Anniversary of Huey P. Newton's Death

“You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can't jail the Revolution” - Huey P. Newton

(Huey P. Newton)

Dr. Huey Percy Newton was born February 17, 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana, USA. In 1945 Newton’s family moved out to Oakland, CA.

(Newton’s high school photo)

He attended Merritt College, San Francisco Law School, and the University of California Santa Cruz where he earned a bachelor's degree and later a Ph.D in social philosophy. In 1964 Newton was convicted of assault with a deadly weapon and served 6 months in jail. While attending Merritt College Newton became involved in the politics of the Bay Area. He joined the Afro-American Association and became a member of the fraternity Phi Beta Sigma. He played a role in getting the first African-American History course in Merritt College.  He read the works of Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X, Mao Zedong, Durkheim, and Che Guevara during his time at Merritt College. Newton and friend Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self Defense in October of 1966.

(Bobby Seale (Left) and Newton (Right) standing in front of the Black Panther Party HQ)

Bobby Seale became chairman of the organization and Newton became the minister of defense. Many of the Black Panther’s beliefs were influenced by Malcolm X. The party’s goals were included in their 10 point program. They promoted self defense and for Blacks to defend themselves from police brutality and other racially motivated attacks against them. Newton sought to educate those around him about the legality of self-defense while recruiting new members to the party. The Panthers did numerous things for the Bay Area community including founding the Oakland Community School, which provided high-level education to 150 children from impoverished urban neighborhoods. Other Panther programs included the Free Breakfast for Children Program and others that offered dances for teenagers and training in martial arts.

(Newton pictured with the local youth of Oakland, CA) On October 28th 1967 Newton and a friend were pulled over by Oakland Police officers. While trying to arrest Newton and his friend shots were fired and Newton and 2 police officers were wounded. 1 of the officers died from the bullet wounds. No guns were found on Newton or the officer that died. Newton was then arrested and charged for the death of the officer. Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in September of 1968. He was sentenced to 2 to 15 years.

(Newton in jail after being convicted of voluntary manslaughter)

In May of 1970 the conviction was reversed and a new trial was ordered. The charges were dismissed after 2 new trials ending in hung juries. Newton received an invitation to visit the People’s Republic of China in 1970 and visited in 1971. He was greeted by thousands of people that were in support of the Black Panther Party.In 1974 he earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of California Santa Cruz. On August 6th 1974 Newton shot an 18 year old woman after she made him mad after a casual exchange. Newton and his girlfriend fled to Cuba and lived there until 1977.

(Newton’s mugshot)

Newton was acquitted in September of 1978. Newton earned a Ph.D. in social philosophy at the University of California Santa Cruz in 1980.

(Newton at his graduation following earning his Ph.D.)

On August 22nd, 1989 Newton was fatally shot by a Black Guerrilla Family member in Oakland, CA. He was 47 years old.

(Newton’s Funeral)

Today is the 28th anniversary of his death. Take time to remember this great revolutionary today.

Movies Involving Huey P. Newton

• Panther (1995)
• A Huey P. Newton Story (2001)
• The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (2015)

Books Involving Huey P. Newton

• To Die For the People (1972) By Huey P. Newton
• Revolutionary Suicide (1973) By Huey P. Newton
• War Against the Panthers (1980) By Huey P. Newton

Videos including Huey P. Newton

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHL7glIcP4o  “Huey P. Newton, Ishmael Reed & Jawanza Kunjufu On Racism Against Black Men (1988)”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyBaZ2KvTRo  “Huey P Newton Interview From Jail”

Anniversary of George Jackson's Death

“Patience has its limits. Take it too far, and it's cowardice” - George Jackson

(George Jackson)

George Jackson was born on September 23rd, 1941 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. As an adolescent he spent time in the California Youth Authority Corrections facility. In 1961 he was convicted of armed robbery and sentenced to 1 year to life in prison. While in prison he became involved in revolutionary activity. In 1966 he started to learn about Marxist and Maoist ideology.

(Jackson in 1966)

Also in 1966 he and W.L. Nolen founded the “Black Guerilla Family”. He also joined the Black Panther Party after meeting Huey P. Newton in prison. In 1970 Jackson was convicted of murdering a corrections officer.

(Jackson in 1970)

While being tried in the courtroom Jackson’s younger brother burst into a Marin County courtroom with an automatic weapon, freed prisoners James McClain, William A. Christmas and Ruchell Magee, and took Judge Harold Haley, Deputy District Attorney Gary Thomas, and three jurors hostage to demand the release of his brother among others. In 1971 Jackson met with an attorney on a civil lawsuit Jackson had filed against the California Department of Corrections. After the meeting while being escorted back to his cell a C.O. notices something in his hair and realizes it's a wig and then out of his wig Jackson pulls out a pistol and ordered the C.O. to open the other cells. Other inmates took the guards and 2 inmates hostage.

