Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African American revolutionary, political activist, and co-founder and leader of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. Born in Monroe, Louisiana, he grew up in Oakland, California, where he attended Merritt College and met Bobby Seale, with whom he co-founded the Black Panther Party in 1966. As a key figure in 1960s-1970s Black radical activism, black nationalism, and Black Power movements, Newton shaped the Party's ideology around armed self-defense against police brutality, black empowerment, community survival programs (including free breakfast programs and health clinics), and revolutionary socialism through its Ten-Point Program. His leadership was marked by national prominence, legal battles (including a 1967 manslaughter conviction later overturned), intellectual pursuits (earning a PhD in social philosophy in 1980), and controversy, including exile in Cuba (1974–1977) and struggles with drug addiction. Newton was fatally shot in Oakland in 1989, leaving a complex legacy as a symbol of Black Power and radical left-wing activism.