Co-founder of The Black Panther Party

“The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.”

Huey P.Newton was a revolutionary activist best known for founding the militant Black Panther Party with Bobby Seale in 1966. He was died on August 22, 1989, in Oakland, California, after being shot on the street.

Huey Percy Newton was born on February 17, 1942, in Monroe, Louisiana. Newton helped establish the African American political organization the Black Panther Party, and became a leading figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s.

An Interview with Huey P. Newton (1968)

Co-founder of The Black Panther Party

“You don’t fight racism with racism, the best way to fight racism is with solidarity.” Bobby Seale is a political activist and was co-founder and national chairman of the Black Panther Party.

As cofounder and Chairman of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale was an important leader of the Black Power movement. Born in Texas, Seale joined thousands of African Americans when his family migrated to Oakland, California during World War II.

Inspired by Malcolm X, independence movements in Africa, and anti-colonialist intellectuals such as Frantz Fanon, he founded with [Huey P.] Newton in 1966 the Black Panther Party for Self Defense.

While working at a War on Poverty program, he and Newton wrote a ten-point program that outlined the outlook and goals of the BPP.

Source

Black History Speaks: Black Panther Veterans: Bobby Seale

Revolutionary Artist & Minister of Culture, Black Panther Party

Emory Douglas was a member of the Oakland and San Francisco chapters of the Black Panther Party. He was the revolutionary Artist and Minister of Culture for the Party and oversaw art direction and production of The Black Panther, the official newspaper from 1967 to 1980.

Emory Douglas was born in Grand Rapids, Michigan in 1943. His family moved to Oakland when he was eight due for health reasons and a better climate. After some trouble with the law Emory spent 15 months at the Youth Training School in Ontario, California working in the print shop. This provided the basic training in typography, illustration and logo design. Later he enrolled at City College of San Francisco and it was there he began to explore the combination of art and message.

In March 1967, when Douglas met Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, founders of the newly formed Black Panther Party. “After that meeting, I told them I was interested in joining the party. I began catching the bus to Oakland, hanging out with Huey and Bobby and going on patrols with them,” says Douglas.

At civil rights activist Eldridge Cleaver's apartment, where Seale was working on the inaugural issue of The Black Panther, Douglas offered his design skills. He realized The Black Panther needed potent images to cut through the high illiteracy rates in poor communities.

Source

Emory Douglas: The Art of The Black Panthers

Human rights activist, poet, educator, Black Panther Party leader and former political prisoner

"On developing a description for the Black Panther Party, Ericka Huggins says. “We know the party we were in and not the entire thing. We were making history, and it wasn’t nice and clean. It wasn’t easy. It was complex.

As an activist, former political prisoner & leader in the Black Panther Party, educator & student I’ve devoted my life to the equitable treatment of all human beings—beyond the boundaries of race, age, culture, class, gender, sexual orientation, ability and status associated with citizenship.

I spent 14 years in the Black Panther Party—the highlight being my eight years as Director of the renowned Oakland Community School from 1973-1981. During that time I became both the first Black person & the first woman appointed to the Alameda Co. Board of Education."

– Extract from Ericka Huggins' Bio

Ericka Huggins oral history interview, 2016

Minister of Information & Chair (1974–77), Black Panther Party

In 1974, Elaine Brown became chair of the Black Panther Party. She was also Minister of information. Elaine grew up in the ghettos of North Philadelphia and now lives in Oakland. Elaine is also a musician and recorded two albums. She is CEO of a non-profit Oakland & the World enterprises dedicated to not-for-profit cooperative businesses set up by formerly incarcerated people and others facing barriers to economic survival.
– Sourced from Elaine Brown's website

While leading the Party she contributed to the campaign of Lionel Wilson, who became Oakland’s first black mayor. She also worked to establish the Black Panther Party’s Liberation School. However after the return of Huey P. Newton, Elaine Brown stepped down from leadership and the Black Panther Party due to concerns regarding sexism and ensuing violence.

Presently, Brown lectures at colleges and universities, as well as at numerous conferences, while still maintaining her efforts as an activist.
– Sourced from archives.gov

Graphic Artist, Black Panther Party

M. Gayle Dickson, also known as Asali, was the only woman graphic artist for the Black Panther Party Newspaper between 1972 and 1974. Dickson was born in Berkeley, California on June 27, 1948.

In 1966, she graduated from Fremont High School and attended Laney Community College where she studied painting. A year later, she transferred to Merritt College, a hub for black student political protest, and learned about African cultural heritage through African masks. While there, she also joined the Black Student Union and engaged in a protest against police brutality at the Housewives Market in downtown Oakland after police assassinated Bobby Hutton.

Her images [for the Black Panther newspaper] often focused on women and children to critique capitalism and urban poverty.

