Huey Newton made a name for himself in Oakland in 1966 when he and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panthers. From its inception, the organization was controversial; while many African-Americans in the impoverished Oakland neighborhoods where it was based admired the organization for its espousal of armed resistance, law enforcement and the media largely viewed the Panthers as nothing more than violent criminals.&nbsp; The truth, as it often is, was more complicated, as was Newton. Disparaged by many as a gangster, Newton eventually earned a Ph.D. in social philosophy at the University of California Santa Cruz. Viewed by his admirers as a leader of the oppressed and a man of the people, Newton lived for a time in a penthouse high above Oakland and drove a Mercedes-Benz. After living for a time in Cuba to escape prosecution for murder, Newton returned to the United States. In the last years of Newton's life, he struggled with cocaine addiction and various criminal charges. At the time of his death, Newton had recently been released from San Quentin. Shortly before dawn on August 22, 1989, Newton was shot several times in Oakland's Lower Bottoms neighborhood. Tyrone Robinson was convicted of his murder, which was reportedly the result of a drug dispute.&nbsp;

Bobby Seale (left) and Huey Newton, founders of the Black Panthers 

Details about a 50th anniversary exhibit on the Panthers at the Oakland Museum of California

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In August of 1989, the life of controversial Black Panther co-founder came to a violent end in an Oakland neighborhood, just two blocks from the original Panther headquarters. 

Huey Newton Murder Site 

Originally called The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, the Black Panther Party was founded in Oakland, California, in November of 1966, by Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Elbert Howard, Reggie Forte, Bobby Hutton, and Sherman Forte, as a sort of militia for the fight against civil rights. They believed that self-defense and mass organizing was the best way to tackle the problem of equality and civil justice the Black community had. In November of 1966, Huey Lewis, Bobby Seale, Elbert Howard, Reggie Forte, Sherman Forte, and Bobby Hutton came together in Oakland, California, to form the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, later known only as the Black Panther Party, changing the face of civil rights forever. Pulling from Malcolm X's philosophies, the Black Panther Party started with a strong sense of militant force, believing that self-defense, organization of mass protests, and resistance, would set African Americans equally free. In October 1967, Huey Newton was arrested for killing an Oakland police officer and his fellow Panthers initiated the "free Huey" movement. This gave them notoriety and spread the word of their organization nationwide, creating more Black Panther chapters. As the Black Panthers grew, they became known for supporting free health clinics, free breakfast programs for school children, and a variety of other community programs. They also provided support for African American men who had concerns about the draft during the Vietnam Era and spoke about the need to provide economic support for Black communities. At the height of their fame, The Black Panther Party had only a few thousand official members owing to the rigorous vetting process and time-consuming training and educational programs. However, the Black Panthers had a much more significant impact on history than their relatively small membership thanks to the media attention they received, their outspoken opponents, and the many supporters of their programs that extended into dozens of communities.

At this location in June 1967, the Anti-Poverty Center began working with a group of local activists who would soon be known as the Black Panther Party. Together, these young men organized in response to the danger posed by speeding traffic at this formerly-unmarked intersection. The Black Panthers and the Anti-Poverty Center asked the city to install a stoplight after several children at the nearby Santa Fe Elementary School were killed and others had been injured by motorists. However, the Oakland City Council denied the request. Rather than allowing another death at this intersection until the city would agree to install a light, members of the Black Panthers directed traffic at this intersection. The young men also escorted children across the busy intersection, and no further automobile-related deaths or injuries occurred. However, the Oakland Police began harassing and arresting the young men for directing traffic without authority. These confrontations between the Panthers and the Oakland Police led the Panthers to demand changes in the way the almost all-white police force operated.

Oakland Historical Marker Commemorating the Organization of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense

Bobby Seale, a co-founder of the Black Panthers, was born in Dallas, Texas, but moved to Oakland with his family when he was a child. Seale was living in the home when he enrolled at nearby Merritt College, where he studied politics and engineering. It was there that Seale met Huey Newton, another student at the college. In October of 1966, the two men founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.&nbsp; The home, which Seale's parents purchased in 1960 for $13,000, was more than simply a meeting place for the Panthers. It was there that Seale and Newton signed the .organization's manifesto and wrote its Ten Point Platform. According to Seale, the Panthers often met around his parents' dining room table, and when they returned from their nighttime patrols of Oakland neighborhoods, the group would unload their weapons in their home.&nbsp; The former Seale residence was "flipped" and sold by real estate developers in 2012, who listed the house with a price of $400,000, a shocking amount for a home in what was once one of the more impoverished neighborhoods in Oakland.&nbsp;

During the 1960s, Bobby Seale lived with his parents and siblings at the home on 57th Street. Seale was the co-founder, along with Huey Newton, of the Black Panthers, and the organization often met at the residence.

