Huey Newton was born on February 17, 1942 in Monroe, Louisiana.  He was a black child growing up in the South. He was also the youngest of seven children. Huey had a huge passion for civil rights that he hadn't realized yet.   

I can do this! Nothing can hold me back!

    Huey had a tough time in school, he would get detentions often. One day, he realized that he didn't want to be a troublemaker anymore. He wanted to be like his older brother, Melvin, who just got a degree in Social Work. 

I am changing my life for the better!

    After Huey graduated High School he still could not read. He faced this challenge head on and became his own teacher. Taking charge of your own problems and facing them head on is very hard! Regardless of all the difficulties, Huey Newton eventually got accepted into Merritt Community College. And even after that he went on pursue a PhD at the University of California. 

    Huey turned his life around and in 1966 he founded the Black Panther Party, a Black Civil Rights group. Huey founded a group that helped literally thousands of people. Huey Newton and the Panthers assisted many communities with their non-profit work! 

    Huey and the Panthers organized a Breakfast Program that provided children with a free breakfast before school. Some children even said that the Panthers were 'groovy' for providing a nutritious breakfast. This might not seem like a big deal but these meals helped improve the school performances in children. This program helped push the need for a federal assistance in providing breakfast for children in need.

    Huey Newton and the Panthers provided a proper and hearty breakfast to more than 20,000 underprivileged children in Black and Brown communities. During a 1969 U.S Senate hearing, the national School Lunch Program declared that the Huey and his team fed more children than the State of California. This Breakfast Program was sponsored by national headquarters and ended serving breakfast in over 39 cities, all over the US of A! 

    Many hospitals in the area were always overcrowded and underfunded, many people couldn't afford this care either. To try and solve this problem, Huey created People’s Free Medical Centers (PFMC). The Panthers always had the mindset that these new clinics were meant to help "the people, body and soul." They wanted to make sure that their community was getting the medical help they needed. He wanted to make sure that someone without money wouldn't get left behind. The 60% of women in the Panthers led this program!

    Many schools and teachers would see a black child struggling with school and they would tie it to their skin color. Some would have this mean idea that black children were automatically unintelligent. Can you imagine being so mean?  

The Panthers and Huey wanted to change the perception that black children were stupid. They created the Oakland Community School to give black kids a real opportunity to succeed, and to show people their brilliance. This school was so amazing that the California Legislature awarded them for "having set the standard for the highest level of elementary education in the state."