On Properly Laying the Black Panthers to Rest
Fredrika Newton’s crusade to memorialize the most influential Black movement of the 20th century.
Fredrika Newton, widow of Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton. Photography by Aubrie Pick. Mural by Refa One and AeroSoul.
“At noon today, it was pitch black outside,” shares Fredrika Newton, a civil rights activist and former Black Panther, before glancing towards her dining room window in early September 2020. Just a few miles away, California’s wildfire season has already proven to be record-breaking, the destruction surging into the tens of millions of miles while spanning the entire West Coast. “Yeah, I’m a little scared.”
As the widow of none other than Huey P. Newton, the revolutionary co-founder of the Black Panther Party, she is no stranger to confronting her fears, wildfires included. This all started at a young age. “We were marching before we were walking!” laughs Newton. “My mother was a realtor and housing rights activist. She took a firm, strong stance against redlining and discrimination.” Her father was a musician and the two met at a political event for the Communist Party. “My mother was Jewish, and my father was Black, and it was against the law at that point to marry. And so, I think they had to marry in Mexico.” Although California legalized interracial marriage in 1948 (Perez v. Sharp), it wasn’t widely put into practice until 1967 when the Supreme Court ruled in its favor with Loving v. Virginia.
Photography by Aubrie Pick.
Despite not being activist-minded or politically-motivated throughout high school, Newton became familiar with many activists of the day thanks to her mother’s activism. They would travel far and wide to congregate at her mother’s home in Berkeley, California. “She was actually the one responsible for getting [Huey] a secure place to live after he was released from prison. I didn’t know she was doing that kind of work.” Newton continued to reflect, “And so, I came home from college and she said ‘Yes, [Huey’s] coming over for lunch.’” It was during this fateful meal that the stars aligned, and at 19 years old, Newton found herself in a relationship with one of the most iconic men of the century.
“It wasn’t really ‘dating’ in the sense of the word because he had to be cloistered,” Newton explained. “We’d have stolen moments in an attempt to have normal relationship patterns.” Surprisingly, despite being continuously watched and surveilled, solitude found a way to creep in. “He was lonely a lot. He was really isolated up in his apartment; it felt like a prison for him. So, there weren’t a lot of shared times with the public, it was mostly trying to steal moments alone.” Newton recalls a telescope that Huey kept by the window, its scope aimed at his former jail cell, which was visible just across Lake Merritt atop the Alameda County Courthouse. During these first few months of her relationship, Newton felt herself growing more politically active, specifically within the Black Panther Party.
Founded in Oakland, California, in 1966 by Dr. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, the Black Panther Party (BPP) was a revolutionary socialist political organization with chapters across the United States, UK, and Algeria. With membership numbering in the thousands, the party platform was organized by the Ten-Point Program, which laid out range of demands and beliefs including the “power to determine the destiny of our Black community," full employment for Black people, and free healthcare for all Black and oppressed people. Unfortunately, the BPP was targeted by the FBI’s J. Edgar Hoover and regularly attacked via his illegal COINTELPRO missions. Unable to withstand these external conflicts, the BPP was officially dissolved in 1982.
Photography by Aubrie Pick. Mural by Refa One and AeroSoul.
But by late 1971, Newton found herself regularly attending BPP events on weekends, which included political education classes, learning the Ten-Point Platform, and diving deeper into the BPP's overall culture. “I felt that I was really a party member when I started pulling watch, which is to say there was never a time when there wasn’t somebody awake and making sure that we were protected.” She continued, “There were about 28 members who had been murdered by the police. And there were often raids of our headquarters and where we lived.”
“I felt that I was really a party member when I started pulling watch, which is to say there was never a time when there wasn’t somebody awake and making sure that we were protected.”
“It was really stressful for all of us, because not only did you have to look for the police on the outside of the party but the inside of the party, too. You didn’t know who was infiltrating and who was not.” She sighed. “You didn’t know, and that was by design. The police sent letters to Huey saying it’s from different party members or different organizations, exposing this person or that person. So, it set up this whole atmosphere where it was possible for anybody to be the police.”
