Revolutionary Suicide

About this record

Huey P. Newton's 1973 autobiography (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich), written in part from inside the Alameda County Jail. Co-founder of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (Oakland, October 1966), Newton wrote the book during and after his 1968–1970 imprisonment on charges arising from the October 28, 1967 shooting that killed Oakland police officer John Frey — for which Newton was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1968 (conviction reversed on appeal in 1970, ultimately dismissed in 1971). The book combines personal autobiography with Panther political philosophy, including the concept of 'revolutionary suicide' as opposed to 'reactionary suicide' — the willingness to risk death in confronting the conditions producing premature Black death. A central text of the Black Liberation tradition.