They Huey P. Newton Reader

introduction
sisters in southern and northern Mrica as well as those in Asia and Latin I
American who are struggling against the U.S. empire."
Huey's intellectual currency was further enhanced with the 1972
publication of To Die fo r the People, his first collection of writings and
speeches made available to the general reading public. With Toni Morrison
as the book's editor, the project was instrumental in disseminating
Black Panther ideology beyond the movement. In addition to
highlighting seminal writings reprinted from the Black Panther newspaper,
Huey addresses topics such as black capitalism, the relevance
of the African-American church, and the Party's role in mediating
events after the Attica prison uprising. Following the success of To Die
fo r the People he published a more intimate articulation of Party history
in his autobiography, Revolutionary Suicide. When the book came
out in 1973, Huey's private life, particularly his fo rmative years predating
the Black Panthers, was still widely underreported and therefore
unknown to most readers. Further, the book helped demystify the
Party in the popular imagination. Attacked by the FBI and slandered
throughout the press as "cop killers" and suicidal thugs, we were victims
of outrageous accusations, which even the book's tide seeks to rectify.
"Revolutionary suicide does not mean that I and my comrades have
a death wish; it means just the opposite. We have such a strong desire
to live with hope and dignity that existence without them is impossible
.... Above all, it demands that the revolutionary see his death and
life as one piece." Appearing the same year as his autobiography was
In Search of Co mmon Ground, a book-length conversation with famed
psychoanalyst Erik T. Erikson, in which Huey presents his most indepth
rendering of Intercommunalism up to that moment.
By the mid-1970s, the Party had reached its pinnacle of influence.
Huey was the preeminent African-American leader for social justice
in the world, with the Panthers counting over forty chapters domestically,
as well as chapters in England, Israel, Australia, and India. In
addition to political coalitions with liberation movements overseas were
unions established among Asian Americans, Latinos, white peace
activists, feminists, and lesbians and gay men in the U.S. Fundamental
to our work of this period was Huey's renewed call for institution
building. Although this feature had been central to the ideological platform
laid in the Ten Point Program in 1966, we had strayed from our
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