him great pleasure
Considers defending himself a manifestation of freedom as an existentialist
Huey finds that the law exists to protect those who possess property
He liked arguing traffic tickets, the only time he got in trouble with the law for one
he coincidentally did not commit
He would beat cases in the pretrial period because they could not establish the
corpus delicti
, or the elements of the case
In a short-change case, he was accused of running his game in sixteen stores
Only a few people were short in their registers, few would admit it
One girl said the police were trying to persuade her to testify against him
Huey got a dismissal on grounds of insufficient evidence
Huey had also been accused of stealing books from a bookstore near the college
In his gambling, some students would pay him in books that he could cash in
The bookstore tried to confiscate the books but Huey informed them that they
couldnt without due process of law
Bookstore then notified the Dean of Students, who called the police
No one could arrest him, since there was no warrant
Huey found that nobody knew how to deal with a confident Black man who knew
his rights
Women from bookstore brought to trial for case, but jury realized that she had
personal reasons for testifying since she had been seeing Huey
Dean testified, claiming at the time he didnt even know his rights, making his
testimony void to the jury
Ended up with a hung jury, went on three times all with same result until the fourth
time when the judge refused the case
Third case came at a party Huey went to with Melvin
Huey doesnt consider a party good unless theres a good rap session
At this party, a man named Odell Lee came into the conversation, who Huey didnt
know but had gone to school with his wife, Margot
When asked if he was an Afro-American, Huey turned away after replying, steak
knife in hand

 Odell challenged him and turned around again, sensing that he was a tush hog
with his scar and with his hand in his pocket, so when Huey was turned around
again by Odell, Huey stabbed him with his steak knife
Odell then fell into Melvins arms
After that, word got around that Odell was coming for Huey
Huey started packing a gun then, and was arrested for assault with a deadly
weapon
Huey was found not guilty, which he thinks was because the jury was not a jury of
his peers
Huey finds it almost impossible for a man to defend himself unless he is of the
oppressor class
Huey thinks the body language of fighting is expressed well in Bobby Seales
Seize
the Time
Confined to the Alameda County Jail, when his family hired lawyer Leonard Dieden
Found guilty of a felony, they gave him six months for a misdemeanor
CHAPTER THIRTEEN: LOVING
Hueys parents, Christianity, his older brothers, and the theories of Richard Thorne all
shaped Hueys view on relationships
As a child, Huey had accepted the institution of marriage, but as he saw the turmoil his
father went through, he saw the ideal bourgeois family was suffocating
Huey also goes on to describe marriage as imprisoning
Richard Thorne, Hueys friend who thought an ideal relationship to be a nonpossessive
one, thought that a bourgeois marriage was unnacceptable
This was reinforced for Huey in Bertrand Russells critique of the family and
marriage
Huey moved out of the Poor Boys Hall and into his own apartment, which is when he
became involved with several women
He would often accept money and favors from the women in his life, and in these
relationships he would set certain rules: he would tell these women that there
would be certain things that they would have to do with, and that they were in a
free relationship and that they could see other people
When setting these rules, Huey would state that their original relationship
would always be special and the most important, however
Huey would often be together with Richard and both of their women, and they became
like a cult
They would spread their ideas of nonpossession around Oakland City College and
Berkeley
This is where Huey thinks was the origin of Richards Sexual Freedom League
Huey found these relationships to be exploitative on his part since he would readily
accept favors from women, and these women would pay for his expenses
Huey was also committing small-time armed robberies at this time
In these nonpossessive relationships, Huey often fought his deep-rooted desire to marry
He thinks this came from Christianity

 He only truly felt an impulse to marry twice

Everytime he felt close to a woman, he saw it as a sign for the relationship to end
He tried pimping for a brief stint, but quit since he felt flashes of the slave experience
when he pimped Black women, and guilt for becoming the oppressor when he pimped
white women
During these years, he met Dolores
They were together for five years, until he went to jail for the Odell Lee case
Huey called her an Afro-Filipino, free spirit child
She wrote beautiful, small poems
They lived together but not as a conventional family, they would break up for
months at a time then get back together
His inability to make a commitment led Dolores to disaster, one night he brought
another girl to his familys house and when Dolores found out she took forty
sleeping pills
Huey said that he should have anticipated her self-destructive nature by her
poems
This relationship reinforced his belief of nonpossession, and he applied it to the
Black Panther Party, where everyone lives and acts communally
Huey finds that bourgeois values define the family situation in America and give it certain
goals
Huey felt that by rejecting a conventional family and its consequences that he held on to
his freedom
CHAPTER FOURTEEN: FREEDOM
Huey claims he found his freedom at the Alameda County Jail in 1964, on the tenth floor
of the Alameda County Court House
There he was made a trusty
He participated in a strike against eating starches and split-pea soup at nearly
every meal, and was thought to be the coordinator since he was the only trusty
who participated
After he was charged with organizing the strike, Huey was put in the hole or the soul
breaker
He was no stranger to jail by 1964, but he had never been in solitary confinement
He was in the fourth level of confinement; the soul breaker was your last end
There he was kept in the dark and nude, and was expected to defecate and urinate
in a small hole in the ground
He was allowed a half-gallon milk carton of water for his weekly ration
Most men broke after a few days, and would be released, but Huey never broke for
his fifteen day stints
To do this, he followed Gandhis lesson to take little sips of nourishment,
just enough, but not enough to defecate
He also would check under the door for when the lights went off, this was
his testing time

 He also made sure to provide himself with his own stimuli to keep himself
sane-- he would play his own memories, and after a certain amount of time
he was able to control the flow of his memories
In the hole he also exercised, especially when guards came
His position in the hole was a Zen Buddhist posture
After his fifteen days in the hole, he was evaluated, and since he did not repent, he went
back to the hole
He found this was the first time he was truly free
In total, he spent a month in the hole
Huey believes he could not have done his twenty-two months at the Penal Colony in 1967
without his time in the hole on 1964
He does not advise young comrades of the Black Panther Party to get themselves
into solitary, since he knows what it can do to a man
Now, the strip cell is outlawed thanks to the work of lawyer Charles Gerry, who defended
Huey in 1968, when he fought the of Warren Wells, a Black Panther accused of shooting a
policeman
He was moved after his month in the hole to the county farm at Santa Rita, fifty miles
south of Oakland
Didnt stay long, Huey, a dipper, got into a fight with Bojack, an enforcer of small
helpings
From there, he went to Graystone, the maximum security prison at Santa Rita
Always a lack of heat in his cell, to this day his room interiors must be cool
Santa Rita administration got tired of his complaints and shipped him back to jail in
Oakland
He says his time in prison helped him understand the men who devised these
punishments
CHAPTER FIFTEEN: BOBBY SEALE
Once getting out of jail, Huey took up with Bobby Seale, who he never hung out with too
much prior
He met Bobby Seale at a Progressive Labor Party rally supporting Fidel Castros cause
Seale spoke against Donald Wardens warnings against civil rights organizations,
saying that he found the NAACP to be the hope of Black people
Huey argued with him, saying that civil rights organizations hoped to change
the law, but that the law wasnt enforced
Huey credited this argument to the Afro-American Association and Malcolm
X
When Huey got out of prison, he gave his old bed that he no longer need after breaking
up with his girlfriend to Bobby
They began to talk, and Bobby said that he left the Afro-American Association to
hook up with Ken Freeman and the Revolutionary Action Movement
RAM was more intellectual than active, did a lot of writing but Bobby was no
writer

