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lotus-flower-writes-history · 7 months

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The Unofficial Black History Book

Huey P. Newton (1942-1989)

'The Revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.' - Huey Newton

This is his story.

Huey Percy Newton was born on February 17th, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana. The youngest of seven children to Armelia Johnson and Walter Newton, he was named after former Governor of Louisiana, Huey Long.

His family relocated to Oakland, California, in search of better economic opportunities in 1945. His family struggled financially and frequently relocated, but he never went hungry or homeless.

Growing up in Oakland, Newton recalled his white teachers making him feel ashamed for being African-American, despite never being taught anything useful. In his Autobiography, ‘Revolutionary Suicide’, he wrote – “Was made to feel ashamed of being black. During those long years in Oakland Public Schools, I did not have one teacher who taught me anything relevant to my own life or experience. Not one instructor ever awoke in me a desire to learn more or to question or to explore the worlds of literature, science, and history. All they did was try to rob me of the sense of my own uniqueness and worth, and in the process nearly killed my urge to inquire.”

He also had a troubled childhood; he was arrested several times as a teenager for gun possession and vandalism.

Huey was illiterate when he graduated from high school, but he taught himself to read and write by studying poetry before enrolling at Merritt College.

During his time there, he supported himself by breaking into homes in Oakland and Berkeley Hills and committing other minor offenses. He also attended Oakland College and San Francisco Law School, ostensibly to improve his criminal skills.

He joined Pi Beta Sigma Fraternity while still a student at Merritt College and met Bobby Seale, a political activist and engineer. Huey also fought for curriculum diversification, the hiring of more black instructors, and involvement in local political activities in the Bay Area.

In addition, he was exposed to a rising tide of Black Nationalism and briefly joined the Afro-American Association, where he studied Frantz Fanon, Che Guevara, Mao Zedong, E. Franklin Frazier, James Baldwin, Karl Marx, and Vladimir Lenin.

Huey had adopted a Marxist/Leninist viewpoint in which he saw the black community as an internal colony ruled by outside forces such as white businessmen, City Hall, and the police. In October 1966, he and Bobby Seale founded The Black Panther Party for self-defense, believing that the black working class needed to seize control of the institutions that most affected their community.

It was a coin toss that resulted in Newton becoming defense minister and Seale becoming chairman of the Black Panther Party. Newton’s job as the Minister of Defense and main leader of the Black Panther Party was to write in the Ten-Point Program, the founding document of the Party, and he demanded that blacks need the “Power to determine the destiny of our Black Community”. It would allow blacks to gain “Land, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice, and peace.”

The Panthers took advantage of a California law allowing people to carry non-concealed weapons and established armed patrols that monitored police activity in the Black Community.

One of the main points of focus for the Black Panther Party was the right to self-defense. Newton believed and preached that sometimes violence, or even the threat of violence, is required to achieve one's goals.

Members of the Black Panther Party once stormed the California Legislature while fully armed in order to protest the outcome of a gun bill.

Newton also established the Free Breakfast for Children Program, martial arts training for teenagers, and educational programs for children from low-income families.

The Black Panthers believed that in the Black struggle for justice, violence or the potential for violence may be necessary.

The Black Panthers had chapters in several major cities and over 2,000 members. Members became involved in several shoot-outs after being harassed by police.

On October 28, 1967, the Panthers and the police exchanged gunfire in Oakland. Huey was injured in the crossfire, and while recovering in the hospital, he was charged with killing an Oakland police officer, John Frey.

He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter the following year.

Huey was regarded as a political prisoner, and the Panthers organized a 'Free Huey' campaign led by Panther Party Minister Eldridge Cleaver. And Charles R. Geary, a well-known attorney who was in charge of Newton’s legal defense.

Newton was found guilty of voluntary manslaughter in 1968 and sentenced to 2-15 years in prison. However, the California Appellate Court ordered a new trial in May 1970. The conviction was reversed on appeal, the case was dismissed by the California Supreme Court, and Huey was acquitted.

