Huey Newton: Essays From the Minister of Defense

The text I found was Essays From the Minister of Defense, by Huey Newton. These are a series of essays published while Newton was in jail, but I think written before he went. As the Minister of Defense of the Black Panther party, Newton was largely concerned with the means by which black people could defend themselves from white oppressors. At the time, this meant that the focus was pretty largely on guns, ways to obtain them, and why you needed them. Newton makes convincing arguments through the pamphlets, which manage to convince the reader pretty logically about the crisis of white-on-black violence and the solutions, while also being pretty blatant propaganda. Overall, it was really cool being able to read a pamphlet by such a controversial figure, and it made me feel like I actually understood his point of view instead of just what everybody thought about him.

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