West Oakland, CA–A ceremony was held in West Oakland yesterday where Huey P. Newton Way was unveiled. The commemorative plaque honors the life of Black Panther Party founder Huey P. Newton on what would have been his 79th birthday. This three block section dedicated to Newton on 9th and Center Street is a block from where he was killed in 1989. Oakland City Councilwoman Carroll Fife who represents the West Oakland community was present, joined by his widow Fredrika Newton and community members. Fredrika Newton also heads the Huey P. Newton Foundation where she has been advocating for a statue in Oakland honoring Newton.
The Black Panther Party for Self Defense was founded by Newton and Bobby Seale in 1966, as a direct response to the violence, murder and repression of Black’s in Oakland and in America in general. Equipped with guns and reciting the law, BPP members would show up where Black people were being apprehended by police, to make sure their rights were not violated.
The BPP’s bold strategy of policing the police, struck fear in the white power structure, making them public enemy #1 to the FBI and other arms of the white supremacist power structure known as America. Co-founder Bobby Seale writes:
“The original Black Panther Party’s political electoral agenda was the revolutionary establishment of real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines, aligning itself with other progressive revolutionary organizations.
The original Black Panther Party’s was one of the first organizations in U.S. history to militantly struggle for ethnic minority and working class emancipation – a party whose political electoral agenda was the revolutionary establishment of real economic, social, and political equality across gender and color lines, aligning itself with other people of color organizations including Cesar Chavez’s Farm Workers Movement, AIM The American Indian Movement, The Asian Red Guard [I Wor kuen] {Righteous Harmonious Fist}, Puerto Rican The Young Lords Movement and The Peace and Freedom Party, SDS, Young Patriots, etc.”
Read More: Dr. Huey P. Newton Way unveiled in West Oakland
Not only did the BPP become a target of the FBI’s counterintelligence program, with the aim to “stop the rise of a Black messiah that could unify the people,” many of the members were violently killed or locked away as political prisoners. Rapper No Name shared important post to social media, reminding us of the fact that as Hollywood remakes their version of these pivotal moments in African-American’s struggle for justice and liberation, many of our freedom fighters are still in prison for putting themselves on the frontline.
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