Roommate Dr. Huey P. Newton, a co-founder of the Black Panther Party, has now renamed a street after him less than 2 miles from the Panther’s former headquarters in West Oakland. Located on 9th Street at the intersection of Mandela Parkway in Oakland is now Dr. Huey P. Newton Way! This unveiling took place yesterday on his 79th birthday. City and community leaders and some former party members attended the event, and Fredrika Newton, Huey’s wife, loved the event. ABC News 7 covered the event and Frederika spoke to the reporter and said, “I am overwhelmed. It is our first tangible result of so much effort, and not the last. “
Xavier Buck, deputy director of the Dr. Huey P. Newton Foundation also spoke out. He said, “Huey made Oakland a place where revolutionary organizations can come together. There’s a reason we’re renaming Huey P. Newton Way so many years later after he died in 1989. His name has been demonized by the media. He created the most popular revolutionary organization of the 20th century. “It is also reported that broadcast journalist and sculptor Dana King will be creating a sculpture of Huey on Mandela Parkway due for completion in October!
The time of the event comes at the perfect time. Not only is it long overdue, but with the film “Judas and the Black Messiah” many people are researching the organization. The film is about the betrayal of Fred Hampton. Fred was chairman of the Illinois chapter of the Chicago-based Black Panther Party in the late 1960s and died as a result of the FBI’s collaboration with William O’Neal, an FBI informant.
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