– Sourced from blackpast.org

M Gayle Asali Dickson, Black Panther Party Graphic Artist

Black Panther Party, Kansas City Chapter

Charlotte Hill O’Neal, aka Mama C, was a member of the Kansas City chapter of the Black Panther Party before she went into exile with her husband Pete O’Neal in Tanzania. Together, the two have worked in community development and founded the United African Alliance Community Center. She is a visual and spoken word artist, musician, longtime community activist and performs her music and poetry at events in Arusha and tours the globe.
– Source

“On January 30, 1969, O’Neal, then 29, announced the formation of a Black Panther chapter for Kansas City right in the hallway on the fifth floor of Kansas City police headquarters. With over 30 supporters looking on, and some police officers, he read a list of demands, which included an immediate end to police brutality and the murder of black people. Several confrontations with the police and arrests of Panther members ensued in the following year.”
– Source

The Story of a Black Panther – an interview with Mama C.

A Panther in Africa

Veteran member and archivist, Black Panther Party

Black Panther Party (BPP) veteran member, activist, educator and archivist Billy X Jennings acted as the personal aid to BPP leaders Huey Newton and David Hilliard. In this interview, Jennings discusses the legacy of the Party within the US and outside it, the role of education in revolutionary practice, his experiences alongside Newton and other Panthers, and lessons for the current uprisings in the United States and the world.

Archivist Billy X speaks about the BPP archive

Members, Black Panther Party

Albert Woodfox, Robert King and Herman Wallace were known as the Angola 3. They spent a combined total of 114 years in solitary confinement for crimes they did not commit. Their real “crime” was being black in the U.S. and organizing the only prison chapter of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Most of their time was spent in the Louisiana State Penitentiary, which is located on a former slave plantation known as Angola.

Robert King was released in 2001 after 29 years in solitary, Herman Wallace was released after 42 years on October 1, 2013 and he died of cancer three days later, and Albert Woodfox saw freedom in February 2016 after almost 44 years in a six-by-nine cell for 23 hours a day.

Since their release, both Albert Woodfox and Robert King have authored critically acclaimed autobiographies and they continue to fight for reforms in the criminal justice system.”
– Source

Heroes: A conversation with Albert Woodfox and Robert King
After 40 years in solitary, activist Albert Woodfox tells his story of survival, 2019
Emory Douglas - The Angola 3, the Prison-Industrial Complex, and Abolishing Solitary Confinement

First Recruit & Treasurer, Black Panther Party

Robert James Hutton, also known as Bobby or Lil’ Bobby, was the first recruit to join the Black Panther Party (BPP) at just 16 years old. He became the first treasurer. In 1967 Bobby Hutton led 26 Black panthers on a march on the State Capitol in Sacromento to protest new gun laws – all were arrested. Bobby Hutton was killed by police during a shootout in Oakland on April 6, 1968. Police ambushed a car occupied by BPP members. The shootout lasted for an hour and a half. Bobby Hutton was shot more than 12 times after he had already surrendered and stripped down to his underwear to prove he was not armed.

Bobby Hutton (1950-1968)

Minister of Culture and Minister of Fine Arts, Polynesian Panthers

Tigilau Ness, is a first generation New Zealand born Niue activist and reggae artist. At 17, Tigilau joined the Polynesian Panthers and was the Minister of Culture and Minister of Fine Arts. He was active in the protest movement taking part in the land protest at Takaparawhau/Bastion point and the Anti-tour protests in 1981 against the South African Springbok Rugby tour. He was arrested as a protest leader and incarcerated at Mt Eden Prison for 12 months. He was released on good behaviour after nine months.

Tigi embraced the Rastafarian faith after the 1979 tour of Bob Marley and the Wailers and in the same year, the tour of Keskidee Aroha which included a Rasta band – Ras Messengers.

Tigilau helped to set up the 12 Tribes of Israel and was a member of the 12 Tribes band. Previously, he was a member of a band called Unity. In 2002, he created Unity Pacific and recorded their debut album, From Street to Sky in 2003. Into the Dread followed in 2007 and Blackbirder Dread was released in 2016.

In May 2009, Ness was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the fifth Pacific Music Awards in Auckland, New Zealand in recognition of more than 30 years in the music industry
Tigilau Ness continues to deliver his message of unity among Pacific peoples, but he does so peacefully through song. From Street to Sky delivers a fascinating history lesson as well as an inspiring story of one man‘s difficult journey towards a state of grace.