 This group was mainly underground, and the campus front was called Soul
Students Advisory Council
They then tried to figure out why no Black political organization had succeeded
The only successful one that came to mind was the Organization of
Afro-American Unity started by Malcolm X
They theorized that it was because the groups werent recruiting to the
people they claimed to represent-- poor Black people
Bobby was an actor and a comic, and did a great job of acting out
their anger with impressions (Huey himself hated comedians but
admitted he had a talent for acting)
They decided to try out their recruiting through the Soul Students Advisory Council
When the hot issue of a Black curriculum came about, Huey and Bobby tried
to tack on a program of armed self-defense; they proposed to arm
themselves with guns and patrol the sidewalk in front of the school
They considered the weapons a recruiting device
Soul Students completely rejected this plan
They tried again, this time through RAM
They tacked on the idea of patrolling the police to self-defense
RAM also rejected this plan
CHAPTER SIXTEEN: THE FOUNDING OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY
Huey was convinced that he and Bobby Seales time had come; what good was taught to
Black Americans if the police continued to rule by force?
Out of this need for self-defense came the Black Panther Party
They set out to form an organization that included the lower-class brothers
The headquarters of the early Black Panther Party was Bobbys living room
To form their beliefs, they reflected on Black achievements
Read the works of Frantz Fanon (
The Wretched of the Earth
)
Read Chairman Tse-tungs four volumes as well as Che Guevaras
Guerilla Warfare
These authors believed that the rights of the oppressed had been stripped at birth
and at gunpoint, and that the oppressed fighting back was merely self-defense
Fanon during the Algerian war called the third phase of violence the Year of the
Boomerang
Negroes with Guns
by Robert Williams armed many in Monroe, North Carolina and
had a great influence on Huey
Huey did not like how he called on the government for assistance as a
president of the NAACP
They also read some literature on the Deacons for Defense and Justice in Louisiana
They did a great job of protecting marchers but also called on the
government for help
To Huey, the police and other enforcers were all a group that opposed the will of the
people
They also read Malcolm Xs
The Militant
and
Muhammad Speaks

 Huey says the Black Panther Party exists in the spirit of Malcolm and that he had a
profound influence
Got the name and symbol idea when reading a pamphlet about voter registration in
Mississippi and the Lowndes County Freedom Organization, who had a black panther for
its symbol
Huey also chose the panther because it will strike back once backed into a corner
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: PATROLLING
Forming the platform of the group, Bobby and Huey began testing ideas by checking with
street brothers
Most of the brothers were interested when informed of their right to possess arms
Huey was always prepared to give his comrades legal advice; he would always keep law
books in his car
The North Oakland Service Center was at his disposal for law books, also where Bobby
worked
They circulated Black communities of Oakland, Berkeley, Richmond and San Francisco to
recruit
They were all interested but skeptical, and they were won over with the idea of
patrolling the police
Although they drew influence from other revolutionaries, they didnt follow any of them
since Huey found that all forms of oppression vary
When forming their doctrine, they separated ideas into two categories: What We Want
and What We Believe
The Black Panther Party had a ten-point program:
1: They want freedom and the power to determine the destiny of the Black
community
2: They want full employment for Black people
Said that the means of production should be taken from oppressors and
given to oppressed
3: They want an end to the robbery by the capitalist of their Black community
Wanted literal payment and said they would accept it in currency
4: They want decent housing, shelter fit for human beings
Said that if decent housing shall not be given, then housing and land should
be made into cooperatives
5: They want education, and an education true to society
Want a Black curriculum
Said a man cannot relate to anything else if he has no knowledge of himself
6: They want Black men to be exempt from military service
Did not want to fight for a government that doesnt protect them, or fight
other peoples that are not protected by their government
7: They want an end to police brutality and the murder of Black people
This is where they propose Black self-defense groups
8: They want to free all Black men from prisons and jails
Believe they have not received a fair trial

9: They want Black people to be tried in a jury of their own peers

10: They want food, shelter, education, clothing, justice, and peace
In the Black Panther Party, Bobby was Chairman and Huey was the Minister of Defense
They wanted to have a political wing of street brother and an educated,
middle-class advisory cabinet to do research on each of their points
First member of the Black Panther Party aside from Bobby and Huey was Little Bobby
Hutton
Bobby Seale met Little Bobby at the North Oakland Service Center
Little Bobby was just fifteen, and a true revolutionary
His family moved to Oakland from Arkansas
He was the first Black Panther to die for the cause, was reading
Black Reconstruction
in America
by W. E B. Du Bois at the time of his death
They started by attacking the seventh point to attract attention and give people
something to identify with
These armed patrols were also a recruiting method
These patrols were initially a total success
With guns, the oppressed were now equal to their oppressors, according to Huey
Many policemen would leave when they saw the Black Panthers
Oftentimes, when someone was being talked to by the police, Huey would pull a lawbook
out of his car and recite portions of the penal code
If someone got arrested, the Panthers would follow and immediately post bail
Statistics of police brutality and murder fell
They began to patrol everywhere-- Richmond, Oakland, Berkeley, San Francisco
Black Panthers would always keep their acts within legal bounds, and when people saw
that their self-defense was legitimate, people would lose their doubts and join them
The police began to react strangely, they would call them names in hopes of provoking
members
Sometimes they would retaliate or try to arrest members on any charges
Sometimes they would get in stand-offs
Their main office was located on Fifty-eighth Street in Oakland, sometimes stand-offs
would happen there
Police wanted badly to arrest Huey, began working at night
One time an eleven-year-old asked Huey, Warren Tucker, and another member to go help
him, as the police were raiding his house
Warren Tucker was the only one armed, but Huey had a knife
When they got to the house, the officer was looking for a gun, but didnt have a
warrant
The officer challenged Huey until the boys father came home
The officers then put handcuffs on the three members, but didnt place them
under arrest
The policeman who started this incident testified against Huey in a 1968 trial for
killing a police officer

