Cultural Representations

1
Cultural Representations

• Group 2

2
(No Transcript)
3
(No Transcript)
4
Problem loading page

• Gunplay between Newton and Oakland Police
  Department
• Office John Frey dead, Newton wounded in stomach
• Accusations of police brutality to wounded Newton
• Massive press coverage
• Cleaver framed incident as the celebrity cause
  of the Panthers
• Panthers used incarceration as reminder of police
  brutality
• Everyday they kept me there I grew as a symbol
  of the brutalization of the poor and Black as
  well as a living reproach to societys
  indifference to the inequities of the legal
  system
• The Free Huey campaign culminated at the Oakland
  rally held in his honor on February 17, 1968,
  where the merger with SNCC was announced
• Newton was convicted in September 1968 of
  voluntary manslaughter", and was sentenced from
  2 to 15 years in prison. In May 1970, the
  California Appellate Court reversed Newton's
  conviction and ordered a new trial. The State of
  California dropped its case against Newton after
  two subsequent mistrials.

5
(No Transcript)
6
A Huey P. Newton Story Director Spike
Lee Writer Roger Guenveur Smith Cast Roger
Guenveur Smith Release date June 18, 2001
7
(No Transcript)
8
Autobiographical Commentary from PBS special A
Huey Newton Story

• Thoughts on himself
• I'm actually a rather shy individual. I wouldn't
  consider myself to be very charismatic I never
  did anything hero-like, I just worked on some
  little community programs. I do have a role to
  play however - I'm a theorist of sorts - I work
  on theories. But I really do not enjoy discussing
  the details of my personal life except as it
  relates to the movement. I hate cameras,
  microphones stuck up in my face. To tell you the
  truth, I hate stages cause they put you up on a
  stage and expect for you to entertain them and I
  keep trying to tell them I'm not an entertainer.
• Thoughts on Being a Criminal
• I got myself together as a young adult and went
  on to law school, which made my parents very
  happy cause they figured that I would graduate
  from law school, take the bar, pass the bar and
  make a lot of money. And of course I dropped out
  which disappointed them greatly. They saw it as a
  form of ingratitude after all they had sacrificed
  for me. But to tell you the truth, the only
  reason I started studying the law in the first
  place was so that I could become a better
  burglar. Its true the first college course I ever
  signed up for back in junior college was a course
  in criminology because I wanted to be a criminal,
  but I didn't know which type so I figured I would
  take a course in criminology, maybe that would
  help me make up my mind. I was a big time fool
  that's why I have confidence in knowing what a
  big time fool is.

9
The Essence of H.P. Newton By Darrell
Anderson Premiered June 14, 2001 8 x 12 feet
acrylic painting
10
Quotes

• Black Power is giving power to people who have
  not had power to determine their destiny.
• I do not expect white media to create positive
  black images.
• The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is
  that he is a doomed man. Unless he understand
  this, he does not grasp the essential meaning of
  his life.

11
The Later Years

• 1974 Newton earned a bachelor's degree from
  University of California, Santa Cruz
• 1980 Newton earned a Ph.D. from UC Santa Cruz in
  1980. His doctoral dissertation was entitled "War
  Against The Panthers A Study Of Repression In
  America."
• 1985, Newton was charged with embezzling state
  and federal funds from the Black Panthers'
  community education and nutrition programs. He
  was convicted in 1989.
• 1989, Newton was shot and killed by 24-year-old
  Tyrone Robinson, who was convicted of the murder
  in August of 1991 and sentenced to 32 years for
  the crime. Official accounts claimed that the
  killer was a known drug dealer in Oakland.