Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

The Shadow of the Panther: Huey Newton and the Price of Black Power in America

Rate this book
The first complete and balanced history of the Black Panther Party--powerful and provocative
"Until The Shadow of the Panther there have been no serious book-length attempts to examine the Panthers' history and to evaluate their significance. . . . A Notable Book of the Year."--New York Times Book Review (front page)
"A keenly observed, often brilliant, Panther-busting book. . . . Pearson nevertheless portrays the Panthers' rise as an understandable reaction against . . . white chauvinism."--Los Angeles Times Book Review

"This book will awaken profound misgivings--about gun-barrel rhetoric, about armed rebellion, about the ambiguities of justice."--The New Yorker

"A bracing experience . . . Pearson has been able to present enough hard evidence to draw a chilling portrait of Murder Incorporated in revolutionary dress."--New York Newsday

"Pearson . . . set out to write a very different book about his boyhood hero [Huey Newton] but didn't blink at the truth . . . honest and compelling judgment."--Detroit News


444 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

6 people are currently reading
367 people want to read

About the author

Hugh Pearson

32 books2 followers

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
35 (24%)
4 stars
57 (39%)
3 stars
38 (26%)
2 stars
10 (6%)
1 star
3 (2%)
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
Profile Image for Christian.
96 reviews17 followers
January 26, 2009
Though widely panned by Black Panther supporters, the book reads well, powered by a detailed examination of a grim Huey Newton on an egomaniacal crash course. "If Pearson's assessment of Newton was accurate," summarized one critic, "then the BPP leader was little more than an intelligent, drug-addicted sociopath." Yeah, that about sums it up, if all you know about Huey comes from this book. Pearson's failure, argues Errol Anthony Henderson, "lies in his attempt to deny the value of the movement by pointing out (correctly) some of the worst aspects of Huey P. Newton and the BPP." For a full critique of this book, refer to Henderson's "Shadow of a Clue" in Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party A New Look at the Panthers and Their Legacy.

I believe, however, that there is a place for Pearson's book. Personally, I make it a point to take photos of unhappy moments, since we should remember our lows as well as our highs.

Huey Newton is still lionized by most authors--and rightly so given what he and Bobby Seale got started. However, perhaps due to respect for the dead, or a desire to celebrate the many positive aspects of the Black Panther party, Newton's gross transgressions are not fully explored by most other accounts. Even those who are highly critical of him are quick to mention his earlier good works, or remind us that he was manipulated by COINTELPRO, etc. Pearson provides a nice counterweight that, together with other resources, gives a fuller picture of Newton than we've had in a long time... especially when compared to Bobby Seale's Seize the Time The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton, a great intro to the party, but also a hagiographic celebration of Huey in his heyday. It was written, in part, to garner popular and political support and cannot be considered an objective memoir.

As Henderson concedes, the problem with Pearson's retrospective isn't bad information (although their are some mistakes), but rather his emphasis on the negative--particularly of one man over the collective. However, the west-coast BPP had became a bit of a cult of personality in later days, as Newton's antics were blindly supported even as they alienated away former members, like Assata Shakur. As such, Newton's personal flaws were a major contribution to the dissolution of the party and deserve to be put under the microscope... But they do not devalue the party's positive contributions, its individual members, or the party as a whole.

That the BPP succeeded as much as it did is something to be celebrated. Ultimately this book left me feeling sorry for Huey, sad for the lost potential and lost opportunities.

If anything, Newton's nastier side makes for more engaging reading than any of his speeches on intercommunalism.
Profile Image for Patrick.
233 reviews20 followers
July 21, 2007
The most balanced history I've been able to find, but I wish this was a better researched book. Nobody seems to have a detached point of view on the Panthers. We probably need to see access to the FBI files to get the whole story, and I don't think the people in Oakland and other cities who lived this story are ready to talk to a historical researcher about what really went down. Fascinating story though, and deserves to be more than just a side note of American history in eth 60's and 70's, in my opinion.

If anyone knows of a better book on the Panthers, please let me know!
10.9k reviews35 followers
June 14, 2024
A VERY UNSYMPATHETIC AND UNFLINCHING ACCOUNT OF NEWTON AND THE BPP

Hugh Pearson (1957-2005) was a journalist who had worked for The Wall Street Journal as an editorial writer, as well as a freelance writer for many other publications (e.g., The Village Voice, Essence, The New York Times).

He wrote in the first chapter of this 1994 book, “[Black Panther] Party co-founder Huey Newton would never make the transition from political activist to an effective operator within the system… Newton developed severe cocaine and alcohol addictions and siphoned off much of the funds earmarked for the very Panther programs designed to benefit poor African Americans---the free health clinics, the free breakfast program for children, and the free school. In 1989 Huey Newton … was a crack addict.” (Pg. 2)

He notes, “Newton’s arrest in the shooting death of Officer Frey was treated as an outrage by radicals and liberals of the day, because, at that time, Newton claimed to be innocent. Consequently, a ‘Free Huey’ campaign ensued, consuming most of the energy of the Black Panther party… Huey became a favorite of the ‘beautiful people’ eager to turn him on to their expensive, recreational, mind-altering drugs… snorting cocaine hardly stigmatized people as it would after the drug became cheap and available to the desperate, demoralized people of West Oakland with whom Newton, by August 1989, was regularly keeping company. Cocaine was ‘in,’ and Newton took to it readily.” (Pg. 4) Ultimately, he was murdered by a crack dealer. (Pg. 9)

As a youth, “Newton developed unique qualities. On straightening himself out enough to gain admission to Oakland City College, he began holding his own with students there. Yet he remained comfortable on the street corners with young Negro men who drank wine all day… young men whom most college-bound Negroes shied away from… Newton often led them in burglarizing white homes in the Oakland and Berkeley foothills… He used his apartment as a gambling den… takin a cur of the money that exchanged hands. In fact, Huey Newton never worked a legitimate, nine-to-five job.” (Pg. 47)

He notes, “One of the black campus organizations that Newton and [Bobby] Seale belonged to was the Soul Students Advisory Council (SSAC)… [Seale recalled] ‘at an SSAC meeting… Huey called up his boys… We stacked a whole [SSAC session with them]. That was the day Huey and I resigned from the SSAC.’ Such behavior smacked of a gang mentality. But it was the type of behavior that would be swept under the rug as black consciousness rose more and more among young blacks, causing them to increasingly glamorize violence.” (Pg. 95) Seale would later write… “Huey wanted… brothers who had been out there robbing banks… pimping… peddling dope… brothers who had been fighting the pigs… Huey P. Newton knew that once you organize the brothers he ran with, he fought with, he fought against… you get revolutionaries who are too much.” (Pg. 108)

He recounts, “The accumulation of incidents involving the armed Panthers grew to be too much for the white power structure of the Bay Area. First, it was the humiliation of the Oakland police… then the confrontation at the sheriff’s office in Martinez. The Panthers even had the audacity to walk around patrolling affluent white communities and suburbs. It was guerilla theater. Their message to the residents was, let’s see how you like someone armed, in uniform, of a color different than you, walking around in YOUR neighborhood.” (Pg. 129)

He reports, “as a response to all the Panther gun activity, [legislator] Mulford introduced a bill that would prohibit the carrying of loaded firearms in public places… On the afternoon of May 2 [1967], when Seale, eighteen of his armed protégés, and an unarmed Eldridge Cleaver showed up at the state capitol dressed in Black Panther regalia, Ronald Reagan was on the capitol lawn giving a speech before a youth group. Reagan was hustled inside. The Panther group made its way to the capitol building in search of the state assembly chamber. Seale, who carried a holstered pistol, made sure everyone was careful to keep their M-1 rifles and 12-gauge shotguns pointed either straight up in the air or straight down at the ground, since it was a felony to point a gun at anyone. Many of them also had cartridge belts around their waists… When the group reached the steps of the capitol, the cameras were already there. Journalists, given their sensationalist bent, urged them inside… Bobby Seale held a proclamation that the Panthers called an executive mandate, dictated by Newton and written up and perfected by Cleaver… The Panthers and an avalanche of photographers, cameramen, and reporters made their way to … where the assembly met… Photos or armed black men in black leather jackets and berets standing in the aisles would be seen around the world… The guns were taken from the … members of the entourage… as the Panthers were led off the assembly floor… When Seale finished reading the mandate… uniformed and plainclothes officers converged and arrested the Panthers under the felony charge of conspiracy to disrupt a legislative session.” (Pg. 129-133)

On October 26, “Newton’s car was pulled over by Oakland police officer John Frey… According to Newton, Officer Frey pulled him over for no apparent reason… Frey, only twenty-three years old and a rookie cop, had, within his short time on the force, developed a reputation for being among the most brutal and racist of Oakland’s police officers… he called for backup and was joined by twenty-four-year-old Officer Herbert Heanes. When Heanes arrived, Frey told Newton to get out of the car… The details of the sequence of events that led to the shooting remain shrouded in confusing, contradictory testimony… When the encounter was over, Frey lay dead, Heanes lay wounded, and Huey Newton and [friend] Gene McKinney had escaped the scene.” (Pg. 145-146)

Several years later, “Newton centralized all the money coming into the party… all money was to go to Central Headquarters and Central would dispense what everyone needed. This proved to be a worse form of management than what chapters across the country had complained about… The faith of the remaining rank-and-file party members in what they were doing was tested more than ever before.” (Pg. 236) He adds, “the white leftists who only a short two years earlier had anointed the Panthers America’s revolutionary vanguard, were splintering. Within a year of his release from prison, Newton was no longer a saint in their eyes. Much of that change was due to the violence of the Newton/Cleaver split, which rattled and turned off most of the white Left in much the same manner it did young black activists. Many… were further turned off when Newton moved into the Lake Merritt penthouse.” (Pg. 251)

