Early Life
- Huey P. Newtonwas born to Walter Newton and Armelia Johnson. He was the youngest among the seven siblings. His father was a member of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP). Despite being poor, the family was close-knit.
- He grew up in Oakland where he experienced rampant racial discrimination.
- He attended Oakland Technical High School but no teacher there had ever tried to instill in him a thirst for knowledge; he graduated in 1959 without possessing any real education.
- Undaunted, he embarked on a path of self-education by teaching himself to read.
- He began committing petty crimes as a teenager and was arrested many times.
- He enrolled at Merritt College where he joined the Afro-American Association and became involved in politics. A voracious reader, he read the works of Karl Marx, Malcolm X, Vladimir Lenin, etc. which influenced his political thoughts.