(Jackson in 1971)

On August 21st, 1971 while trying to escape the prison George Jackson was shot and killed by guards. He was 29 years old.

(Jackson’s Funeral)

Today is the 46th anniversary of his death. Take time to remember this great revolutionary today.

Books by George Jackson

• Soledad Brother: The Prison Letters of George Jackson (1994)
• Blood in My Eye (1996)

Videos of George Jackson

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgA7FkV3BJY  “Death of a Revolutionary :George Jacskon Soledad Brother”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8Va-wxoJYQ  “George Jackson Speaks! 1971 Prison Interview”

Happy Birthday Assata Shakur

“People get used to anything. The less you think about your oppression, the more your tolerance for it grows. After a while, people just think oppression is the normal state of things. But to become free, you have to be acutely aware of being a slave” - Assata Shakur

(Assata Shakur)

Assata Shakur was born as Joanne Byron on July 16th, 1947 in New York City, New York, USA. In 1950 she moved to Wilmington, NC with her grandmother. As a teenager she moved to Queens, NY. Byron dropped out of high school, but later earned a GED. In the 1960’s Byron attended Borough of Manhattan Community College (BMCC) and then the City College of New York (CCNY). In 1967 she and 100 other BMCC students were arrested. The students had chained and locked the entrance to a college building to protest a curriculum deficient in black studies and a lack of black faculty. In 1970 Byron joined the Black Panther Party’s Harlem division. One of Shakur's main activities with the BPP was coordinating a school breakfast program. She then left the panthers. She also changed her name the same year to “Assata Shakur”. She then joined the Black Liberation Army (BLA). In 1971 she joined the Republic of New Afrika. Also in 1971 Shakur was shot in the stomach during a struggle with a guest at the Statler Hilton Hotel in Midtown Manhattan and was arrested. She was booked on charges of attempted robbery, felonious assault, reckless endangerment, and possession of a deadly weapon. In 1972 the New York Police Dept. tried to pin many crimes on Shakur by having witnesses say it was Shakur. Also in 1972 Shakur was the subject of a nationwide manhunt after the FBI alleged she was behind a series of murders of New York police officers. After being arrested Shakur was not charged. In 1973 Assata Shakur, Zayd Malik Shakur and Sundiata Acoli were stopped on the New Jersey Turnpike in East Brunswick by State Trooper James Harper for an alleged broken tail light and allegedly going over the speed limit. Zayd Shakur (the driver) was asked to step out of the car and then the trooper pulled his gun on Zayd Shakur. Zayd Shakur then in self defence disarmed the officer and shot him twice. Another trooper who was on the scene shot and killed Zayd Shakur. Assata Shakur then pulled her own firearm and she was shot and wounded as she fired at the officer whom she wounded. Acoli then drove the car with Assata and Zayd Shakur in the car for 5 miles before being arrested.

(Shakur in 1973)

Assata Shakur was interrogated and arraigned from her hospital bed. She also had substandard treatment while in the hospital. In 1974 while in prison she gave birth to her daughter. From 1973 to 1977 Shakur was indicted 10 times, resulting in seven different criminal trials. Of these trials 3 resulted in acquittals, 1 in a hung jury, 1 in a change of venue, 1 in a mistrial due to pregnancy, 1 in a conviction and 3 indictments were dismissed without trial. In 1979 Shakur escaped prison when 3 members of the Black Liberation Army visiting her drew concealed .45 caliber pistols, seized two guards as hostages and commandeered a prison van.

(Shakur in 1979)

No one was injured during the prison break. Mutulu Shakur, Silvia Baraldini, Sekou Odinga, and Marilyn Buck were charged with assisting in her escape. The FBI circulated wanted posters throughout the New York and the New Jersey area. Her supporters hung "Assata Shakur is Welcome Here" posters in response to the wanted posters.

(An “Assata Shakur is welcome here” poster)

In New York 3 days after her escape, more than 5,000 demonstrators organized by the National Black Human Rights Coalition carried signs with the same slogan. Her family and friends were monitored by the FBI. In 1980 an early morning raid on 92 Morningside Avenue, during which FBI agents armed with shotguns and machine guns broke down doors, and searched through the building for several hours, while preventing residents from leaving. Many illegal raids like this happened in New York for the search of Shakur. In 1984 Shakur moved to Cuba. She was granted political asylum in that country.

(Shakur in 1984)

The Cuban government paid approximately $13 a day toward her living expenses. In 1985 she was reunited with her daughter. In 1987 she published her autobiography.

(Shakur in 1987)

In 1993 she published a 2nd book. In 1998 Shakur agreed to an interview with NBC journalist Ralph Penza.

(Shakur in 1998)

In 2005 the FBI classified Shakur as a domestic terrorist and a $1 million bounty was put on her head. New York City Councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, has called for the bounty to be rescinded.