 His attorney, Charles Gerry, questioned the officer, and the officer exaggerated his
testimony
They began to get more members from Oakland City College
Huey also recruited in pool halls and bars
Called the bar Bosns Locker in North Oakland his office since he spent so much
time recruiting, found it to be fulfilling work
The Black Panther Party eventually became accepted in the Bay Area
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: ELDRIDGE CLEAVER
In early 1967, Huey and Bobby went to a radio station in downtown Oakland
Bobby arrived in the car of Beverly Axelrod, a lawyer active in civil rights cases in
California
Bobby arrived with a Muslim brother and Marvin Jackmon, a Black playwright who
they had tried to recruit, but he couldnt since his Muslim beliefs meant that he
wanted nothing to do with weapons
They were going to meet Eldridge Cleaver, an ex-convict who wrote
Soul on Ice
and
supported the movement
After meeting Cleaver, Huey tried to convince him to join the Black Panthers, explaining
that they carried out Malcolm Xs message
He nodded, but said he committed to Malcolm Xs widow, Sister Betty Shabazz, that
they would carry out Malcolms dream together
Huey later realized he barely spoke because he was in complete agreement
Few weeks later they were at a meeting in the office of the Panther Papers in San
Francisco
Called themselves the Black Panther Party of San Francisco, but David Hilliard
labeled them the Paper PAnthers since their activity was all printed matter
Their office was close to the Black House, an organization that Eldrige and Marvin
Jackmon started in San Francisco
Poets like LeRoi Jones gave readings there
Huey believed that the Black House exploited Eldridge, since he paid the
bills and they didnt do anything
Early 1967, all of these groups put together a program honoring Malcolm X on the
anniversary of his assassination
Guest of honor was his widow, Sister Betty Shabazz
Huey and his crew provided security along with the Paper Panthers
At this rally, Huey made sure his group knew not to give themselves up to the police
Made this decision for two reasons: She was the widow of their Partys martyr, and
because her cousin, Hakim Jamal, told Huey that Karengas group had been run off
by the police in Los Angeles
When Sister Betty Shabazz arrived, they took her to the office of Ramparts magazine
On her way out, she said she wanted no pictures of her taken, so they held up
copies of magazines to shield her
A reporter named Chuck Banks from Channel 7 tried to grab Hueys magazine,
Chuck kept hanging on so Huey hooked him

 Huey pointed his gun, but Roy Ballard of the Paper Panthers told him not to
Roy Ballard fled inside
Turns out the Paper Panthers was yet another front for RAM
Huey knew that if it was just the Paper Panthers, then Sister Betty Shabazz
would not have been protected
Huey later learned the Paper Panthers did not even pack weapons that day
Huey later threatened them to change their name (they did after force)
They then went to the rally at the Hunters Point Community Center, in the middle
of San Franciscos Black community
Hueys Party was supposed to speak, but Kenny Freeman of RAM froze them
out
On the way home, Eldridge asked to join the Black Panther Party (and leave the
Organization for the Afro-American Unity and the Paper Panthers)
Huey was pleased, Eldridge was skilled and an especially skilled writer
Eldridge confused Alex Papillon, Bobby Seale, and Huey
Alex Papillon is Pistol-patting Panther
Huey now sees that Eldridge had no interest in the movement, but wanted
to find a strong manhood symbol
Huey didnt like this: Huey thought the Party didnt act to be men,
they acted because they were men
Initially, Eldridge made great contributions to the Party
He took a good part of the workload for
The Black Panther
paper
He would only work with enthusiasm when something sensational had
taken place
His sporadic nature was unwelcome, as Huey thought independence hurt
the Party
Eldridge wouldnt teach classes to younger children
He misunderstood radicalism: He encouraged young whites to think of
themselves as bad Blacks, and young Blacks to think of themselves as
bohemians from middle-class Babylon
Eldridge also attracted Diggers in San Francisco from Haight-Ashbury
Huey was furious since the Diggers wanted the Party to make a peace force
for them
Eldridge also brought a lot of hippies and Yippies, bringing a lot of drugs
Huey and Bobby steered clear of drugs since they followed the
teachings of Malcolm and Muslims
Eldridge dealt serious blows to the Party, and in the end betrayed them
CHAPTER NINETEEN: DENZIL DOWELL
North Richmond is an all-Black community of 9,000
Kaiser Industries was responsible for the establishment of the community
Lots of rats and oil from Standard Oil runoff
All streets leading out blocked by train tracks, making it difficult to leave in
emergencies

 Half of the population is under 19

Denzil Dowells family lives in North Richmond, and he was killed at the age of 22
Mark Comfort, who has a history of organizing Blacks in Oakland, introduced Huey
to Denzil
Dowell family asked the Party for help, the whole family considered themselves
Black Panthers
Huey wanted to help, talked to Mrs. Dowell, who believed her son was killed in cold blood
Huey was investigating at the same time as the police, and when the police
searched her house, Huey asked for a warrant; they did not have one and left
Huey found inconsistencies in the police report
Huey says this happens to young Blacks all over, and Huey condemns
justifiable homicide
Huey called a community meeting to discuss his findings
The community came, and when they saw he was armed they got their arms, too
They went to Martinez, the county seat, and talked to Sheriff Younger
When they went to see him, they tried to go in with weapons but they
wouldnt let him go in, but had no grounds to arrest him on
Huey said this demonstrated that the oppressor will act illegally to get his
way
Younger refused to suspend the policeman who shot Denzil
After this, the family realized that nobody in the Establishment would help
them
No official investigation was ever held
After this, the Party decided to put out leaflets about the Dowell familys situation
This case prompted a need for a newspaper, since they had no other outlets
Many willingly pitched in to write for the paper because they wanted to help Denzil,
and paperboys put out leaflets for free
The paperboys also accepted donations for paper costs and the Dowell
family
Huey says the Partys propaganda was walking through Richmond armed
The Dowell case gave the Party its first national exposure
CHAPTER TWENTY: SACRAMENTO AND THE PANTHER BILL
Black Panthers began to experience great success, Huey wanted the whole country to
know the Oakland story
He went on a radio talk show in Oakland in 1967 where hundreds of calls poured in
Among the callers was Donald Mulford, a conservative Republican state
assemblyman from Piedmont
Mulford said on the air that he planned to introduce a bill that would make
it illegal for the Party to patrol with their weapons
Affirmed Hueys idea that if the ruling class had their laws turned against
their own interest, that they would simply change the rules