Huey renounced political violence after being released from prison. Over a six-year period, 24 Black Panther members were killed in gunfights with the police. Another member, George Jackson, was killed in August 1971 while serving time in San Quentin Prison.

The Black Panther Party, under the leadership of Newton, gained international support. This was most evident in 1970 when Newton was invited to visit China. Large crowds greeted him enthusiastically, holding copies of "Quotations from Chairman Mao Tse-tung," as well as signs supporting the Panther Party and criticizing US imperialism.

In the early 1970s, Newton's leadership of the Black Panther Party contributed to its demise. He oversaw a number of purges of Party members, the most famous of which was in 1971 when he expelled Eldridge Cleaver in what became known as the Newton-Cleaver split over the party's primary function.

Newton wanted the party to be solely focused on serving African-American communities, whereas Cleaver believed the party should be focused on developing relationships with international revolutionary movements. The schism resulted in violence between the factions and the deaths of several Black Panther members. The Black Guerrilla Family (BGF) was one of several factions that had broken away from the main party.

Then, in 1974, Newton was accused of assaulting a 17-year-old prostitute named Kathleen Smith, who later died, raising the charge to murder. Instead of facing trial, Huey fled to Cuba with his girlfriend at the time, where he remained for three years. The key witness in the trial was Crystal Gray. And three Black Panther members attempted to assassinate her before she gave her testimony.

Huey returned to the States in 1976 to stand trial but denied any involvement. The jury was deadlocked, and Newton was eventually acquitted after two mistrials.

In 1978, he enrolled in the History of Consciousness program at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and earned his Doctorate in 1980.

"War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression in America," his dissertation, was later turned into a book.

On charges of embezzling Panther Party funds, Huey P. Newton was sentenced to 6 months in prison followed by 18 months on probation in 1982.

On August 22, 1989, Newton was assassinated by a member of the BGF, named Tyrone Robinson.

Huey was 46 years old at the time of his assassination. Robinson was convicted of Huey’s murder in 1991 and sentenced to 32 years to life in prison.

His wife, Fredricka Newton, carried on his legacy. 'Revolutionary Suicide,' his autobiography, was first published in 1973 and then republished in 1995.

Huey Newton was not perfect, but he did fight to protect the rights of the Black Community. The rights that we're still fighting for today.

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My Sources

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charlieism · 1 year

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BITING KILLING CHOMPING SCREAMING ENRAGED

#jay rambles #wwdits #learn your ROOTS

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ovaruling · 7 months

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maybe a hot take but please don’t have or stop having children if you have an active eating disorder/body dysmorphia (including binge eating, not just restrictive disorders). seriously

thinking you’ll be the exception (because you’re So self-aware, unlike those Other disordered women) and won’t give your dysmorphia/eating disorder to your child is pride before a very slow and terrible fall

it never ever works. you’re never ever immune. i mean, such a huge reason of why there are so many of us now is bc our moms thought the same thing lmfao. didn’t matter how well-intentioned they were. no matter how much they tried to separate Their Problems from Ours. here we fucking are

i know it’s not women’s fault to begin with, but the reality is that those of us affected do incubate, nurture, and pass on the virus in the Current Way of Things

the buck needs to stop here. this isn’t a game. think of all the things your mother probably thought she was expertly hiding from you that you still picked up on and were profoundly affected by in a terrible and formative way. it will happen to you, too. don’t think it won’t.

if you know that you’re not solidly and confidently recovered, you have a responsibility to stop that buck and not actively attempt to create a child who will observe, mimic, internalize, adopt, and inherit your lifelong life-ruining behavior. the selfishness is breathtaking honestly

#eating disorders are one of the most treatment-resistant behavioral issues out there #once they take firm root #this is not quite the same as ‘don’t have children if you’re even a little bit mentally ill’ btw before anyone thinks it is #this is a very specific problem #and it is LEARNED #you cant always protect your child from the outside world influence but you can do something about what your child starts with at home #i am recovered now but i could’ve saved my whole life if my mom hadn’t been dieting when i was 7 #so i started dieting too #bc she was my mom and i did what she did #cuz i was fucking 7 #she never told me what a diet was. i just observed her.#and when she binged EYE binged #i blame her always for my food addiction

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phulge · 4 months

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When is a monster not a monster? Oh, when you love it.