Former Home of Bobby Seale 

The original Merritt College, located on what was then Grove Street, began as a facility to teach the children of University of California faculty in 1923. After closing during World War II, the school reopened as the Merritt School of Business in 1946. It was later renamed Merritt College.&nbsp; As white residents moved out of North Oakland following World War II, the Black enrollment at Merritt increased. There was a fourfold increase in the number of Black students at Merritt from 1964 to 1969, and many of the students were politically active on campus. In the mid-1960s, students at the college organized Soul Students Advisory Council (SSAC) and began to advocate for a Black studies program and Black faculty and administrators. In 1965, SSAC began to push Merritt's administration to hire a Black counselor specifically for Black students. One of the organization's members, Bobby Seale, threatened to shut the campus down if the hire was not made. Sid Walton was the college's first Black faculty member and served as an adviser for SSAC. It was in late 1966, just months after the formation of SSAC, that Bobby Seale met another Merritt student, Huey Newton. Inspired by their earlier work with SSAC and other Black revolutionary organizations, Newton and Seale formed the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. The move was partly in response to the killing, in October of that year, of Matthew Johnson, a sixteen-year-old, unarmed Black man by a San Francisco police officer. The rioting that followed Johnson's death convinced Newton that the Black community's anger could be harnessed to resist the police. Despite the objections and protests of numerous students, the college was moved from its Grove Street location to the &nbsp;hills of East Oakland in 1971. Though the move was planned several years beforehand, the relocation was seen by many Black and Chicano students as a response to student activism on the largely minority Grove Street location. The Grove Street campus remained open for a few more years, but was declared seismically unsound in 1975. After sitting empty for a number of years, the site was reconditioned and is now home to Children's Hospital and Research Center Oakland.&nbsp; The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1992.

Though it now occupies another location, Merritt College was originally located on Martin Luther King, Jr. Way, near the home of Black Panther co-founder, Bobby Seale. The college was a hotbed of political activity and was where Seale met Huey Newton. The pair founded the Black Panthers in 1966. The college also had the nation's first Black Studies Department, created in 1964.

Former Site of Merritt College 

The building that now houses the It's All Good Bakery was the original headquarters of the Black Panther Party, founded in 1966. At the time, the group's office consisted of just that--they initially had no furniture until Sid Walton, a counselor at Merritt College, gave them some chairs.&nbsp; The storefront office, on what was then named Grove Street, was roughly a block-and-a-half from Bobby Seale's house. They rented the space in January of 1967, shortly after the organization was formed in October of 1966. The Panthers held meetings in the office every Saturday to instruct new members on the Ten-Point Platform and the philosophy of the organization.&nbsp; The headquarters was also where the organization printed its newspaper, The Black Panther Party.&nbsp;The newspaper's circulation was 125,000 a week, and its peak, it was close to 300,000 per week. The paper was distributed throughout the United States.&nbsp; Kim Cloud, one of the owners of the bakery, participated in the free breakfast program as a child.

In  North Oakland, the It's All Good Bakery might appear to be an ordinary bake shop. But the building has a history not readily apparent from the outside. In the 1960s, the building was the original headquarters of the Black Panther Party.

It's All Good Bakery (first headquarters of the Black Panther Party)

<h4>History of the New Haven Black Panther Trials</h4>
The Black Panther Trials in New Haven began on May 21, 1969, when a farmer in Middlefield, Connecticut, came across the body of Alex Rackley, a member of the New York chapter of the Black Panther Party who was suspected of being an FBI informant. Rackley had been shot in the head and the chest. The following day, acting on information from an unidentified informant, New Haven police raided the local headquarters of the Black Panther Party. Black Panther party founder and national chairman, Bobby Seale, was already in New Haven, at Yale University, giving a speech. Seale, Ericka Huggins (who was heard on tape during Rackley’s interrogation), and nine other party members were arrested.&nbsp;
A year later, the murder trial began with Lonnie McLucas, the only member who physically took part in Rackley’s murder that refused to plead guilty (he had confessed, but he was also facing the death penalty). The State also charged Seale and Huggins with conspiracy to kidnap and murder Rackley, and prosecutors sought the death penalty as well. Party members feared the charges were designed to destroy the Party.&nbsp;Under national media attention, some 15,000 Panthers, as well as others, gathered on the New Haven Green to protest the trial. Even the President of Yale, Kingman Brewster, claimed:<blockquote>“I am skeptical of the ability of Black revolutionaries to achieve a fair trial anywhere in the United States.”&nbsp;</blockquote>In addition to the trial, protesters were voicing concerns about FBI director Hoover’s Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO), in which Hoover ordered agents to disrupt, discredit, or otherwise neutralize radical groups like the Panthers.
Three Panthers, Warren Kimbro, Lonnie McLucas, and George Sams were given prison sentences&nbsp;while Seale and Huggins eventually had their charges dismissed after months of controversy. The New Haven trial was significant across the country, and as with the Amistad case over 100 years prior, the trial presented a certain apex of racial tensions. This time, however, it was between groups like the Panthers and the FBI (and inherently the U.S. Government). However, the trial had a two-pronged, negative effect on both the Panthers and the FBI; other African-Americans sought to distance themselves from the Panthers&nbsp;while the FBI’s COINTELPRO was put under heavy scrutiny for its unsavory activities.&nbsp;
The trial also played a role in the eventual downfall of the Party. After a string of confrontations with law enforcement, along with the jailing of Party leaders, the Black Panther Party was essentially inactive by the mid-1970s.1

Between 1969 and 1971, New Haven was the site of one of the most significant political trials of the century: the New Haven Black Panther trials. Beginning in 1966, the Black Panther Party formed and, in the following years, expanded to every major city in the U.S. Because of the Party’s calls for violent action against racist institutions, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI called the Black Panther Party as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country.” 

In New Haven in 1969, local Panther Party members suspected another member, Alex Rackley, of being an informant for the FBI. Rackley was held hostage at the Party headquarters on Orchard Street and subsequently tortured and murdered. The following trial, beginning in 1970, garnered national media attention. Three of the killers were arrested and eventually confessed while the FBI took the opportunity to move against the group’s leadership. 

By May Day in 1970, tens of thousands of Black Panthers gathered in New Haven and on Yale grounds to protest the trials. Hostilities and violence undercoated the mood of the city, and everyone—from J. Edgar Hoover to New Haveners—made plans to leave town, thinking the city would explode. In the aftermath of the trial, both the Black Panthers and the FBI suffered substantial damage to their reputations.

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Huey Newton Murder Site

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