A Huey P. Newton Story - People

Roger on other members of the Black Panther Party

Fred Hampton, head of the Chicago Illinois Panthers

Ms. Fredrika Newton, President of Huey P Newton Foundation

In 1968, Fred Hampton founded and led the Chicago chapter of the Black Panther Party; he was 20 years old. He was known to all as a charismatic, committed leader who cared about his community. He was a tireless developer of community service programs such as a free breakfast for children program and free medical services clinic. Hampton had become too important, too influential, too outspoken within Chicago - he became a threat to the establishment. It was on December 4, 1969 while everyone was asleep at party headquarters, that Hampton was murdered in a police raid that also killed Mark Clark; Hampton was 21 years old. "Fred Hampton Day" was declared in Chicago in 1990

Fredrika Newton joined the Black Panther Party as a youth member in 1969. She first met Huey P. Newton in 1970, marrying him eleven years later in 1981. They lived together until Newton's death in 1989 with Ms. Newton establishing the Huey P. Newton Foundation, a non-profit educational organization, in 1993. Serving as the Foundation's President, she operates the community-based programs, which include literacy, voter outreach and health-related components.

Ms. Newton also coordinates the high-profile Black Panther Legacy Tour, an Oakland city tour that has been featured in the New York Times, CNN, MTV, NBC, ABC, CBS, and NPR.

Elaine Brown, 1st Female Chairman of the BPP

In 1974 Brown became the Chairman of the Black Panther Party upon the expulsion of Bobby Seale. She soon became Minister of Defense, replacing Newton who had begun to disintegrate the party from the inside. It was under her leadership that the party's survival programs grew at their most rapid pace and the original ideas of the party hit their strongest mark. In 1992 she wrote A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story, which has been regarded as one of the best books on the Black Panther party & movement.

Kathleen Cleaver, Communications Secretary of the BPP

Elaine Brown, Black Panther Party long victimized by campaign of lies

Elaine Brown bio

Salon Feature: More Black Panther pain - H. Rap Brown

Love and War - by Kathleen Cleaver

Frontline the Two Nations of Black America interview with
Kathleen Cleaver

Angela Davis 1970 Interview

Frontline the Two Nations of Black America interview with Angela Davis

Fred Hampton bio

Fred Hampton, Sr.

It was 1966 when Kathleen Cleaver first became involved in the civil rights movement by joining the New York chapter of the SNCC [Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee]. In 1967 she met Eldridge Cleaver, relocated to San Francisco to join the Black Panther party and married him later that year. She became the party's National Communications Secretary, was the party's spokesperson and organized the national "Free Huey" campaign. The next decade saw Kathleen struggle with Eldridge's exile in Cuba, Algeria & France and eventually settled all charges against him in 1980. In 1987 she divorced Eldridge and received her Law degree from Yale in 1988. She currently teaches Law at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia

Angela Davis was catapulted into national prominence in August 1970 when she was put on the FBI's 10 most wanted list for supposedly planning and providing weapons for the escape of George Jackson and other members of the Soledad Brothers [Soledad prison]; she was acquitted in 1972. Throughout her involvement in the civil rights struggle, she was associated with the SNCC [Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee], the US [United Slaves] and the Black Panthers. She has written many books including Angela Davis: An Autobiography and currently teaches in the History of Consciousness department at University of California, Santa Cruz.

H. Rap Brown began his life in the civil rights movement with the SNCC [Student Non-violent Coordinating Committee] and became their national Chairman in May 1967. He became the Minister of Justice of the Black Panthers in 1968. It was his use of violent rhetoric that brought him into national attention. He was arrested for attempted armed robbery in 1970 and sentenced to 5 years in prison. Upon his release he became a Muslim convert and lived a relatively quiet life until March 2000 when he was arrested for murder; the selection of the jury for his trial began on January 8, 2002.