Mumia Abu-Jamal

Writing (especially from this site) is a lonely art. One need not seek wide agreement to give voice to the rumblings of the mind, or the soul.

I've written in other venues about Huey. While I was undoubtedly critical, I was also sensitive, and tried to be insightful of the limitations of the man.

He was, and remains, a brilliant revolutionary, who learned how to pierce the rock-hard psyches of our people - especially our young brothers and sisters.

They love him fiercely and perhaps too much so.

At one point (I believe in 1970), the Party newspaper, The Black Panther, began referring to him, not as the Minister of Defense, but as the Supreme Commander. I believe that fashion began after Huey and several of his cohorts traveled to China and North Korea.

With titles such as these, where is there room for the fallible human behind them?

Huey was many things, brilliant, mercurial, driven, determined - yes; but he was also human. He made mistakes. He made both political and personal errors.
But if you are Supreme Commander, how can you admit your mistakes? With such a vainglorious title, what is there to do but obey?

It is my opinion that while Huey was indeed fallible and made serious, and indeed grievous mistakes, it is also true that many of us allowed those mistakes to be made.

That's because we elevated him to the status of a god - or, at the very least, a messiah for his oppressed people. And the fate of a messiah is, of course, crucifixion.

Huey needed people around him who could check his excesses and not those who blindly voted to support his every whim.

Every Panther read and studied the book, "The Quotations of Chairman Mao," known as the Red Book. The Red Book was a kind of shorthand of Mao's dictums and insights gleaned after decades of revolutionary practice in China. But because it's a short version, much of his writing is missing.

Many years ago, a fellow Panther named Pink (OK - that was his nickname) loaned me a thick book called "The Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung." When I could, I sat down and read it, and it was far more informative than the Red Book.

The reader will hopefully forgive me for not citing the exact source data or having the quote at hand - for, despite common belief, I have no access to the internet or other such resources - but Mao warned of old revolutionaries who lose their zeal and fire after many years of struggle. Mao added that it was the youth who make the revolution.

Again, this is a hard lesson learned after many years of struggle in the history of the Chinese Revolution. Mao must've seen quite a few comrades go off the rails.

Like Huey. Like Eldridge. And like a number of brothers and sisters who come to terms with life in a country where the counter-revolution was in the ascendancy.

So, I remember Huey as the man who used his brilliance and his zeal and his fighting spirit to form the Party. Of Huey, I wrote in "We Want Freedom":

Huey P. Newton as depicted by revolutionary artist Emory Douglas in the Black Panther newspaper.

Being human, he was, in some ways, a flawed model. He was a powerful example, but also a powerful lesson of what could happen when all the safety nets are gone.

That a man such as this could die so ignobly, in the streets, begging a dealer for a hit of crack, is worse than a tragedy; it is a social, communal crime.

The inspired California poet and playwright, Dr. M - the artist formerly known as Marvin X - wrote tellingly and lovingly of his own struggles with the crack demon and, after he left the Death House, his loving recollection of the outspoken Dr. Khalid Muhammad. In his essay "Artists as Crack Heads," found in his book, "In the Crazy House called America," he writes:

"Could anybody stop me? No. Say what you want about the late Dr. Khalid Muhammad, but I will forever love the brother for searching the streets of Oakland for Huey Newton and myself, trying to save us from the crack demon" (p. 34).

Perhaps if Dr. Khalid had found him, we would have lived another history. But that did not happen.
While I believe that quite a few people tried, I'm certain that none would succeed.

He should be seen fully, in all of his brilliance, and his faults. He should be seen fully, as a fallible human.
He should be seen fully, as a man who tried to free our people by - in Malcolm's immortal words - "any means necessary."

Seen in his fullness, we will remember him for his contributions, his courage and his shortcomings.

Years ago, the Party's Field Marshal, D.C., came to Philadelphia and told a rapt roomful of young Panthers that Huey was the only Black leader who could march across the country, and millions would follow him.

That may have been true, for a brief, heady period. But, like most things in life, that moment passed.
That it existed, if only for one delicious moment, is testament to the power and impact of his revolutionary example.

© Copyright 2007 Mumia Abu-Jamal. Read Mumia's latest book, "We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party," winner of the 2005 People's Choice Award, available from South End Press, www.southendpress.org or (800) 533-8478. Keep updated by reading Action Alerts at www.mumia.org and www.moveorg.net. To download Mp3s of Mumia's commentaries, visit www.prisonradio.org or www.fsrn.org. Encourage the media to publish and broadcast Mumia's commentaries to inspire progressive movement and help call attention to his case. Send our brotha some love and light at: Mumia Abu-Jamal, AM 8335, SCI-Greene, 175 Progress Dr., Waynesburg PA 15370.

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