#editing gifs like its 2014 on purpose #for yall to learn your roots #amazingphil #dan and phil #phil lester #my gif #this one is for danrifics

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nowritingonthewall · 1 year

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I’m just begging you: Don’t make us go there again.

#oscar isaac #moon knight #marc spector #moonknightedit #chrissie gifs #tw: trauma #tw: child abuse #It still blows my mind how the people involved in this show seemed to have a better understanding of trauma #than most professional therapists do #It's so heartbreaking to see how you can literally see Marc being stuck in his freeze reaction #While Steven moves around and explores #Marc's feet are rooted to the spot #He doesn't get a word out and he is clearly struggling to breathe #He can't even move his body towards the threat (i.e. his mother banging against the door) so he mostly just moves his eyes #Until the door bursts open and Marc's flight mode is activated #There is so much evidence that talking about your trauma again and again does nothing to integrate it and heal from it #And Harrow is such a text book example of so called health care professionals that force their patients to be re-traumatized again and again #Marc literally shows Steven how he suffered the most horrible and painful injuries to his soul #And it neither helps him to integrate his trauma nor to balance the scales #The healing process only starts when he allows himself to start learning to be accepted and taken care of by Steven #I am sorry I just love him so much 🥺

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horrorshow · 9 months

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"when did destiel sex happen for the first time?" i love that i'm living so far in my own obscure deluded doomed by the narrative canon-compliant version of surprisingly wholesome but tragic destiel that the only right answer isn't even an option on polls: stanford era.

#deancas #it's like.#you're in a car with an ugly old angel and he looks at you like he has loved and known you for years but you just met #and he wont tell you that he's hiding something from you but he's hiding something from you #and he reaches over and you let him hit bc you're lonely and he's saying all the things you wish your father told you #like he discovered a belief in a future where you'll have eye crinkles and your brother at your side and a home with your own bedroom #and you feel your heart taking root in your body until one day you wake up with a headache and no memory of him or the past 2 months at ALL #and you never have time to wonder about it bc its october 2005 and you have 327 episodes of horrors ahead of you #and they all happen exactly like they do on screen. destiel was real but it was also dead before the story even started #(other than that they only had sex in purgatory which dean came to regret bc it made him realize he's not into cas like that #and he had only invited him to his benny fuckfest bc they're friends and it seemed rude not to)#and dean never ever learns that they once were lovers. and for cas there's nothing to remember bc it hasnt happened to him yet #its beautiful. to me.#also slightly embarrassing for me as a person but nevermind that

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teathattast · 4 days

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just wanna dance with you all night

when everyone has their disguise

i'll show you my heart is real

i'll show you how this could feel

#love notes #meg myers #after you #how can a love so real still feel like a dream #but i've learned dreams do come true #roots planted in the soil of your heart #your love nourishes my new growth

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rutadales · 3 months

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people who participate in hate-fandoms need to get an actual hobby I'm so serious 😭 not to be a hater but for the love of God log off. genuinely humiliating to be spending that much time caring about something that makes you so miserable that is ultimately so meaningless

