Huey Newton And The Black Panther Party Summary

Annotated Bibliography
Hugh Pearson
Pearson, Hugh. The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley Pub., 1994. Print.
Pearson’s analysis of Huey P. Newton and the Black Panther Party.
The book was one of the first comprehensive studies of the party done by an African American historian.
The analysis explores the character of Huey Newton.
Pearson describes Huey Newton as the driving force of the party.
The book concludes that the inherent criminality, paranoia, and bad decisions of Newton.
It also talks about other leaders, as well as the gang culture of the entire party.
The book also talks about the factors that led to the decline and collapse of the Panthers.
This book
has been discussed extensively by BPP historians
It’s one of the most referenced works.
The book further explores some of the weaknesses of The Black Panthers Party.
Pearson, Hugh. Interview by Brian Lamb. 21 Aug. 1994.
It’s an interview of historian Hugh Pearson. It’s important because it explores some of the personal motivations for his writing.
Pearson explains that in addition to having Huey P. Newton 's namesake, he also considered joining the Panthers at a young age.
He also discussed many personal interviews with other Panthers not mentioned in his other works.
He gives insight into his personal connections with the Panthers that may have influenced his analyses.
Finally, the interview reviews his personal political beliefs.
He claims he was raised conservative but considers himself independent.
Judson Jeffries
Jeffries, J. L. Comrades: A Local History of the Black Panther Party. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 2007. Print.
This book describes the development of local branches of the Black Panthers Party.
It gives a detailed explanation for how they influenced the perception of the entire organization.
In these specific local examples, he describes individual events such as police brutality against members of the party
He also mentions how each individual branch reacted to these issues.
He then compares and contrasts the local branches, noting their ideological differences. He describes how their strength eventually waned and disappeared.
Jeffries, J. L. Black Power in the Belly of the Beast. Urbana: University of Illinois, 2006. Print.
This compilation of multiple historians looks at the black power movement in the 1960s.
It considers each radical civil rights group, including the Black Panther Party,
Each chapter compares their ideals and their methods for achieving success.
The comparison of different radical groups illuminates the ways in which the Black Panther Party differed from other groups
It further explores how those differences may have affected the group’s legacy.
Jeffries, J. L. Huey P. Newton: The Radical Theorist. Jackson: University of Mississippi, 2002. Print.
Jeffries gives an in-depth, fascinating view of the charismatic leader that founded the Black Panther Party
It further highlights on the charistimatic leader’s profound effect on its ideals during the party’s existence.
The book exposes the views of Newton from a conservative standpoint and
It further exposes it from the liberal standpoint in the form of primary documents and then compares and contrasts the two viewpoints.
The conservatives generally criticize Newton’s drug usage and violence, while liberals idealize his message.
Jeffries, J. L. On the Ground: The Black Panther Party in Communities across America. Jackson, MS: University of Mississippi, 2010. Print.
This book gives another description of local groups that contributed to the widespread national prominence of the group.
It explains how these local branches sprung up and eventually disappeared.
The work also compares and contrasts the local groups and highlights the disparities of ideology that had existed between them.
Yohuru Williams
Williams, Yohuru R. "Some Abstract Thing Called Freedom: Black Power, and the Legacy of the Black Panther Party." OAH Magazine of History 22 July 2008: 16-21. Web.
This article contrasts The Black Panther Party with less radical civil rights organizations.
It questions the idea that these black power groups were logical beneficial extensions of the more peaceful groups.
Williams also describes the Black Panthers’ constantly evolving legacy He provides a detailed account of the factors that led to the extinction of the party.
Williams, Yohuru R. In Search of the Black Panther Party: New Perspectives on a Revolutionary Movement. Durham: Duke UP, 2006. Print.
Williams factually debates the pros and cons of the revolutionary group
He debates them from a modern standpoint, listing the pros and cons of the group’s ideals.
He notes that Hugh Pearson is too quick to condemn the party in his book The Shadow of the Panther.
However, Williams is careful not to accept all of the party’s strategies.
He highlights a few of its features that led to its demise.
Williams, Yohuru R. Black Politics, White Power: Civil Rights, Black Power, and the Black Panthers in New Haven. Malden, MA: Blackwell Pub., 2008. Print.
Williams focuses extensively on the role of the media in influencing public opinion of the Black Panther Party.
Civil rights are extensively covered in his work.
The media played a crucial role in influencing the public perception of the Black Panther Party.
Williams talks about the black power (the rise of black power).
He describes the role the government. He explains that the government played an active role in influencing the media and denigrating the Black Panther Party.
He mentions also how the government supposedly illegally monitored the party’s actions and sent informants in to infiltrate the party.
Additionally, Williams notes the methods the Black Panthers tried to use to manipulate the media in their favor.
Williams, Yohuru. "No Haven: From Civil Rights to Black Power in New Haven, Connecticut." JSTOR. Paradigm Publishers, Dec. 2001. Web. 12 Nov. 2012.
This article by Yohuru Williams gives further detail on the New Haven branch of the Black Panther Party.
The article discusses the specific programs.
The programs discussed include the Breakfast for Children Program, that were instituted in a nonviolent manner in the community.
The programs were “more humanitarian than racial”
The article describes the party as an agent for community change and organization.
The city of New Haven was heralded in 1960s.
The article talks about the establishment of free health care, anti-drug campaign and freedom school by Panthers.
The city of the New Haven hardly appreciated the efforts of the party.
The article entails the rise of the Black Panthers Party in New Haven.
His thesis is that the branch operated independently from central leadership and would have been successful had it not been for illegal federal operations.
Williams, Yohuru R. Liberated Territory: Toward a Local History of the Black Panther Party. Duke UP, 2009. Print.
This book describes some of the local branches that sprung up during the Black Panther Party’s existence.
Yohuru notes the factors leading to the demise of the Black Panther Party
Similarly to the works by Jeffries, this work individually describes a few of the groups and compares and contrasts them with each other.
This book notes the important ideological disparities that exist between
them.
The book examines the Black Panther Party’s community activism from around 1966 to 1971.
According to Williams, these ideological disparities were one of the primary reasons for many of the group’s controversies and its eventual disappearance.\
Williams provides some of different survival programs that were organized by the party.
Yohuru in this book gives a brief history of the origin of the Black Panther Party.
It emphasizes on the need for moving from the stagnant characterizations of the Black Panther Party as either the violent street toughs or humanitarian do-gooders.
It challenges some of the scholarly articles about the revolutionary violence and community activism.