The Huey P. Newton Gun Club is a group named after Black Panther Party co-founder and Minister of Defense

Huey P. Newton Huey Percy Newton (February 17, 1942 – August 22, 1989) was an African-American revolutionary, notable as founder of the Black Panther Party. Newton crafted the Party's ten-point manifesto with Bobby Seale in 1966. Under Newton's leadershi ...

. The group teaches self-defense and has staged armed protests in favor of

African American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American" generally denotes descendants of ens ...

gun rights The right to keep and bear arms (often referred to as the right to bear arms) is a right for people to possess weapons (arms) for the preservation of life, liberty, and property. The purpose of gun rights is for self-defense, including securi ...

and against police brutality. The club was founded by Rakem Balogun, Yafeuh Balogun and Babu Omowale. The group garnered national attention in August 2014 for its

open carry In the United States, open carry refers to the practice of visibly carrying a firearm in public places, as distinguished from concealed carry, where firearms cannot be seen by the casual observer. To "carry" in this context indicates that the fi ...

patrols. Yafeuh Balogun expressed the hope that the club would continue to grow and eventually become a mainstream gun-rights organization.

Activity

In August 2014, the Huey P. Newton Gun Club staged their first openly armed patrol through a predominantly black neighborhood in

South Dallas South Dallas is an area in Dallas, Texas. It is south of Downtown Dallas, bordered by Trinity River on the west, Interstate 30 on the north, and the Great Trinity Forest to the south and east. In recent years the City of Dallas and organizations ...

, where police killed an unarmed black man named James Harper in 2012. Since then, Balogun reported that donations to the club have poured in from around the country, and their membership has more than doubled. The club staged another protest in October of the same year. In 2016, the coalition held a counter-protest at the Muhammad Mosque in South Dallas in response to a demonstration by the anti-Islamic Bureau of American Islamic Relations (BAIR). Both parties were armed and police were present during the protest, which ended shortly without any violence. Also in 2016, both Rakem and Yafeuh Balogun distanced themselves from the organisation. Rakem Balogun has cited the growing influence of the

New Black Panther Party The New Black Panther Party (NBPP) is an American black nationalist organization founded in Dallas, Texas, in 1989. Despite its name, the NBPP is not an official successor to the Black Panther Party.

, whom he deemed a

Black Separatist Black separatism is a Separatism, separatist political movement that seeks separate economic and cultural development for those of African descent in societies, particularly in the United States. Black separatism stems from the idea of racial sol ...

group, over the group as the reason for their departure. However, during a 2019 interview on '' Klepper'', Rakem Balogun is seen leading a demonstration including three participants in Huey P. Newton Gun Club paraphernalia. Due to the disagreement in the direction the club was taking the Huey P. Newton Gun Club Alpha company was formed by Yafeuh Balogun, as a way to adhere to the original

socialist Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...

and intercommunal ideology of the Black Panther Party, in particular

. In May 2019, nine armed members appeared at a demonstration in

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

, Ohio.

References

External links

* {{Black Panther Party 2014 establishments in Texas African Americans in Texas African and Black nationalism in the United States Anti-capitalist organizations Black Power Gun rights advocacy groups in the United States Left-wing militant groups in the United States Organizations based in Dallas Post–civil rights era in African-American history

Activity

See also

References

External links