#root talks #just saw an entire blog dedicated to ''''critique'''' of hazbin hotel and honest to God. from the bottom of my heart.#that is so embarrassing #like why. why why why dedicate that much of your time to something you hate #like this can't be FUN for you.#why spend literal years of your life complaining about something I genuinely can't understand that #why stalk and obsess over news and updates of a show you admit you hate. that only came out a couple weeks ago.#I'm sorry it's just like the dream shit 😭#WHY CARE!! that much about something or someone you hate!#that shit can not be healthy I just don't understand 🙄#like what do you do when you realize you have spent entire years of your life #logging on and obsessing over something that only makes you feel. Bad.#I just don't understand hatedom at all like being a hater is fun briefly but it gets draining #there's a lot of media I dislike #like sander sides I can't stand it anymore used to be a huge fan #haven't thought of it besides in passing in years #because WHYYY would I think about something that makes me miserable when I could think about something I like instead #people need to learn to let go man 😭

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lotus-flower-writes-history · 2 months

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February 21st, 1965 Malcolm X was assassinated at the age of 39

#black activism #black history is american history #black history matters #black tumblr #black culture #black history #learn your roots #black stories #black community #malcolm x #black history month #civil rights movement #civil rights

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barstoolblues · 5 months

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tumblr punks when you tell them that it is actually about the music

#your roots are white brits learning ska. sit down

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wilsonpussyindulgence · 4 months

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just read an interview where emerald fennell says saltburn is "gothic" and like..........no, it's not. it simply Is Not That.

you can't have a man fuck a grave and be like "ooh just like wuthering heights! this is gothic" because guillermo del toro and i are both going to fight you

#like......come on. saltburn spoilers ahead.#horror of love doesn't work because the narrative never decides if he did all this for Felix or for Saltburn #if he killed felix With His Hands in the Heat of the Moment maybe you have an argument. but not with poison in a preplanned murder #if the love was for saltburn then we should have gotten another gothic theme - the house as a character #the house as a character doesn't work because it simply isn't #i don't think we ever learned the actual layout of the house and it never was The Other in any scene #the walls aren't even the colors of his eyes!!!#horror of grief doesn't work because he's never out of control #he doesn't kill the others because he's out of his mind with grief. he was Always Gonna Do That.#and also your protagonist isn't an anti-hero because there is literally no point that you're rooting for him #ms fennell please tell me what you think gothic means #anyway what saltburn needed was - more homoeroticism more blood and more of him being a little sex freak #that probably still wouldn't have made it Gothic but it would have been an improved film

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not-gray-politics · 4 months

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Trans women. I'm grabbing you by the shoulders and yelling. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO BE SKINNY TO BE FEMININE AND PRETTY AND CUTE. PLEASE STOP MAKING DIETS PART OF YOUR TRANSITION GOALS. WEIGHT LOSS IS A SCAM. I LOVE YOU. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELVES. YOU'RE BEAUTIFUL.

#I see so many transfems say they want to have “flat stomachs” or do diet and exercise regimes to try and get an “hourglass figure”#and it really worries me. girls you do not have to destroy yourselves to fit into unachievable beauty standards #the vast majority of cis women don't even fit those standards #and the same goes for you transmascs! I see you! I see you trying to get smaller chests and hurting yourselves with weight loss routines #and excessive workouts. it's not worth it. weight loss has OVER a 90% long-term failure rate and there's a reason for that #I assure you whatever diet you think you've found that “works for you” won't be working so well 5 years from now #and you're going to blame yourself for “slacking off”. but it's not you. it was never you. it was designed to fail.#these standards are made to hurt people and then sell them a false solution at the price of your health #I encourage you to transition if you'd like and live your best life I really do. but please please please do so SAFELY.#if weight loss is part of your transition goals please reevaluate WHY you believe thinness is necessary for achieving femininity #(or masculinity or androgyny but this stuff particularly affects women in the way it's marketed)#do research on fatphobia and the roots of weight loss culture. Learn where these ideas come from and why they're so prevalent.#It's extremely important #take care. stay safe. love you very much #trans #fat liberation #transgender #lgbt #trans rights #fat positivity #diet culture #fatphobia #transfem #trans positivity #transgirl #trans women #trans woman

