Newton, Huey, (1942-1989), a founder and leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP) during the 1960s and 1970s. Huey Percy Newton was born in Louisiana, the youngest of seven children. His father moved the family to Oakland during World War II (1939-1945) to escape Southern racism and find better opportunities. Newton began to rebel as a teenager, joining a gang, skipping classes, and spending much of his time on the streets. However, during his last year in high school, Newton took his studies more seriously and graduated from high school.

Newton enrolled at Oakland’s Merritt College, but he continued to rebel and served six months in jail for assault with a deadly weapon. Dissatisfied with black nationalist groups in the San Francisco Bay area, he and his friend Bobby Seale created the Black Panther Party in 1966. They stated their goals in a ten-point program that called for full employment, improved education and housing, an end to police brutality, and the exemption of blacks from military service. Newton became the new group’s minister of defense. The group organized armed patrols to monitor police brutality and affirmed the use of violence as a means for blacks to defend themselves.

In 1967 Newton was arrested for killing an Oakland police officer during a dispute. The events surrounding the killing were unclear, and the Black Panthers began a campaign to "Free Huey" because they believed that Newton was a victim of police efforts to destroy the Panthers. The "Free Huey" movement allowed the party to expand its following nationally. In September 1968, after a heavily publicized trial, Newton was convicted of manslaughter, but the conviction was later overturned due to procedural errors.

When he was released from prison in 1970, Newton sought to revive the party by stressing community service rather than confrontations with police. The BPP established free breakfast programs for children, ran free medical clinics, and gave away clothes and food.

By then, however, Newton’s reputation was damaged by news reports that he had become addicted to cocaine. After publication of his autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide (1973), Newton fled to Cuba to avoid arrest on various criminal charges. He returned to the United States in 1977 but was never able to regain his former influence. An insightful writer, he was awarded a doctorate in 1980 from the University of California. In 1989 Newton was killed in a dispute with a drug dealer.