Huey P. Newton: I Am We

Huey P. Newton was called many things in his time: revolutionary, genius, criminal, even the most surveilled human being in world history. Yet, little is known about him still because of persistent distortions to his name and legacy as co-founder of the Black Panther Party.

In this new and much-needed intellectual biography, political theorist Delio Vásquez establishes Newton as a true and original philosopher. Newton's compassion for the suffering of the people of the streets led him to develop innovative theories for how the most oppressed could spearhead revolutionary change against rising technocracy through communal defense of loving communities. The Panthers forged alliances with Black student unions and street gangs, Hollywood elites and poor whites, the gay liberation movement and Third World nations.

Newton left behind dozens of unpublished manuscripts analyzing anthropology, politics, feminist thought, education, philosophy, evolutionary biology, and theology - ideas presented here for the first time. Vásquez also puts into proper perspective Newton's late descent into addiction and madness, a direct effect of U.S. government techniques of war that targeted his mind, body, and soul in ways that are still all too relevant. Today, Newton's maxim 'I am we,' resounds more than ever.

List of contents

Acknowledgments

Black Panther Party Ten Point Program (1966, 1972)
1. Consciousness
2. The Defense of Life
3. The Theory of Intercommunalism
4. The Soul Breaker
5. The Structured Vehicle and the Revolutionary Defense of Community
6. The Question of the Most Oppressed
7. Contradictions of Power
8. Technology of Madness
9. Life of the Mind, Politics of the Street

Appendix: The Intellectual Legacy of Huey P. Newton
Notes
Index

About the author

Delio Vásquez is an Assistant Professor at New York University's Gallatin School of Individualized Study. His scholarship as a political theorist examines the historical development of the criminalization of the poor. He has published essays on social crime, empathy, and social movements with AK Press, Drugo More, Theory and Event, Foucault Studies, and Viewpoint Magazine. He was born and raised in the Bronx, NY.

Product details

• Authors: Delio Vasquez, Delio (New York University) Vasquez
• Publisher: Wiley, John and Sons Ltd
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 23.12.2025
• EAN: 9781509543342
• ISBN: 978-1-5095-4334-2
• No. of pages: 300
• Series: Black Lives
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general); BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Philosophers, BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY / Social Activists, 20th Century, Society & culture: general, HISTORY / United States / 20th Century, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, United States of America, USA, Ethnic groups and multicultural studies, History of the Americas, Biography: philosophy and social sciences, Biography: historical, political and military, Relating to African American / Black American people