From Street To Sky – a biography of Tigilau Ness

Member, Polynesian Panthers & Writer

Misatauveve Dr Melani Anae joined the Polynesian Panthers in 1971. It was a cold winter’s night when Melani Anae snuck out of home and headed for Keppell Street, Grey Lynn, where a group of teenagers were gathering to, in their words, start a revolution. “We couldn’t tell our parents, ‘oh we’re just going down the road for a Panther meeting’ with these ex-gang guys,” recalled Anae. “Especially for us girls who were just starting university and were good church girls.” But they were all at the house with a purpose: to push back against racism and to form the group that would become known as the Polynesian Panthers. “We knew this was different,” Anae said.
“We heard the leaders speak, we heard the platform and we were inspired to be part of that.”’ – from RNZ eyewitness interview, 2019

Huia Books interview

Member, Polynesian Panthers & Writer

Nearly 50 years since the Polynesian Panthers formed in Auckland, their legacy lives on through young activists and students today. United against racist policies and mistreatment of Pasifika, original Panthers members like Dr Melani Anae and Alec Toleafoa speak at schools and universities as part of an ongoing education programme called Panthers Rap.

Polynesian Panthers make history relevant

Co-founder, Polynesian Panthers

Molded in the shape of the Black Panthers, the Polynesian Panthers was formed in Auckland in June 1971. One of its co-founders was Will ilolahia, who had been inspired by the works of Bobby Seale, Malcolm X and other US civil rights leaders. “When we looked at their ten-point platform, it was relevant to us,” he said. “Barring the (carrying of) arms, everything else that we saw and experienced actually was to the point,” said ‘Ilolahia. “Legal rights, education … housing. We just translated it to be relevant to our times here, and that’s how we started up."
– extract from RNZ Eyewitness

Pacific Media Watch Polynesian Panther co-founder Will 'Ilolahia discusses the similarities between the 1970s struggle against racism in New Zealand and the #BlackLivesMatter movement in the United States. July 2020

Minister of Information, Polynesian Panthers

"We had nothing but ourselves, our camaraderie and our solidarity, when we founded the Polynesian Panthers," wrote Iuli to 'Ilolahia last week. "For us the most important mission was to galvanise and unite all the Polynesian youth; Maori, Tongan, Samoan, Rarotongan, Niuean, Tokelauan, Fijian and our sympathisers under one voice. We desperately needed to speak out, to challenge where our elders and leaders had tried to remain silent.

New Zealand was still in the colonial dark ages as far as social conscience was concerned and most New Zealanders were in self-denial when racial discrimination against 'boongas' and the natives was ever mentioned.

– Source

Social Worker, Polynesian Panthers

Miriama Rauhihi (Ngāti Raukawa) moved to Auckland from Palmerston North in the late 60s. She joined the Polynesian Panthers in the early 1970s and as the Minister of Culture. Miriama was the first paid community social worker for the Polynesian Panthers. She was approached by Ngā Tamatoa an activist organization promoting land rights, social justice and racial discrimination, but joined the Panthers instead. She travelled to China with a Māori delegation including Hone Tuwhare and Tame Iti in 1973. Miriama was actively involved in the 1975 Māori Land March, the land rights occupation at Takaparawhau/Bastion Point and the 1981 Springbok Tour protests. She has continued to advocate for justice, land rights and has been involved with the PPP Panther Raps providing education in schools.

– Source

Member, Polynesian Panthers

Tu’ulenana Iuli is a New Zealand-born Samoan. His parents emigrated from Samoa to New Zealand and he was born and raised in Auckland. Tu’ulenana joined the Panthers in 1975 when he was living at the headquarters in Redmond St Ponsonby. He attended PIG patrol and set about educating other Polynesians about their rights, attended Indigenous land rights campaigns, creating employment opportunities through the Ponsonby Labour Co-operative.
Tu’ulenana became involved in the anti-apartheid movement in 1981. Four months of protest led to two years of court proceedings, 12 months periodic detention and eventually four months jail for breaches. He was also involved in anti-nuclear campaigns.
Tu’ulenana Iuli has worked in Maori Mental Health Services at whare paia and after moving to Australia, he worked in Indigenous mental health at the Koori Unit in Melbourne. He continues to support land rights, cultural, language and sovereignty issues for Indigenous nations in Australia. After attending the Black Panther Party 50th Anniversary in Oakland Ca, in 2016, he arranged with members of the American Indian Movement to travel to Standing Rock Reservation, Oceti Sakowin Camp in North Dakota and worked there to protect Native lands and Waters from DAPL Oil pipe line for two weeks. Tu’ulenana Iuli says this “was the making of me and I felt a reciprocal response to Native American people who have supported Aotearoa in their Indigenous resistance to colonialism."

https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/world/2016/11/new-zealander-honoured-to-perform-haka-at-standing-rock.html
https://www.bellingencourier.com.au/story/4329772/tus-north-dakota-journey-what-it-means-for-the-bellingen-shire/

Member, Polynesian Panthers

In the 1950s Fa’afete Taito’s parents moved from Samoa to New Zealand in the hope they could provide a good life and education for their children, enough to be able to send money to family back in Samoa.