 Mulfords Panther bill was then introduced, which Huey found funny that there
were plenty of other groups that were armed, but that this bill was introduced
because the police had complained
Huey never viewed these armed militias to be scary; Huey is scared of
armed groups that are backed by the Establishment, such as the local police
or the National Guard
Sheriff Young suggested that the Party attempt to get the Dowell case heard at the
state capitol
Huey knew nothing would come of it; the establishment will put the family
of the victim through a merry-go-round until they finally quit
They went to Sacramento anyways
They hoped to get a national outcry to help the Dowell family and to
mobilize the community
Primary purpose was to deliver the message to the people rather than the
legislators
A group of brothers from East Oakland, recruited by Mark Comfort, also
came along with the Party and the Dowell family
Huey did not make the trip: He was on probation, and if any arrests were
made, someone would need to raise the bail money
Huey prepared Executive Mandate Number One to be read on the steps of the capitol
Huey told Bobby before he left that his goal should be to deliver the message, and
that if he was fired upon, then he should fire back
Huey watched the reading on TV from his mothers house
His brothers were arrested after the reading; Bobby was arrested for carrying a
concealed weapon even though it was perfectly visible on his hip
The next phase of the plan was to raise bail money
Huey went on a radio talk show, asking for equal time where he raised enough to
get his troops back on the streets
They took the arrests because they knew it was for a higher purpose, but from that point
on the police started attempting to disarm the Party
The police thought that without weapons that the brothers would not protect
themselves
Sacramento was a success, however, because they got national attention
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: GROWING PAINS
Mulford bill passed by a huge majority
After this, the Party stopped all armed patrols
One time, a bail party was held in Richmond, where the police hid out
When the brothers left, Party member John Sloane made a U-turn and was pulled
over by the police
The police gave him a ticket, but Sloane refused to sign it
Huey asked Sloane to sign it
A young officer walked by all of the brothers, stepping on all of their feet in
an attemot to provoke them

 Sloane agreed to sign the ticket, but the officer stepped on the foot of one
brother who helped him off of his foot; the officer considered this grounds
to arrest him
Huey tried to restrain the young officer, but then Huey was also arrested
The Party realized they lacked a true administrative body
They needed bourgeois skills, but didnt want the people that possessed them
They made a plan to merge with SNCC, the most disciplined of civil rights
organizers
They wanted to make Stokely Carmichael of SNCC their Prime Minister, then
to add SNCC leadership to the Partys administrative positions
Huey wanted to coordinate soon, as the brothers needed to channel their energy
and the police became more organized
It was tricky because they needed the skills and resources, but they also felt SNCC
was headed for a decline
They wanted to give the Party leadership entirely to SNCC
Even considered moving their headquarters to Atlanta
Their plan was for Carmichael to be PM, H. Rap Brown to be Minister of
Justice, and James Forman as Minister of Foreign Affairs
Eldridge reached out to Carmichael, and they also got in touch with Brown and
Forman
The scheme never worked: apparently the idea never was brought up
Some in SNCC thought it was a ploy to take over SNCC, so some like Julius
Lester wrote articles criticizing the Party, which greatly offended them
Huey thinks the main problem was a lack of trust
Huey thinks it to be best that they didnt merge with SNCC since they took a turn in the
wrong direction
Stokely aligned himself with reactionary African governments (Nkrumah) and lost
his credibility
Stokely wrote (falsely) in a book that Huey had asked permission to start the Black
Panther Party
It was because they got the idea from the Lowndes County Freedom
Organization, started in part by Stokely
Huey also didnt like Stokely Carmichael because he would say one thing then act in
another way
Stokely also said that he would help any Black person, which Huey found to
be dangerous
Outside of this merger, trouble was erupting in Newark and Detroit: younger Blacks were
expressing frustration, which Huey knew would result in a backlash of conservative ideals
The Party sought to prevent this backlash, so they specifically wanted to alert
Blacks of their constitutional rights
They released pieces in their paper called Pocket Lawyer of Legal First Aid
The paper was a source of satisfaction; the Black community got to hear their ideas
unadulterated by media

 The paper also became a steady source of funds

Bobby ended up having to serve six months in jail
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: RAISING CONSCIOUSNESS
Black Panthers stress action over rhetoric, but Huey understands the importance of
language
Huey says Nietzsches
The Will to Power
had a great influence on the Party
It argues that the will to power controls our understanding rather than an inherent
quality of good or evil
This applies to Black society and how black has become a potent word in
American culture
Huey argues that the rising consciousness of this had led the Black
community to redefine ourselves
The Black Panthers decided that they need a new word for policeman so
that Black people could see themselves in a new light; they chose the word
pig because it has unpleasant connotations
They also wanted a new word because they thought that this would
make white people empathize with Blacks since people like to be on
the winning side
They really got white youths to sympathize with the cause when white
protestors of the Vietnam War saw what the police were really like
The true effect was on the police themselves
Forced police to change their behavior
Another saying of the Party was All Power to the People
They thought that in order to achieve this, co-operatives should be
put in place, which is their long-range objective
They also say this saying should demonstrate their complete
commitment to the people
They say this saying implies that man is God
Huey says that for Blacks, Christianity has been a tool of oppression, and that it helps
them through life for a Promised Land after life, which Huey could not accept
Huey thinks that when man devotes himself to God, he reduces himself and his own
potential
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE: CRISIS: OCTOBER 28, 1967
When Huey was convicted of assaulting Odell Lee in 1964, he was sentenced to three
years probation with the first six months served in the county jail
When his probation ended, he and his girlfriend LaVerne Williams agreed to
celebrate
The afternoon he got off parole, he was speaking at San Francisco State College for the
Black Students Union at a forum on The Future of the Black Liberation Movement
Huey was not excited since he hated talking to groups
He shared the platform with Dr. Harry Edwards, sociology professor at San Jose
State College and orchestrator or Olympic boycott by Black athletes

