Huey P. Newton Quotes

Huey Percy Newton was an African-American political activist and revolutionary who, along with Bobby Seale, co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. He continued to pursue an education, eventually earning a Ph.D. in social philosophy. In 1989 he was shot and killed in Oakland, California.

✵ 17. February 1942 – 22. August 1989
Huey P. Newton photo

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Revolutionary Suicide
Revolutionary Suicide
Huey P. Newton
Huey P. Newton: 29   quotes 5   likes

Famous Huey P. Newton Quotes

“Laws should be made to serve the people. People should not be made to serve the laws.”

Source: To Die for the People: The Writings of Huey P. Newton

Huey P. Newton Quotes about people

“To die for the racists is lighter than a feather, but to die for the people is heavier than any mountain and deeper than any sea.”

To Die for the People (1972), paraphrasing Mao Zedong's "Serve the People"

“The blood, sweat, tears, and suffering of Black people are the foundations of the wealth and power of the United States of America. We were forced to build America, and if forced to, we will tear it down.”

From "In Defense of Self-defense" I (June 20, 1967)
To Die For The People
Context: The blood, sweat, tears, and suffering of Black people are the foundations of the wealth and power of the United States of America. We were forced to build America, and if forced to, we will tear it down. The immediate result of this destruction will be suffering and bloodshed. But the end result will be the perpetual peace for all mankind.

Huey P. Newton Quotes

“Rewriting unjust laws is a basic human right and fundamental obligation.”

From "In Defense of Self-defense" I (June 20, 1967)
To Die For The People
Context: Men were not created in order to obey laws. Laws are created to obey men. They are established by men and should serve men. The laws and rules which officials inflict upon poor people prevent them from functioning harmoniously in society. There is no disagreements about this function of law in any circle-the disagreement arises from the question of which men laws are to serve. Such lawmakers ignore the fact that it is the duty of the poor and unrepresented to construct rules and laws that serve their interest better. Rewriting unjust laws is a basic human right and fundamental obligation.

“To us power is, first of all, the ability to define phenomena, and secondly the ability to make these phenomena act in a desired manner.”

Black Capitalism Re-analyzed I: June 5, 1971 in The Huey P. Newton Reader, p. 277

“An unarmed people are slaves or are subject to slavery at any given moment.”

"In Defense of Self-Defense" (20 June 1967)

“You can kill my body, but you can't kill my soul. My soul will live forever!”

Last words, quoted in Hugh Pearsons (1994) The Shadow of the Panther, p. 315

“Many times the poorest White person is the most racist because he is afraid that he might lose something, or discover something he does not have.”

The Women's Liberation and Gay Liberation Movements (April 15, 1970)
To Die For The People

“In their quest for freedom and in their attempts to prevent the oppressor from striping them of all the things they need to exist, the people see things as moving from A to B to C; they do not see things as moving from A to Z.”

On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defection of the Black Panther Party from the Black Community
To Die For The People

“We realized at a very early point in our development that revolution is a process. It is not a particular action, nor is it a conclusion. It is a process.”

On the Defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party and the Defection of the Black Panther Party from the Black Community
To Die For The People

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