(Shakur in 2005)

Fidel Castro had called Shakur a victim of racial persecution. In 2013 the FBI announced it had made Shakur the 1st woman on its list of most wanted terrorists. The bounty was then raised to $2 million.

(Shakur in 2013)

Today she turns 70 years old and we would all like to say happy birthday Assata Shakur.

Books by Assata Shakur

• Assata: An Autobiography (1987)
• Still Black, Still Strong (1993)

Videos of Assata Shakur

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7unIuy0ET8  “Assata Shakur Speaks On Being Shot”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlqoAgicmwk  “ASSATA aka Joanne Chesimard”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ssQ5qqCeWNg  “Assata Shakur in Cuba, Part 1, Interview Kenny S.”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsPze2uMYtI  “Assata Shakur in Cuba, #2 Interview Kenny Snodgrass”

Happy Birthday Cornel West

“A black agenda is jobs, jobs, jobs, quality education, investment in infrastructure and strong democratic regulation of corporations. The black agenda, at its best, looks at America from the vantage point of the least of these and asks what's best for all” - Cornel West

(Cornel West)

Cornel West was born on June 2nd, 1953 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, USA. His family moved to Sacramento, CA. As a young man West marched during the Civil Rights movement. He organized protests demanding black studies courses at his high school, where he was class president. In 1970 he enrolled in Harvard College.

(West in 1970)

In 1973 he graduated “magna cum laude” in Near Eastern languages and civilization. West says his Christianity prevented him from joining the BPP, instead choosing to work in local breakfast, prison, and church programs. In 1980 West earned a Ph.D. from Princeton.

(West in 1980)

The title of his dissertation was “Ethics, historicism and the Marxist tradition”. In 1984 he went to Yale Divinity School. He participated in campus protests for a clerical labor union and divestment from apartheid South Africa. One of the protests resulted in his being arrested and jailed. As punishment, the University administration canceled his leave for the spring term in 1987, leading him to commute from Yale in New Haven, CT, where he was teaching two classes, across the Atlantic Ocean to the University of Paris. In 1988 he became a professor of Religion and director of the Program in African American Studies at Princeton.

(West in 1988)

In 1994 he became a professor at Harvard Divinity School. In 1998 he was appointed the first Alphonse Fletcher University Professor. In West's view, the September 11 attacks gave white Americans a glimpse of what it means to be a black person in the United States feeling "unsafe, unprotected, subject to random violence, and hatred" for who they are. In 2002 he left Harvard. He then went back to Princeton. In 2008, he received a special recognition from the World Cultural Council.

(West in 2008)

In 2012, West left Princeton and returned to the seminary where he began his teaching career, Union Theological Seminary. Also in 2012 West guest starred in the sixth season of the American television comedy series “30 Rock”. In 2014 West was arrested while protesting against the shooting of Michael Brown.

(West in 2014)

Today he turns 63 years old and we would all like to say happy birthday Cornel West. 

Books by Cornel West 

• Prophesy Deliverance! An Afro-American Revolutionary Christianity(1982)
• Post-Analytic Philosophy (1985)
• Prophetic Fragments (1988)
• The American Evasion of Philosophy: A Genealogy of Pragmatism(1989)
• Breaking Bread: Insurgent Black Intellectual Life (1991)
• The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought (1991)
• Beyond Eurocentrism and Multiculturalism (1993)
• Race Matters (1994)
• Keeping Faith: Philosophy and Race in America (1994)
• Jews and Blacks: A Dialogue on Race, Religion, and Culture in America (1995)
• The Future of the Race (1996)
• Restoring Hope: Conversations on the Future of Black America(1997)
• The War Against Parents: What We Can Do For America's Beleaguered Moms and Dads (1998)
• The Future of American Progressivism (1998)
• The African-American Century: How Black Americans Have Shaped Our Century (2000)
• Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (2004)
• Hope on a Tightrope: Words & Wisdom (2008)
• Brother West: Living & Loving Out Loud (2009)
• The Rich and the Rest of Us: A Poverty Manifesto (2012)
• Pro+Agonist: The Art of Opposition (2012)
• Black Prophetic Fire (2014)

Movies Starring Cornel West

• Street Fight (2005) as himself
• The Matrix Reloaded (2003) as Councilor West
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003) as Councilor West
• Examined Life (2008) as Himself
• #Bars4Justice (2015) as Himself

Albums by Cornel West

• “Sketches of My Culture” (2001)
• “Street Knowledge” (2004)
• “Never Forget: A Journey of Revelations” (2007)

Videos of Cornel West

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nAfxFEGF-wY  “Cornel West interview”
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y1aV9eR5eK8  “Cornel West on Music, Race and Compassion”

(P.S. sorry for the late post)