 Students at forum were opposed to whites participating with the movement and
working with white groups
Huey pointed out that many young whites had discovered the hypocrisy of
the Establishment and grown disenchanted
Students at the forum insisted all white people were devils
After this Huey decided that he had to implement Point 5 of the program to
educate the people
After the forum, he had dinner with his family and went to LaVernes
She fell ill but insisted he take her car
Went to Bosns Locker, then to a nearby church for a social, then to a party on San
Pablo Street in Oakland
Went to the party with Gene McKinney
After the party, he and Gene went to Seventh Street in West Oakland for some soul
food
They were trailed by a policeman who pulled them over, pat them down,
and asked who the car belong to
Officer took Huey back to his car and slugged him, and Huey got back up but
was shot by the officer
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR: AFTERMATH
Next thing Huey recalls is arriving at Kaiser Hospital
Police burst in and handcuffed Huey while he was in the gurney
Huey screamed for his doctor, Thomas Finch, who told him to shut up
Police told Huey that he had killed John Frey and wounded Herbert Heanes
He was moved to the Highland-Alameda County Hospital in East Oakland
Huey feared death without meaning, not death itself
A song was dedicated to him , the Minister of Defense
Dr. Aguilar defended Huey in The Black Panther newspaper
Police would harass and exhaust Huey during his time at the hospital
Huey complained to nurses of the abuse but nothing came of it
Police didnt let Black people see Huey
Eventually, his family hired private nurses
Melvin, his sister (Leola), Eldridge Cleaver, and others built up a legal defense
Beverly Axelrod (who got off Eldridge Cleaver) came into room and told him that
she couldnt take up that case but would find someone
Recommended Charles Garry, who had a history of helping the oppressed
John George, a Black lawyer, was not allowed in to see Huey at first, and also
told him that he couldnt take on his case
Charles Garry came to see him
The first day they did not discuss strategy but talked and told him that he
would be proud to represent Huey
Huey never thought he would live this long when he started the movement, simply
thought that he was running on borrowed time

 Huey never unhappy about death so long as his death progressed the movement and set
a model for others
In Black history, many revolutionaries have not been covered in curriculums
Hopes to model Malcolm X in that his death had significant meaning
Huey was transferred to the medical unit on Death Row in San Quentin
On Death Row, he met, Robilar, who lived next door in the psychotic ward and
Huey got along well with since he identified as a Muslim
Robilar had been in and out of prison all of his life, tried to defend himself
but rendered incompetent to do so
One night, a white man was placed in a cell next to Huey
Robilar slipped into his cell and killed the white man and he was then
declared incurably insane
From San Quentin they took him to Alameda County Jail in downtown Oakland
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE: STRATEGY
Huey was accused of three felonies: the murder of John Frey, assault of Herbert Heanes
with a deadly weapon, and the kidnapping of Dell Ross (Huey allegedly forced him to drive
Huey to the hospital)
Huey was not concerned as much with the legalities of the trial as he was with the political
strategy
The Party decided that attorneys stay out of the political decisions so long as they
stay within legal bounds
Huey wanted this trial to be a platform for his idea that him having to fight for his
life stems from the necessity to release himself from the burden of the oppressor,
since the police were gathering forces to crush their revolution forever
Huey says the system hurts the poor through neglect and that police force is simply the
coup de grace, the enforcer
Huey says the goal of his trial was not to save his life, since he figured that he would die
Huey says he has faced death before, but on his own accord; death by the system
is degrading and inevitable
Charles Garrys first defense strategy was that he argued that it is impossible for a Black
man to receive a fair trial in America
Argued that a jury of his peers was necessary, but that judges instead choose those
who have no understanding of the lives of poor people
Gary tracked movements of previous juries to show that there was no deliberation
about my case
The jury is selected from the Alameda County voter list, which also makes it unfair
Nine months between trial, November until july
The case had made Huey a celebrity, and many believed he was guilty
The police were also under fire after Bloody Tuesday, where they attacked a
group of protestors
Police increased their attacks on the brothers
David Hilliard arrested for handing out leaflets about Huey

 Party needed broad support, announced a coalition with the Peace and Freedom
Party
Free Huey emerged out of his trial for people who believed in his innocence
Black Panthers growing all across the country, even spread internationally
Zengakuren, a group of revolutionary nationalists from Japan, invited the Party to
speak
They sent Kathleen Cleaver, wife of Eldridge, and Earl Anthony, a Party
member from Los Angeles
Kathleen couldnt make it, but Earl presented a personal platform
that argued for separatism, which wasnt what the Party stood for
Huey thinks that idea might have been Kathleens influence
Most of the 11 months Huey spent at the Alameda County Court House he spent in
solitary
Never out of touch, kept faith because of the attorneys working on his team
Black brothers working to help Huey, went onto campuses and raised money
Many members of SNCC came to rallies to speak, among them Stokely Carmichael
Carmichael said an armed Black revolution would get Huey out of jail; Huey
disagreed
He also discouraged the Partys coalition with white groups
Huey thought it should be approached by a class analysis rather than a race
analysis
In the time Huey was in jail, leadership of the Party fell, and they fell into the psychadelic
fas
One of the most unhappy moments of his time in jail was learning of the death of Little
Bobby Hutton
Number of troops in community doubled during that time, also time of MLKs
assassination
Bobby attributes it to Garrys work that a defendant has a right to be tried by a jury of his
peers
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX: TRIAL
Demonstrators gathered outside courthouse the day the trial started
Building was under heavy guard
Superior Court Judge Monroe Friedman thought Huey was guilty from the beginning
Awful to Black witnesses, rigid in interpretation of the law
Prosecutor in Hueys case: Lowell Jensen
Developed a system where he would select Blacks to be on jury panels but
eliminate them before trial
Willing to stretch the law to get the conviction of first-degree murder against Huey
so that Lowell could get fame and fortune
Jury selection took a while, and the final jury had one Black man: David Harper
Most crucial challenge for the prosecution was establishing a motive

