On the last night of February, hundreds of people from the Bryn Mawr community shuffled into the Great Hall to attend the much-anticipated event entitled “Revolutionary Love: Inside the Black Panther Party with Fredrika Newton.”
The event was the finale of a long list of impactful events held for Black History Month at Bryn Mawr, and Newton, the co-founder of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation, provided a keynote speech.
Newton is the widow of Dr. Huey Newton, who co-founded of the Black Panther Party and who herself was formerly an active member of the party. Her talk emphasized the importance of truth, correcting history and community orientation, and drew parallels between the oppression that the Black Panther Party resisted throughout the 60s and 70s and the political climate of the current-day.
Before speaking, Newton played a short film that displayed images of young children eating breakfast, classrooms filled with attentive teachers, and groups of people displaying Black Panther badges and donning berets. After a short struggle with technical difficulties and correcting the sound settings, a voiceover emitted over the speakers to describe the background of the visual images. The voice explained the community programs created by the party and the community-centered goals they pursued, including sickle cell anemia testing, physical exams, free meals for children, educational resources, and more.
Once the video concluded, Newton walked onto the temporary stage assembled at the far end of the hall and, now able to see the full crowd, remarked that the number of attendees made her nervous—there were over 285 people, according to the Conference and Events Office—but she quickly moved on to explaining the goal of her speech: to correct misconceptions of the Black Panther Party and share an accurate history as she “know[s] it and lived it.”
For Newton, the importance of legacy and history is paramount. Manipulations by the U.S. government have misrepresented the history of the Black Panther Party; Newton said that while the party was active, misinformation disseminated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) influenced 78% of the articles written about the organization. She credited this fabrication of false narratives as the origin of fake news, referencing a term that has become popularized in recent years to scrutinize the media.
Describing a lethal counterintelligence campaign led by the FBI during the 60s and 70s to dismantle the Black Panthers, Newton recalled how the effort resulted in the death of 33 party members. The scheme was so deep that some members of the party “didn’t know if the person sleeping in [their] bed was an agent or not.” She explained that many hearts were broken and continue to break to this day as details of the FBI campaign are uncovered.
Newton is on a mission to correct narratives around the Black Panther Party, noting that she can’t let the Panther Party memory exist within the negative framework created by the FBI’s media influence. “People are hungry for this legacy and history,” she says. Through her speech, she highlighted that the group had goals that reached far beyond armed security for their community; their work was often about providing basic human needs of which they were deprived.
People are hungry for this legacy and history,
While she acknowledged a contrast between the program-focused Black Panther Party that originated in Oakland, California and the nonviolent activism led by Martin Luther King Jr., she emphasized that attention to armed components of the party overshadows and ignores their community work. Reading the Ten Point Program, created by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton, she articulated the goals the party held for Black Americans, such as freedom, employment, education accurately reflecting American history, bread, housing, and an end to police brutality.
While an armed component of the group existed, there continues to be a lack of acknowledgment and education on the party’s survival programs. Community-oriented and unique to each branch, the programs met the needs of local communities. For example, in North Carolina, a network of community ambulances was created to fight inequitable health care. In Chicago, free shuttles to prisons were organized to provide transportation for individuals wanting to visit inmates.
Newton worked at the Intercommunal Youth Institute, later re-named as the Oakland Community School, was established in January 1971. Newton recalled that the school was built to meet the needs of children in the community, which meant caring for the whole of the child – their nutritional, emotional, and educational well-being. She claimed that their school model was the inspiration for charter schools, which have become popular in recent years.
In total, 65 survival programs were created to implement solutions for challenges communities faced. Impressively, the party was led mostly by young adults, with the average age of party members resting at only 19 years old.
“We were young, we were moving mountains,” Newton said.
During the Q&A section of the event, an attendee introduced herself by explaining that she grew up in Oakland, California while the Black Panther Party was active. She attested to the love and appreciation the community had for the Black Panther Party. Further, in the context of the misrepresentation of the party in media and history, she asked Newton how people should access accurate information in a world of misinformation. In response, Newton highlighted the importance of telling stories.
When one looks up “the Black Panther Party” on the internet, images of armed individuals in uniforms populate the screen. Interestingly, creating visible history—physical representations to memorialize the Black Panther Party—have become a focus for the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation. In the last month, the Black Panther Party Museum opened in Oakland, California, and in 2022 a permanent statue honoring Dr. Huey was unveiled to recognize the 55th anniversary of the party. Now, the foundation is working to capture the stories of original members of the party to encapsulate their experiences. Newton reflected her belief that “history inspires activism by showing what is possible and what is necessary.”
History inspires activism by showing what is possible and what is necessary.
Despite the focus on history, Newton drew on her experience to reflect on the current day. She noted that the 2020 Black Lives Matter protests reminded her of the footprints made by the party and reflected to the audience that the party members “were not unlike you here tonight,” referring to the youthfulness of the mostly-undergraduate crowd.
She went on to share her advice to the young audience, noting the importance of starting small with your activist goals, being ready to roll up your sleeves, while still prioritizing rest.
“Get your rest,” she urged, noting that members of the party did not prioritize life beyond activism, leading to negative consequences down the road.
These reflections resonated with the audience. A Bryn Mawr alum, Rishi Sigh ‘22, who attended the event with her father, described being moved by Fredrika’s stories and connecting with “her emphasis on community care in the face of government neglect and the importance of self-care and rest in carrying out meaningful advocacy work.”
During the Q&A, Sigh, who has “been struggling with [hope] the past couple years as [her] political and social consciousness has expanded” asked Newton about how to keep hope alive. The speaker’s emphasis on community-focus and starting small “inspired and revitalized” Sigh’s activism ambitions.
It took great love to do what we did. People often overlook the great love needed to do transformative work.
At the end of the event, Newton finished by noting that “it took great love to do what we did,” and stated that “people often overlook the great love needed to do transformative work.”
