Huey P. Newton :: Philosophy :: Community Programs

Huey Newton, though known primarily as the theoretician of the Black Panther Party, was also a profoundly pragmatic individual. He did not believe in thought without action, or action without thought. He despised “armchair revolutionaries,” the types that were found on college campuses declaring the injustice of the system but not lifting a finger to solve the problem. Huey’s belief in the necessity of action came partly from his influence from Mao Tse-tung, who taught “’if you want to know the theory and methods of revolution, you must take part in revolution. All genuine knowledge originates in direct experience’.” In 1966, after drafting the Black Panther Party’s famous Ten-point platform and program with longtime friend Bobby Seale, Huey left the ivory tower to hit the streets and begin his revolution. “At this point,” Huey wrote, “we knew it was time to stop talking and begin organizing. Although we always wanted to get away from the intellectualizing and rhetoric characteristic of other groups, at times we were as inactive as they were. The time had come for action.”

The Free Breakfast for Children program was one of the more than 60 community programs run by the Panthers.

For Newton, action meant setting up community programs that he entitled “survival programs,” because survival naturally presupposed any form of revolutionary struggle. "We recognized that in order to bring the people to the level of consciousness where they would seize the time, it would be necessary to serve their interests in survival by developing programs which would help them to meet their daily needs.” Once the people were surviving and thriving, their level of consciousness could then be raised to the point where they would “seize the time and deliver themselves from their oppressors.” In time, the Panthers would start over 60 community programs, from their famous free breakfast programs for children to martial arts and even drama classes.

Newton understood that the community could not afford to pay for these services; otherwise they would not have lacked them in the first place. According to Huey, "All of our survival programs are free. We have never charged the community a dime to receive the things they need from any of our programs and we will not do so. We will not get caught up in a lot of embarrassing questions or paperwork that alienate the people. If they have a need we will serve their needs and attempt to get them to understand the true reasons why they are in need in such an incredibly rich land.”

Of the many Programs that were started by the Panthers under Huey’s leadership, the BPP’s Oakland Community School was extraordinarily successful. Besides winning an award from the California Board of Education, the school attracted many famous and hig profile visitors, such as Cesar Chavez, Rosa Parks, James Baldwin, Richard Pryor, and Maya Angelou. Huey’s guiding philosophies of dialectical materialism, the philosophical basis of Marxism, and intercommunal-ism, the belief that all of the world’s communities are interconnected, served the school’s radical new approach to learning. Rather than separating children by age level, the school put children into classes depending on their skill level. Other ideas of Huey’s intended to raise awareness were implemented into the school’s curriculum. “Under Huey’s Direction, the complexity of the BPP’s survival programs and services soon began to expand. With the school and clinics in operation, the party was shifting and getting interesting in a different way. Huey was having people read different books and having different discussion groups. People were starting to get healthier, starting to branch out in some new ways. They were doing unusual exercises at the school, like Thai Chi.”

Huey Newton was a man dedicated to improving his community, and the Black Panther’s Community Programs were the truest reflection of this commitment. Despite the fact that the money used to run these programs was received primarily from wealthy white donors, and thus brings into question the practical sincerity of Newton's socialist vision, these programs nonetheless have set an example for the type of organized activism that has spread and thrived throughout the country in recent decades.