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From: Pan-African News Wire<br>
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Huey P. Newton: The Canadian Connection<br><br>
By Norman (Otis) Richmond<br><br>
Huey P. Newton was murdered 20 years ago in Oakland, California
during<br>
the month of August. Because Black freedom fighters like George and<br>
Jonathan Jackson, Khatari Gaulden and others lost their lives during<br>
this month, revolutionaries inside the California prison system have<br>
deemed it Black August.<br><br>
It is August 22, 1989 at about 8:30 a.m. Gwen Johnston, the co-owner<br>
of Third World Books and Crafts (Toronto’s first African Canadian<br>
owned bookstore) phones me. The news is shocking, dreadful even.
Mrs.<br>
Johnston is in tears stating, “Otis they have killed Huey”.<br><br>
Mrs. Johnston and her husband Lennie were huge supporters of Newton,<br>
the Black Panther Party and the struggle for African and human<br>
liberation.<br><br>
When Newton returned to the United States after his exile in<br>
revolutionary Cuba in 1977 he first landed in Toronto. He was
detained<br>
in Brampton, Ontario and was represented by the progressive<br>
Euro-Canadian lawyer, Paul Copeland. Toronto’s African community<br>
supported Newton and the Panthers had several chapters in this
county.<br><br>
Toronto’s African community was represented by Owen Sankara Leach,<br>
Lennox Farrell, the late Sharona Hall, Mitch Holder, Bryan Hyman,<br>
Cikiah Thomas and others at the Brampton courthouse. It was covered
by<br>
the Toronto dailies and even was discussed by Walter Cronkite on the<br>
CBS Evening News.<br><br>
Spider Jones discusses his brief tenure with the Black Panther Party<br>
in his autobiography “Out of the Darkness: The Spider Jones
Story”.<br><br>
Another Jones, Rocky created a Black Panther Party chapter in
Halifax,<br>
Nova Scotia.<br><br>
Whatever his shortcomings and there were many, Newton led many of us<br>
ideologically. For a brief moment in the history of Africans in<br>
America Newton was” the tallest tree in the forest”.<br><br>
Malcolm X was the first national leader in the African community in<br>
the United States to oppose the war in Vietnam. Dr. Martin Luther
King<br>
later followed Malcolm’s lead on this issue; Newton took it to the<br>
next limit. He offered troops to fight on the side of the North<br>
Vietnamese. In 1970, when was released from prison in California,
his<br>
first act was to offer troops to fight in Vietnam on the side of the<br>
Vietnamese people.<br><br>
On August 29, 1970 Newton wrote "In the spirit of international<br>
revolutionary solidarity the Black Panther Party hereby offers to
the<br>
National Liberation Front and Provisional revolutionary Government
of<br>
South Vietnam an undetermined number of troops to assist you in your<br>
fight against American imperialism. It is appropriate for the Black<br>
Panther Party to take this action at this time in recognition of the<br>
fact that your struggle is also our struggle, for we recognize that<br>
our common enemy is the American imperialist who is the leader of<br>
international bourgeois domination."<br><br>
Newton also raised the questions of the liberation of women and even<br>
gays. At that time in our history this was not fashionable.<br>
Nationalists, Pan-Africanist and even some socialist formations did<br>
not wish to touch the hot potato of gay rights. Newton did. He was
the<br>
bold one. His speech given on August 15, 1970 created a firestorm in<br>
the African liberation movement. At that time I did not support<br>
Newton's thoughts on the issue of gays and lesbians.<br><br>
Newton said: "We should be careful about using those terms that
might<br>
turn our friends off. The terms 'faggot' and 'punk' should be
deleted<br>
from our vocabulary and, especially, we should not attach names<br>
normally designed for homosexuals to men who are enemies of the<br>
people. Homosexuals are not enemies of the people. We should try to<br>
form a working coalition with the gay liberation and women's<br>
liberation groups. We must always handle social forces in the most<br>
appropriate manner."<br><br>
Newton was born in Oak Grove, Louisiana on February 17, 1942.<br><br>
Louisiana has always been a problem for the ruling circle in the<br>
United States. Queen Mother Moore, Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter, Elmer<br>
"Geronimo" Pratt, Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown)
and<br>
Newton all hail from Louisiana.<br><br>
Queen Mother Moore from New Iberia, Carter from Shreveport, Geronimo<br>
from Morgan City, Imam Al-Amin from Baton Rouge and Newton from Oak<br>
Grove.<br><br>
There were 74 chapters of Marcus Garvey’s Universal Negro
Improvement<br>
Association and African Communities League (UNIA-ACL) in Louisiana<br>
alone. In the 1950s and 1960s the militant Deacons for Defense
sprang<br>
up in the pecan state. Jesse Jackson won the primaries for the<br>
Democratic Party in 1984 and 1988. Barack Hussein Obama, a true<br>
African American rode a wave of black support to victory in
Louisiana.<br><br>
The state has also produced its share of sell-outs, buffoons and
idiots.<br><br>
As we commemorate the 30th Anniversary of Black August and the 20th<br>
anniversary of Newton joining the ancestors we should remember the<br>
words of Mumia Abu-Jamal.<br><br>
Says Mumia: "Huey was, it must be said, no godling, no saint. He
was,<br>
however, intensely human, curious, acutely brilliant, a lover of the<br>
world's children, an implacable foe of all the world's
oppressors."<br><br>
Norman Richmond can be contacted
<a href="mailto:Norman.o.richmond@gmail.com">
Norman.o.richmond@gmail.com</a> <br>
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