Came up with three motives: Huey had just gotten off probation and wanted to
avoid them finding that he had a concealed weapon, said Huey had marijuana on
his person, and that he had given a false identification to the officer
Huey says marijuana charge was a fabrication since no drugs are allowed within
the Party
Prosecution built whole case around the fact that he was a felon
Eldridge released a leaflet talking about Hueys case which implied that Huey killed the
officer, which upset Hueys family
Huey decided to reveal the name of Gene McKinney, knowing that the prosecution legally
couldnt do anything to him
Heanes took the stand as a witness for the prosecution
Huey found him to be dim, disturbed, cleaerly trained
Garrys cross-examination of Heanes pointed to the fact that HEanes and Frey shot
each other
Ultimately, Heanes testimony did little for the prosecution
Next witness, Grier, a Black man, was important because he was the only other one who
claimed to see Huey had a gun at the scene of the shooting
Grier was a bus driver who Huey thought was also bought, and Huey thought that
he may have been in trouble with the law
Jensen kept Grier completely out of sight during the 9 months leading up to the
trial
They kept him in the Lake Merritt Hotel so that he could not be talked to by
Garry
His testimony to Inspector McConnell made his testimony unreliable, had many
contradictions
In this testimony, Huey was short and wore a tan leather jacket
The discrepancies between the testimonies worked in favor of Huey and Garry
Garry then motioned for a mistrial blaming the hiding of evidence and the atmosphere of
the courthouse, which was denied
Next testimony was Dell Ross
He claimed Huey had a gun in his hand
When asked where he was the morning of October 28th, he said I refuse to
answer on the grounds it would tend to incriminate me.
Granted Ross immunity, again refused to answer
Jensen claimed Ross did not know, Jensen then fed him yes or no answers
Huey says that Judge Friedmans bias was most obvious when dealing with Dell
Ross
Garry had interviewed and recorded the conversation with Ross prior, where he
said that he lied to the grand jury, which eliminated his testimony
After this, kidnaping charges dropped for lack of evidence
Garry found a number of flaws with Jensens story, claiming that there had to be a third
party to achieve what they claimed

He also was confused by the tapes, claiming that these tapes were either tampered
with, or that there were accounts phoned in that the police did not have
Another piece of evidence was that Huey was carrying a lawbook at the alleged
time of the shooting, an action that Jensen couldnt distort
Another thing they found was an incorrectly transcribed part of Griers testimony
to McConnell: it said he DID get a good look at Huey, when the proper phrasing
was that he DIDNT
Despite all of this, Jensen still found him guilty
Garry then applied for mistrial AGAIN, showing all of the hate mail he has received from
racists
Denied again
Garry opened the defense with witnesses from the Black community, all of whom had
terrible encounters with John Frey
Daniel King was arrested by Frey after he was accused by a friend of Frey to know
who stole his pants
Luther Smith, Jr. ran a youth organization and said that Frey always used racial
epithets
Belford Dunning had a run in with Frey the day before he died when he was given a
traffic violation
Bruce Byson, a young white schoolteacher, said that he used the n-word when
speaking to school children
Freys superiors had made the decision to move him out of the Black community,
but they were too late
Jensen offered no rebuttal in Garrys defense with the witnesses
Gene McKinney also refused to speak, the same as Dell Ross
This was in hopes to create reasonable doubt
Prosecution thought they were trying to get McKinney immunity so that he would
then confess to the crime, and then the two would walk free
Denied McKinney immunity, he went to jail for a few weeks
Huey testified, starting out by denying all claims
Described the struggle of African Americans
Hueys sister, Leola, heard Jensen say he intended to upset Huey, so Huey was
prepared
Jensen tried to demonstrate that Huey loved guns, which was false
Jensen cited documents and Hueys writings in his cross-examination, but
ultimately was unsuccessful
Garrys closing argument talked about the Black communitys struggle, while Jensens
devoted his closing statement to straight facts
Jury deliberated for four days, ruled that
During this time, the mistake between did and didnt in the McConnell testimony
came to light
Ruled Huey was guilty of a felony, voluntary manslaughter, and not guilty of assault
with a deadly weapon upon a police officer

 Defense and Huey were unhappy, since it meant people thought Huey killed Frey in
a fit of passion
Some particularly angry at David Harper, which Huey dispelled
Huey cautioned restraint because he know cops were eager to kill
Colleagues of Frey shot the Party building with no one inside and therefore couldnt hide
behind justifiable homicide
The two officers were dismissed from the force
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN: THE PENAL COLONY
After conviction, Huey was sent to Alameda County Jail awaiting his fate
Hearing held in October, bail denied
Immediately after, he was taken to the California Correctional Authority for
confinement
In jail, Huey realized he received special treatment since he was a political prisoner
He was then taken to Vacaville Medical Facility, where he would spend up to 60 days being
tested and finding which penitentiary he would go to
In Vacaville he went through the degrading skin search
Also given a prison number, a tactic which he said dehumanized people
Made to throw his clothes away, and he was frustrated since he wasnt given an
explanation
Huey resents the guards and administrators, calls them ignorant brutes like in Orwells
1984
Huey would always be able to talk with the warden thanks to his privilege
Warden would dangle the carrot, try to get Huey to be submissive
Huey scored low on the IQ tests, told the psychiatrists that the test was based on white
middle-class standards, using the results to justify them considering Blacks unintelligent
and unequal
Huey suggested that they examine his background, his work, and his
accomplishments instead (they refused)
Authorities couldnt figure out where to put him: Hueys preferences in order of proximity
to home were San Quentin, Folsom, and Soledad
Instead, he went to the California Mens Facility, East Facility, in San Luis Obispo
Huey said they called it a colony to change the concentration camps objective
characteristics
Colony located halfway between LA and Oakland, 250 miles from each
Largely considered a model prison, because the inmates are separated into
quadrants and because eighty percent of the prisoners were homosexual
Found it hard to politicize with them, and Huey said that to those prisoners
sex was all
Huey thinks their homosexuality was used to oppress them and undermine
their freedom
Guards didnt care so long as it wasnt political action
Huey says that many think conjugal visits are a step forward in prisons but
that it isnt true, since both were used against the prisoners

 Warden warned Huey not to complain or act out

Hueys counselor proposed that he enter a rehabilitation program where he works in the
prison dining hall at no salary, where he would eventually earn cents
Huey refused, suggested solutions where he would work for minimum wage or he
would go to school, both were refused
Since he wouldnt comply, he was placed on lock-up
In lock-up all privileges were denied
Huey says that prison work is little more than slavery
Huey said that lock-up was not too bad, and that he had many visits from the Party and
family
In prison, Huey learned that his LA comrades, John Huggins and Alprentice
Bunchy Carter, were assassinated at UCLA by Karengas group
Karenga had warmed up to Mayor Yorty and was used to keep the Black
community under control
Karenga exploited the Black community
At a Los Angeles rally, the LA police came thanks to Karenga, and when the
Black Panthers found out they demanded the police leave, taking away
some of Karengas credibility from the power structure
At the rally, too, any money promised to go to the Party or Hueys defense
fund didnt go to them
When they were killed, Huey realized all of the Party were marked men, and
said that he never got used to his men dying
Said this was confirmed with the death of Fred Hampton and Mark
Clark in Chicago
Huey refused to let violence erupt after the deaths, didnt want useless
warfare
Robert Hall came from LA to see Huey, wanted to end friction between the
groups but Huey didnt trust him
Huey ignored the probing by prison guards, and eventually they became concerned for
his mental health
To Huey, this proved that he had mastered the soul breaker
Huey snuck an article out of the prison (at the time, he wasnt allowed writing material)
called Prison Where Is Thy Victory? and had it printed in the Black Panther newspaper
Taunted the guards for thinking they had a victory over a man and his ideas just
because he was in prison
After this, the prison believed Huey remained on lock-up because he thought his
conviction would be reversed by a higher court (in reality, Huey had no faith in the
courts)
Huey thinks that nobody knows the true reality of prisons since authorities see that the
public is not told the truth
Huey finds prison to be similar to slavery; he says the idea that slavery is degrading for
slaves and masters applies to prisons, too
Huey calls prison guards pathetic figures

