Huey P. Newton :: Philosophy :: Women

Although one of the first black male leaders of the Black Power movement to take a stance against patriarchy in the black community, Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party (BPP) he helped found were guilty of sexism. Speaking about the newly forming Women and Gay Liberation Movements, Newton stated in a speech given on August 15, 1970: “The women's liberation and gay liberation fronts are our friends, they are our potential allies, and we need as many allies as possible…We should try to form a working coalition with the gay liberation and women's liberation groups.” He relates sexism in the black community to racism among the white-working class. Both white working-class racism and black male sexism, give each oppressed group a false sense of superiority by allowing them to use what little privilege they have against those more oppressed. He also admonished members of the BPP to stop using heterosexist slurs like “punk” and “faggot.”

Again, even though, the BPP was much more progressive on gender than other Civil Rights and Black Power groups it was far from ideal. The BPP had much more female participation and leadership than most other groups involved in the black liberation struggle. But, those same women, including those that rose to positions of prominence within the BPP like Elaine Brown, Kathleen Cleaver and Angela Davis, complained of the rampant sexism in the party despite its public support for feminism. One of the main arguments of black feminist theorists like bell hooks and Patricia Hill Collins is that leadership of the Civil Rights and Black Power groups of the 60s and 70s was overwhelmingly male and the groups where therefore sexist, limiting women’s participation and input. Another prominent black feminist, Alice Walker took the BPP and Newton, in particular, to task for not living up to their stated support for feminism. Newton himself had a history of misogyny. He was indicted for the murder of a 17 year-old prostitute in 1974 and was acquitted after two mistrials. There are also rumors that he used certain gendered epithets and may have physically abused women. In short, Huey and the BPP should be commended for supporting women’s liberation, but their actions contradicted and fell short of their stated support.