He recounts that David Horowitz “went to Huey’s penthouse… But when he got there, Huey was in a cold sweat from heavy cocaine use. The stage was set for Huey’s most bizarre behavior of all… According to sources who spoke with David Horowitz, after arguing with Bobby Seale about a proposed movie that Newton wanted Bert Schneider to produce, Newton dramatically beat Seale with a bullwhip and sodomized him so violently that his anus had to be surgically repaired by a physician who was a party supporter. Seale left town, went into hiding, and wasn’t heard of for at least a year, when he turned up in Philadelphia, never to have anything again to so with the party.” (Pg. 264)

Of Newton’s Ph.D., he states, “The 1979-1980 academic term was an eventful one for the campus of UC Santa Cruz… Some [faculty] felt that the bachelor’s degree he was awarded in 1974 was undeserved (although Newton was well read, his papers were written by others whom he dictated to), and that he certainly shouldn’t have been admitted to a Ph.D. program, even one with an esoteric interdisciplinary title like ‘The History of Consciousness.’ While Newton was serious about his desire to gain academic respectability, there were those who insisted that Newton was admitted to the program as a cynical joke… historian Page Smith, creator of the History of Consciousness program, was said to have admitted Newton out of disdain for graduate education---that he regarded admitting Newton as an opportunity to prove its irrelevance. Occasionally, classes were held expressly for Newton… the majority of professors expressed positive views about his academic performance… But given the subject of Newton’s thesis, the rigor of his studies was doubtful… titled ‘War Against the Panthers: A Study of Repression In America’ [it] hardly the definition of academic objectivity… Nowhere did the thesis mention the host of questionable dealings on the part of Newton and too many other members of the party.” (Pg. 286-287)

He notes, “Although Newton tended to be vague about his murders, he was unabashedly proud of one… ‘… because he had killed a white police officer and gotten away with it,’ remembers [Bob] Trivors. Officer John Frey was known throughout West Oakland for is extreme brutality toward blacks…” (Pg. 291)

Obviously a controversial book, it provides insights and opinions about Newton and the Panthers that are not to be found elsewhere.

1,352 reviews
August 24, 2015
Very well written, but slanted. The author briefly acknowledges some of the good work the Black Panthers did but most of his energy goes toward exposing the awful underside of the organization. While I believe his reporting is accurate, it felt like he primarily wanted people to know the negative side so they wouldn't deify the Panthers. I'd like to read a book with a fuller, more complex account. (Also, I know this book focused on Huey Newton, but still I would have liked a little more detail on the women who were active with the Panthers.)
Profile Image for Mike Horne.
668 reviews18 followers
June 17, 2015
This was okay. It gives a little background on civil rights. Pretty negative toward the Black Panther Party. If even half of what he says is true, they were some unpleasant folk. I will have to read some reviews of this book.
25 reviews
November 18, 2021
History of the Civil Rights and Black Power eras written correctly.
Profile Image for gnarlyhiker.
371 reviews17 followers
May 30, 2023
more critical view of the black panthers: the good, the bad and the ugly. recommend Taste of Power by Elaine Brown back to back works.

good luck
23 reviews
July 16, 2025
Truly a postmortem of the black panther movement, as well as Huey Newtons ascension and fall as an influence and inspiration to the movement. Should be required reading for every progressive
Profile Image for Kurt.
17 reviews1 follower
January 12, 2016
The Shadow of the Panther is a fascinating look at the Black Panther movement and particularly Huey Newton's role in it. Pearson asserts that the Black Panther reflected the moods of its leader in that it could be a powerfully intellectual movement dedicated to improving lives one moment and a thug operation the next that shook people down and often turned to violence to solve issues. Pearson states in his acknowledgements that he had genuine curiosity about the Panthers when he discovered. The shadow of the movement to him was their excellent work in providing free breakfast for children, opening free clinics in areas neglected by private practices, and testing African Americans for sickle cell. The panthers did this; there is no way to deny it. They openly championed the 2nd amendment and practiced their right to open carry even at the California State House. They provided a source of pride for the black people of Oakland. However, Pearson is not afraid to show the other part of the shadow. The intimidation of local shop owners for money, the straight up extortion of pimps, the beating of ex-party member who left/kicked out of the party because they dared to disagree with Newton and other black leaders. Misogyny and murder show up as well. This duality of the party is present in the duality of Huey Newton. A true intellectual who succumbed to first a cocaine addiction and then a crack one and the paranoia that came with it, Newton is easily seen as the darling of the 60s left and feared in the street of Oakland. Pearson did not have the cooperation of a lot of pro-Newton ex panthers, which he clearly points out. Calling Newton a thug is too easy. He was too complex for that and Pearson does his best to show all sides of Newton. However, there are times when Pearson relies on source of a source material. For instance the shockingly violent way that Newton expels co-founder Bobby Seale comes off as fabricated (and of course Seale denies this event happened). Even though the source of a source problem occurs a little more often than it should, this is still an excellent book. It is highly readable with a subject matter that still speaks to today's headlines (Black Lives Matter, Open Carry onto Government Property to protest the government). Pearson understands the magnetism of the Black Panther Movement and Huey Newton, and writes a nearly cinematic history...one that his not often told. Well, at least fully.
412 reviews7 followers
August 16, 2008
a disturbing portrait of the Black Panther Party
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews

Can't find what you're looking for?

Get help and learn more about the design.