 Once, Huey got a beef and went to the hole, which he said was the easiest solitary ever
since he had reading material and read the Bible
Huey says the guards always tried to keep Huey angry
Huey sometimes pitied them, as he also considered them victims
Huey finds their lives to be empty of meaning
Huey claims that the guards promoted racial animosity within the prison
Huey says that whites are duped by the guards and come to love their oppressors
Huey says that Black prisoners are now seeing themselves as political prisoners in
the colonial sense: not tried by a jury of their peers
Huey thinks that many Black prisoners are rehabilitated past the point of comfort for the
authorities
A rehabilitated Black prisoner will see his crimes as a part of the capitalist system
Many end up socialists
Huey says this lengthens their sentences, keeping them in for new opinions rather
than previous activities
Another type of political prisoner that Huey self-identifies as is one who committed no
crime, but whose attitude holds a threat to the ruling circle
Guards eventually accepted that Huey would not break, although some kept trying
Huey was summoned to the psychiatrist for re-evaluation but refused, tell them that he
only trusted the psychological theories of Frantz Fanon
Hueys counselor, Topper, tried to get Huey off of lock-up but Huey refused
Behind closed doors, Deputy McCarthy found Hueys plea of minimum wage to be
acceptable
At a parole board hearing, they interrogated him about the contraband in his cell
After finding out the contraband was soap and toilet articles, they granted
him basic toilet articles
The board asked him why he wouldnt work, and Huey said that he would
obey rules he agreed with, but disobey those that denied Huey his dignity as
a human
Huey finds prisons to be integral to the American institutional superstructure
Huey says prisons should be true rehabilitation centers
Huey thinks that true rehabilitation is when a man is aware of his own value and
uniqueness
Garry was working to appeal Hueys conviction in the California Court of Appeals
Huey took little notice since he expected nothing to come of it
Faye Stender, who worked with Garry on Hueys defense, sent word that a decision
would be issued shortly (she said to expect denial)
Alex Hoffman said to expect a reversal
Surprisingly, Hueys conviction was reversed
Based on Judge Friedmans incomplete instructions to the jury as to the two
types of manslaughter
He was then to be retried, but only for manslaughter
Huey was nervous, since he had been off the block for almost three years

 Let out late at night

While waiting for a release, a guard tried to start conversation with Huey to
show him that he was human
After Huey was let out, he was in control of the Alameda County sheriffs department
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT: RELEASE
Deputy sheriffs but chains all over Hueys body as they drove him back
The officer got out his equalizer, which Huey found funny that they thought Huey
in chains next to them with a gun was equal
The officers were talking about how stupid it was of Nixon to speak on Mansons
case, which Huey agreed with
Huey finds it better to be arrogant with policeman so that they respect you
They passed Soledad, where George Jackson was
Huey told the officers that the facilities at the penal colony were nice, but not as nice as
Chino
The deputies said that they thought conjugal visits would help prisons
The deputies talked about Mexico, said they feared a guy like Castro would kidnap them,
to which Huey said that Castro would make counterrevolutionaries leave
Any polite questions they asked Huey answered, which he said helped keep his enemy off
balance
Transition out of prison was difficult because of all of the stimuli and unpredictability
Huey recognized a man that had bothered him while in solitary when they arrived to the
jail
Had an issue that a Black cop said he would vouch for Huey for if it ever came up
The hospital tank at the jail is called Little Death Row
At the jail, he got back in touch with Nice Man, a bright boy who had spent his whole life in
and out of prisons
Huey also saw McPherson, a white friend he had previously made whose case was getting
a reversal
McPherson had one eye after he poked one out in solitary
He was in jail because his cousin, who got immunity, testified against him
District attorney seemed to be cooperative to demonstrate fairness
Huey had never jumped bail and always showed up to court on time, which meant that his
bail should be around $5,000-$10,000
Nothing changed at Alameda County Jail
One time, Nice Man was delivering food but wouldnt put the tray under for fear of
getting crud in the food
The guards refused to open the door, so Nice Man slid the food under the
door but the argument still continued
Nice Man was ordered to the hole but refused to go, held a piece of broken
wood to protect himself
Huey wouldnt move to protect Nice Man, so nobody else did either
Huey compromised so that Nice Man would move to another tank

 The next day, Huey was put in isolation for being responsible and Huey
complied since he was getting out soon
Huey actually was taken to Little Death Row, not the hole
There, he saw McPherson and a brother who was a real psych case
He felt depressed here since he felt privileged for getting out soon
Reminded him of Kafkas
The Trial
since events kept repeating themselves
Bail ended up being a happy medium of $50,000
Huey insisted on staying in jail until all of the money had been raised
He resolved not to eat until he was free which was partially because of how
unsanitary the jail was
Huey was released into a crowd of supporters and he had to fight back tears
Crowd demanded that he speak, so Huey told them to go to Bobby Hutton
Memorial Park
There was no meeting there
He couldnt do public appearances for a while for fear of being shot
Went to a news conference at Garrys office, where he offered Black Panther troops to the
National Liberation Front of the Peoples Republic of Vietnam
Saw his mother first, then his father
Ordinary life seemed chaotic to him, and he had to relearn his reflexes
Huey was determined to get among the people, walked around his old spots
Talked to Father Earl Neil, a Black Episcopal priest and their chaplain, and the members of
his church at St. Augustines
Became a symbol when he got out of prison, took him a while to become one of the
people again
He says his initial close family tie with the people is gone because of media
Accepted no publicity offers for the first six months out of jail
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: REBUILDING
Most important task now was freeing Bobby Seale and Ericka Huggins in Connecticut
concerning the murder of Alex Rackley
He was also concerned with the Soledad Brothers: George Jackson, Fleeta Drumgo, and
John Cluchette who were charged with murdering a guard
Also helping the case of Los Siete de la Raza
Eldridge had an idea to hold Revolutionary Constitutional Conventions; Huey only
followed because the Central Committee of the Party went along
Purpose was to discuss the plight of Black people and write a new Constitution
They booked Kathleen Cleaver to speak at the Washington session
Meanwhile, in Philadelphia the cops were determined to prevent the conference
In these meetings, Huey stressed that the Constitution was built on a
homogeneous society, and that the document now serves the ruling class
The audience in Philadelphia was more occupied with phrasemongering than ideas
Suddenly, Eldridge wouldnt let Kathleen speak at the Washington event

