Feb. 17, 1968: 56 years ago, Feb 17 1968, thousands rallied at the Oakland Auditorium on [...]
56 years ago, Feb 17 1968, thousands rallied at the Oakland Auditorium on Huey Newton’s birthday to call for his freedom. It widely covered across the county and internationally, drastically raising the profile of the Black Panther Party and popularizing the slogan “Free Huey”
The rally featured three of SNCC’s national leaders, Stokely Carmichael, H. Rap Brown, and James Forman. Each was introduced with new BPP officer titles and Eldridge Cleaver announced a “SNCC-BPP” merger. Carmichael was given the temporary title of prime minister of the BPP
Other speakers included Bobby Seale, Huey Newton’s mother and Malcolm X’s widow, Betty Shabazz. Curtis Mayfield performed “Move on Up” at the event and led the crowd to sing a special birthday song for Huey. The stage was set with Huey’s wicker chair in the middle, sitting empty
You can listen to some of the speeches from the event here:
