A collection of quotes and thoughts by Huey P. Newton on anarchy, fate, politics, war, resignation, honor, revolution, revolt, God, destiny, power and racism.
40 Inspiring Quotes By Huey P. Newton For The Revolutionary In You
Dr. Huey Percy Newton was an African-American revolutionary and political activist. He is best known for having co-founded the ‘Black Panther Party’. Newton studied at the University of California and then went on to earn a Ph.D, before becoming interested in the civil rights movement. Newton had stated that right from the time that he got into formal education; he became aware of the conditions of his fellow people. Eventually, he formed the party that would go on to define the fight for the right of self defence of African-Americans in the United States. Newton was inspired by the ideas propounded by iconic left wing leaders like Vladimir Lenin, Mao Zedong, Che Guevara, Frantz Fanon and Karl Mark among others. His ideals were militant in nature and he advocated violence as a means of bringing about equality between African-Americans and the white majority in the United States. He was a prolific writer as well and one of his most popular books is his autobiography titled ‘Revolutionary Suicide’, in which he laid down his thoughts on the movement of which he was a part. Newton was an excellent orator and left behind words of wisdom and thoughts on matters related to race relations, social justice and politics. We bring to you the collection of quotes and thoughts by Huey P. Newton.
The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.
Huey P. Newton
The task is to transform society; only the people can do that - not heroes, not celebrities, not stars.
Huey P. Newton
Youths are passed through schools that don’t teach, then forced to search for jobs that don’t exist and finally left stranded in the street to stare at the glamorous lives advertised around them.
Huey P. Newton
Institutions work this way. A son is murdered by the police, and nothing is done. The institutions send the victim's family on a merry-go-round, going from one agency to another, until they wear out and give up. this is a very effective way to beat down poor and oppressed people, who do not have the time to prosecute their cases. Time is money to poor people. To go to Sacramento means loss of a day's pay - often a loss of job. If this is a democracy, obviously it is a bourgeois democracy limited to the middle and upper classes. Only they can afford to participate in it.
IQ tests are routinely used as weapons against Black people in particular and minority groups and poor people generally. The tests are based on white middle-class standards, and when we score low on them, the results are used to justify the prejudice that we are inferior and unintelligent. Since we are taught to believe that the tests are infallible, they have become a self-fulfilling prophecy that cuts off our initiative and brainwashes us.
Huey P. Newton
White America has seen to it that Black history has been suppressed in schools and in American history books. The bravery of hundreds of our ancestors who took part in slave rebellions has been lost in the mists of time, since plantation owners did their best to prevent any written accounts of uprisings.
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.
The racist dog policemen must withdraw immediately from our communities, cease their wanton murder and brutality and torture of black people, or face the wrath of the armed people.
Huey P. Newton
Too many so-called leaders of the movement have been made into celebrities and their revolutionary fervor destroyed by mass media. They become Hollywood objects and lose identification with the real issues. The task is to transform society; only the people can do that
Huey P. Newton
The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.
Huey P. Newton
Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.
Huey P. Newton
The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism.
Huey P. Newton
I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.
You can tell the tree by the fruit it bears. You see it through what the organization is delivering as far as a concrete program. If the tree's fruit sours or grows brackish, then the time has come to chop it down - bury it and walk over it and plant new seeds.
Laws should be made to serve the people. People should not be made to serve the laws.
Huey P. Newton
I expected to die. At no time before the trial did I expect to escape with my life. Yet being executed in the gas chamber did not necessarily mean defeat. It could be one more step to bring the community to a higher level of consciousness.
Malcolm X was the first political person in this country that I really identified with. If he had lived and not been purged, I probably would have joined the Muslims.
Black men and women who refuse to live under oppression are dangerous to white society because they become symbols of hope to their brothers and sisters, inspiring them to follow their example.
My mother and my father have been married 50 years, and he's just started to understand that something's wrong with the system. He accepted the whole thing, you see. Yet this industrious kind of engagement didn't bring him the success, according to American terms, that he wanted. I was probably affected by this very much. In fact, I know I was.
I didn't get trained by the school system like other kids, and when I did concentrate on learning, my mind was cluttered and locked by the programming of the system.
The nature of a panther is that he never attacks. But if anyone attacks or backs into a corner, the panther comes up to wipe that aggressor or that attacker out.
No one can say, 'I have dropped out - I am no longer in the system.' When you're in prison, you're even closer to the system: you feel it more, and you might be in there for whatever reason. You don't transform the system as an absolute thing.