Nothing worked out at the convention: Howard University last minute

withdrew its facilities and there wasnt an alignment in goals between Black
and white supporters
Huey decided that the white radicals could not define the struggle for
them
Received hate, Eldridge defected from the Movement
Convention marked a shift from focusing on a Constitution to focusing on
community-organizing programs
Community programs were referred to as survival programs, and they were
designed to help the community thrive until consciousness was raised
Central Committee of the Party created the Ideological Institute in Oakland to train
comrades so that Huey wouldnt be the only one drafting ideas
While trying to get Bobby and Ericka released, Huey met Erik Erikson, renowned author
and professor of psychology at Harvard
His son, Kai, decided they should host discussions at Yale
During the Yale meetings, Huey met Connie Matthews, his secretary
She was from Algiers and Huey found her unreliable
She married Michael Cetawayo Tabor, a Black Panther from New York
Her and her husband disappeared one day, taking some of Hueys personal
papers with them
Huey grew suspicious, thought Eldridge to be involved
Organized a rally called the Intercommunal Day of Solidarity in Oakland
Kathleen Cleaver supposed to speak
Huey went on talk show to advertise, got Eldridge to call and ask Huey questions
Instead, Eldridge launched into Party business, including the expulsion of
Connie Matthews Tabor, Cetawayo Tabor, the New York 21, and Elmer
Geronimo Pratt
New York 21 announced that the Weathermen were the new
vanguard of the revolution
On air, Eldridge also attacked the Central Committee and David Hilliard,
Chief of Staff
Huey didnt know why Eldridge did this on air, couldnt imagine he would try
to undermine the Party
After the radio show, Huey called Eldridge twice
Both calls were recorded and released to NBC
Branches of the Party supported Eldridge and resigned from the Party
Final evidence of plot found that the Tabors were in Algiers, and that
Eldridge sent Connie as a subversion
Huey was now the keynote speaker at the rally, which was a success
At the end of May, Bobby and Ericka were acquitted
Meanwhile, moves were being made to have Huey tried again
Charges were put against David Hilliard for assault with a deadly weapon when Bobby
Hutton was murdered

 George Jackson had a trial coming up for being falsely charged with killing a San Quentin
guard
CHAPTER THIRTY: FALLEN COMRADE
George Jackson was murdered by inmates
George Jackson called prison the crucible that shaped his spirit
Huey knew Jackson like a brother
Initially only knew him through the prison system
George requested to join the Party and was readily granted
He wrote articles for
The Black Panther
newspaper
Wouldnt let words in his works be edited
Jackson expressed his faith in the Party in his book
Blood in My Eye
Jackson wanted to publish his first book,
Soledad Brother
, but arrangements fell through
Jacksons funeral held at Father Earl Neils church
Threats were made to not hold the funeral, but threats were ignored
Funeral was the first time Bobby and Huey shared a public platform in over four
years
George wanted no flowers at his funeral, only guns
Huey thought that Melvins poem WE CALLED HIM THE GENERAL
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE: SURVIVING
NOTES WILL BE SPARSE FROM HERE ON BECAUSE I AM TIRED LOL
Jury selection began for second trial, and the prosecution was clearly trying for a hanging
jury
The difference between this trial and the last was that Huey could now conduct
Party business since he was out on bail
Lowell Jensen became district attorney, new prosecutor is Donald Whyte
Heanes testimony had great importance
Hueys law book was lost during the trial, now only pictures available
Garrys motion for mistrial was denied
Dell Ross took the stand, said what was expected of him
Garry had not known that Ross would be called to the stand, was unprepared to
question him
Huey refused to continue unless time was given to prepare a cross-examination;
this was denied, so Huey made them take him back to jail
Huey approached Ross on the witness stand, in pity
Trial ended up getting recessed, Garry could not find a transcript of his interview
with Dell Ross
Ross credibility eliminated, said that he did not know the truth
Huey wanted to make a citizens arrest of the prosecutor for Ross testimony, but was told
it was illegal since only a grand jury could indict him
Prosecutor Whyte cross-examined Huey, but it didnt go as planned
Jury was hung, and judge called a mistrial
Third trial began, where everything went their way
Heanes recalled a third person at the scene, which had never been said

 Grier had been proven to never have been at the shooting by tracing his bus route
Jury deadlocked 6-6 this time, declared a mistrial
Jensen finally dismissed the case
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: CHINA
Huey felt absolutely free for the first time in China, because it affirmed his belief that
oppressed people can be liberated if their leaders persevere
Huey found that in China the police were really there to help and protect the people
Huey got the invitation to go to China because the Chinese were interested in the Partys
Marxist analysis and wanted to show a concrete application of that theory in their society
Put the trip off for a while because of Bobby and Erickas trial
Wanted to beat Nixon to visiting
Made the trip between his second and third trials
Elaine Brown and Robert Bay accompanied him
Chinese offered Huey political asylum but he refused
Huey found the immigration and customs service was just as demeaning as anywhere
else
Met the North Korean Ambassador, Ambassador from Tanzania, as well as delegations
from North Vietnam and South Vietnam
No time to see Cuban and Albanian embassies
After a confrontation with a Canadian reporter, the Red Army stood guard outside Hueys
villa
Did not meet Chairman Mao since huey isnt a head of state, but they did meet Premier
Chou En-lai
Also met with Comrade Chiang Ching, wife of Chairman Mao
Attended National Day at the Great Hall of the People, but Chairman Mao did not attend
Hueys criticism of the Chinese was of their pollution from a steel factory
Huey said that man opposes nature, but is also the internal contradiction in nature
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE: THE DEFECTION OF ELDRIDGE AND REACTIONARY SUICIDE
Ill do this in a bit but if youre strapped for time the chapters only 5 pages