Huey P. Newton’s Journey From Student-Activist to Teacher-Activist at Merritt College

• In Event: Friday Roundtable Session 11:25 am
  In Roundtable Session: Activism, Education, and Integration: The Historical Roots and Continued Persistence of Segregation (Table 21)

Abstract

Huey P. Newton became a lifelong learner, a teacher, and an activist at Merritt College. Using various sources, like archival documents, autobiography, oral history, and news footage I show how Newton epitomized what it means to be an activist-educator, and the story of his journey can serve as a model for activist-educators today. Everything Newton learned in college shaped his ideological journey from a Black nationalist to a socialist and informed his activism and teaching. Newton used his lecture series at Merritt to pilot what he believed to be the most important lessons for the community, including the use of dialectical materialism as a lens to understand society and the nature of oppression in order to push for change.

Author

• Sandra Habtamu, Foothill College