Newton doesn't recall that there was much room for fun—there were constant raids by police, volunteers pulling 24-hour shifts, and repeated attacks on their lives. Yet, she had to find joy in the process, understanding that the work she was doing mattered. Working on the distribution of the BPP’s weekly newspaper stands out to her. “I liked it because a large group of party members you don’t normally see from San Francisco and Oakland and Berkeley would be all over, working to get these papers packed up and shipped out.” The spirit of community and love for the people kept everyone tied together, each finding their sense of purpose to uplift the race.
Photography by Aubrie Pick.
As if the rigorous pace of the Panther life and the constant threat of death that hung heavily in the air weren’t enough, by 1973, relations between Newton and Huey had turned a bit cold. After Newton’s father boldly confronted Huey, demanding that Huey “either marry [Fredrika] or leave her!” Newton discovered Huey had moved on to another woman he would later go on to marry. “I was just heartbroken!” Newton exclaimed. “This guy was so public. He had the adoration of thousands and thousands of women. It was just too much for me,” her voice trailed.
“This guy was so public. He had the adoration of thousands and thousands of women. It was just too much for me.”
Newton will never forget the day, shortly after their split, that she laid eyes on her own FBI files via the Freedom of Information Act. “There were FBI agents right on the other side of [Huey’s] apartment—they had rented the apartment next door. So many of our intimate moments and moments together were recorded, all the way until I left [the Party] and went to Tanzania… I was tracked there through the FBI files.” She paused. “They were relentless.”
After spending a deeply entrenched two years with the BPP, by 1973, Newton was ready to move on. She packed her bags and enrolled in Wesleyan University in Connecticut. “I’d done a little research and saw that there had been a history of activism on that campus… I’d never been there before, but it was an attempt to do something different and really start fresh.”
After graduating, Newton returned to the Bay Area, and while she’d occasionally cross paths with Huey, nothing became of it until nearly ten years later in 1984. Huey rang her one fateful day out of the blue, professing his love and undying devotion. “That was on a Monday. That Friday, we were married.” Truly the definition of soulmates, the two enjoyed five years of marriage before Huey was murdered in 1989.
Photography by Aubrie Pick.
In the years immediately following, aside from dealing with the incredible weight of grief and loss, she was also left with much of Huey’s archives, nearly all BPP files. “How did I wake up and have this legacy of this man and this whole history of this organization in my hands?!” To put it mildly, she was overwhelmed. "And so, it took many, many years before I felt like I was up to the task.” When Stanford University reached out to help document and organize the files, Newton saw this as a godsend.
“How did I wake up and have this legacy of this man and this whole history of this organization in my hands?!”
Along with David Hilliard, a former Black Panther, she co-founded the Huey P. Newton Foundation in 1993. “So many people were distorting the history and revising the history, so we wanted to make sure there was a center that had an educational mission,” she explained. “We created a nonprofit to maintain and promote the history and legacy of the Black Panther Party. We did that through lectures and republication of the books...There is a photographic pictorial essay that traveled internationally, and we did tours and talks and movies and that sort of thing.”
In recent years, Newton has taken on a more proactive, forward-facing role within the foundation. As she looked around the city of Oakland, birthplace of the Panthers, what stood out to her was that there was no public presence honoring that important legacy. She thought, “Because I do art, how can I combine my love of art and this history?” Her response was to advocate for a campaign of BPP-inspired public art—today she’s fighting to create public art installations, erect monuments, and get new street names adopted.
“Thousands come here every year to see some evidence of the Black Panther Party in Oakland and there’s been nothing to show them,” she explained. “So, I decided that I wanted to do a monument, a gift that pays homage to the legacy of the party.”
Photography by Aubrie Pick. Mural by Refa One and AeroSoul.
And today, Newton has a whole new generation of artists and activists on her side. After the murder of George Floyd and amidst the Black Lives Matter demonstrations that followed, hundreds of murals went up all over the city of Oakland Across the street from site Huey’s death, there is a huge mural in works commemorating the women of the Black Panther Party. “So I thought, I’m going to get the street name changed! Let’s change the street to Dr. Huey Newton Way and put some kind of public piece there at the site of where he died. On the corner of Mandela Parkway and Dr. Huey Newton Way.” If Newton has it her way, this will all be done by 2022. The street name changed has already been approved by the Oakland City Council.