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system-of-a-feather · 15 days

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A Routine Self-Care / Healing Thing I Do

(And have done for a while. I'm mostly sharing it because I was thinking about it and its relation to other values and thoughts I have and felt like sharing it)

Temporarily denying access to a main coping tool

It sounds counter intuitive, but every so often - either when I want to develop myself more or when I feel like I am stuck for no particular reason and thus feeling as though my life has grown dull and empty - I look at what I spend most of my time doing, particularly to relax, and I say "hey for the next week, we aren't going to do that. Its still there, but that action is off limits" and I choose to limit the usage of whatever I usually spend my time doing

It can cause some stress and so I don't push myself to abide by it 100%, but I try to stick to it when I can, because I often find that when a dominating coping mechanism and time sink is removed, there opens up a vacuum and that vacuum serves to provide a lot of opportunity to introduce new habits, new skills, and see life in a more creative and open manner.

It causes a mild amount of adjustment stress, but so long as the coping mechanism is still there to return to (and you let yourself dabble if it ever gets too stressful with the interest of still minimizing usage) that adjustment stress is a small payment for experiencing new things and being able to expand the things that you can self sooth with.

Not only is this helpful for having diversified coping strategies and introducing healthier habits, but it also practices and helps reinforce to the emotional / trauma brain that sometimes when things that we love and are used to regularly using to sooth aren't available, that we are okay and able to manage with other coping tools - including ones we haven't acquired. It reinforces the idea that even without our familiar coping tools, the world has a lot of things out there that can fill the role as something soothing.

And when you practice the unavailability of preferred coping tools in a space where they aren't ACTUALLY 100% unavailable, you can practice and develop the tolerance to that lack of access in a space where you still have control how much you can tolerate

Then, when life makes it so that something you prefer to cope with is unavailable, you have built up a better relationship with yourself, the world, and coping to feel a little more safe waiting until your preferred coping is available again; because you do this regularly when the access is in your hands. You've survived it multiple times, because its just part of your daily life and practice. Sometimes you don't have what you usually use to meet your needs, and that's okay. There's plenty in the world out there.

#coping #mental health #mental health recovery #ptsd #did #actuallydid #actuallyautistic #actually autistic #coping skills #buddhism #zen buddhism #spoiler for those reading the tags #I realized this is something Ive been doing most of my healing journey that is very much rooted in a lot of zen buddhist principles #the idea that when we can find ourself numb and detatched or overstimulated and oversaturated with Stuff #that we get comfortable and attached to Stuff that we no longer really see the wide expanse of choices we have in existence #and thus every so often it is a good idea to remove excess #remove stuff and preferred attachments and just enjoy what is innate to your existence #what is innate to what is around you #and learn that there is always something in the world there to help you and make sure you are okay #buddhist rambles

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hiimcanadia · 11 days

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I love how deeply human it feels to braid my hair. Like. Since the dawn of humanity people all over the world have been looking at their long hair and going "you know what would make this easier to manage and also look beautiful? If I condensed some of this a bit." And now, in the modern age, I can be one of those people

#my mother taught me how to braid my hair when i was young #how many mothers passed this knowledge down before it reached me?#how far back did 'put your hair in a braid before you go to bed' begin in my family? where did that person learn it from?#its 11pm and i want to stretch back through time to find the deepest roots of everything that i take for granted today #2pm in the morning

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snixx · 5 months

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butch lesbian usnavi would've been too powerful for this world

#in the heights #she would've been so me coded actually #pinnacle of useless loser lesbianism and craving a sense of belonging you've fundamentally been alienated from since birth #fierce love for your homeland and roots despite how alientated you feel from them all the time #to the point that love starts to define you #yearning for a home for your cultural identity over your queer identity and arc about learning they don't have to be binary #extreme cringefail loserism #ugh someone please write this

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