Along with three older sisters and one younger, they were raised by their parents, who were very involved with the Church, attending every Sunday and helping out afterwards. He had a loving Mum and was always close with her.

But his father, like many Samoan men of his generation, struggled with the broader cultural forces at play and the challenges of trying to raise his family in New Zealand society while maintaining Samoan values. He experienced strict discipline at home when he was younger.
“I look back and see the state gifted me the gang lifestyle. In between custody, I was spending a lot of time on the streets with other kids who were in similar situations to me,” he says. “We would find abandoned houses to stay in until the Police J-team came after us. For a while we crashed at a house in Ponsonby which was next door to the Polynesian Panthers. So I got involved with them, delivering pamphlets.”

Fa’afete met many good leaders at the Panthers. But life was still a struggle. In 1978, Fa’afete joined the King Cobras eventually leaving in 1991 but the struggle with crime and drugs continued until 2010. He then applied for a bridging course at the University of Auckland. It was the beginning of a new academic career. He has now completed a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Auckland with a double major in Sociology and Māori.

He has remained a close friend of former Polynesian panthers and a strong advocate for those in struggle.

– Source, Source 2

Member, Polynesian Panthers

In the 1970s Mrs Montgomery became involved with the New Zealand Polynesian Panthers, a group which sought to emulate the work done in the social justice area by its American counterpart.

When the group started in Auckland, Mrs Montgomery, who now works for a Government social work agency, was still in high school, but was acutely aware of the social injustice which faced many Pacific Island immigrants to New Zealand.

The group set up homework centres to help disadvantaged youth from, what were at the time, the poor suburbs of Grey Lynn and Ponsonby. It accessed legal aid, before legal aid was officially set up, took elderly women to visit family and visited prisoners at Mt Eden and Paremoremo.

In 1973 Mrs Montgomery moved to Dunedin to study law and started the Dunedin Polynesian Panthers, becoming distracted from her degree with the pull towards social justice.

– Source

Writer & Supporter

“Our art is our attempt to understand who and what we are, and the marvellous cultures, histories and situations we have come out of.”
For many of us, our rejection of colonialism, racism and sexism, and our refusal to be colonised, Pākehā-fied and reject our ways of being, believing and dreaming is at the heart of the art that we do. Our art is our attempt to understand who and what we are, and the marvellous cultures, histories and situations we have come out of. Our art is the search for that and to map and shape the present. All artists everywhere are influenced throughout their lives by everything around them. And our artists, because they have grown up in a society and national culture and tertiary educational institutions that are largely Pākehā are conversant with Western art and practices and have indigenised those in their work and, over the last 50 or so years, have produced art that we can call Pasefika, a fusion that is unique to Aotearoa.
Arriving at this fusion has not been an easy or deliberate process. I want to illustrate that by talking about writing and literature because it is the form I know a little about. For me the Tāngata Māori Renaissance, which began to gain momentum after World War 2 and is now the most successful anti-colonial Indigenous arts movement in the world, was and still is the movement we have learned much from in our political and artistic struggle as a minority group in Aotearoa.

– Source

Legal Adviser, Polynesian Panthers (1971–1976) & Prime Minister of New Zealand (1984–1989)

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand, David Lange, was the PPP legal adviser from 1971 to 1976
“The panthers provided some substance to the possibility that there was an alternative to endless court appearances."

In co-operation with the Panthers we produced a set of notes (Legal Aid Book) to provide some guide to young people about dealing with the police and what their rights were … it was a statement of the law and it was very useful to some.

– Extract from Polynesian Panthers, edited by Melani Anae with Lautofa (Ta) Iuli and Leilani Burgoyne. Reed Publishing 2006

The formal politicisation of the Polynesian Panthers would concentrate direct action, which, again, had already begun with their involvement in the Tenants Aid Brigade, a group that had on occasion physically confronted exploitative landlords and their political supporters. Two direct action campaigns stand out, the “PIG Patrol” – familiar to scholars of the Black Panthers in San Francisco - and the “Dawn Raids”. With regards to the PIG Patrol, police would regularly descend upon bars that had a significantly Māori and Pasifika clientele and act extremely provocatively in order to engender a reaction that, no matter how small (for example, swearing), could facilitate an arrest. Many of the clientele did not know their legal rights, hence, the Panthers’ lawyer, David Lange (a future prime-minister), helped to produce a legal-rights document. In partnership with other activists as the Police Investigations Group (PIG) the Panthers would listen into Police frequencies, pre-emptively follow the police vans, and run into the targeted bars to warn the clientele of an impending official visit and to distribute the legal aid leaflets.

– Source