Newton wants to take things a step further. As she continues to raise her public profile as the face of the Foundation, she sees the immediate need to educate the masses on BPP history. Much of this lies within the Black Panther Party weekly newspapers that were published for 13 years. “That history isn’t accessible to anybody—there are a couple of places where they’re online digitally, but they’re not indexed or searchable.” Currently, all the newspaper and Black Panther Party archives are physically located at Stanford. Newton is fundraising so that one day, hopefully by 2021, these papers will be entirely indexed and digitized, thereby making them accessible to everyone. Finally, Newton also sees the need for a physical BPP museum in Oakland that can also be accessed online. The Black Power Museum for the People is being slated for a 2026 grand opening.
Newton has had to lean on many committed volunteers to help bring many of these initiatives to fruition. She credits Xavier Buck, a doctoral student at UC Berkeley, Damien McDuffie, the Foundation’s archivist, and Dana King, a sculptor who will be creating a Huey bust to be displayed on the street named after him one day, for being especially grounding and helpful during this time. “For over a year we’ve been working side-by-side, putting in many, many hours a week on a volunteer basis, trying to make these initiatives happen. These guys I work with give me life!”
“I know it sounds trite, but I think that's one thing that [the Panthers] didn't do. We didn't have a spiritual life, and we did not take care of ourselves well, and I think it definitely impairs your thought process and impairs your relationships.”
With so many items to tackle, it’s a wonder how Newton can maintain a level head. “I’m 68 years old, only have so much capacity, and we’re working long hours daily with these projects. I feel so invigorated by it all!” To decompress, she has learned how to start prioritizing the act of self-care. “I know it sounds trite, but I think that's one thing that [the Panthers] didn't do. We didn't have a spiritual life, and we did not take care of ourselves well, and I think it definitely impairs your thought process and impairs your relationships,” she reflected. “You know I'm sure there were many things we could have done differently, and that was one of them. It’s still a struggle for me to balance work, and work-life balance tends to be a lot of work.”
Photography by Aubrie Pick.
“You’ve got to take care of yourself, nurture yourself, nurture your loved ones, nurture your love relationships because if you don’t, you’ll be so off-balance. I am so grateful for the love and support that I receive from my partner, Herb King, my son- and daughter-in-law, Kieron and Alice Slaughter, and all of my close friends.” Besides spending time with loved ones and creating a Black Sanctuary Garden in her yard with the help of Leslie Bennett, she utilizes a holistic approach to health to maintain her youthful spirit. “I don't eat sugar and I don't eat flour, and I meditate each morning.” That, coupled with an active spiritual life, allows her to “trust God every step of the way.”
As she acknowledged, the current state of government affairs within the country doesn’t help. “It was difficult then, and it's very difficult now—the trauma much more publicly accessible to you,” she remarked when reflecting on the pervasiveness of live videos and social media that sheds light on police brutality. One of her strategies to overcome these injustices is to fight back at the ballot, on the local as well as the national front. “Too much bloodshed was spilled over the right for us to vote. It's imperative that we vote!”
“Too much bloodshed was spilled over the right for us to vote. It's imperative that we vote!”
When looking ahead, beyond the November 2020 elections, Newton believes that real, lasting change begins in our backyards. “I’d say find something that you feel passionately about in your community. You don’t have to wait until you’re 68 years old to find your voice,” she explained. “There were men and women in [BPP] leadership at 15 years old, such as Marsha Turner. Age does not dictate whether or not you can make a difference.” At 15 years old, Marsha Turner led the Free Breakfast Program within the BPP, feeding hundreds of children each day. The BPP’s Free Breakfast Program was later used by the U.S. government to create the federal free breakfast programs we know of today. “We were young!” she says, but emphasizes that today’s activists are just as committed to fighting for justice. “We were no less fearless than young people are now.”