“We live in a time where there is banning of books, where there is the repression of books — issues that emerge from the Black liberation struggles and the struggle against white supremacy. So by all means, you must get this book.”
— Mimi Rosenberg
Before Huey P. Newton was a symbol of Black resistance, he was the youngest son of Walter and Armelia Newton. Where did he come from?
For Black August, Building Bridges sits down with three people who can answer that: Lise Pearlman, author of the new book Huey P. Newton’s Family: Roots of a Revolutionary Suicide; Professor Emeritus Melvin Newton, Huey’s older brother; and David “D.L.” Newton, Melvin’s son and Huey’s nephew. Pearlman reads from the book on air, and the Newtons fill in the family memory around it — the parents, the migration west, the faith and the questioning, and the making of a revolutionary.
Three things this book reframes
1. The revolutionary starts at home. Huey’s politics didn’t appear from nowhere; they grew out of a family and community shaped by generations of resistance to white supremacy.
2. The family is the story. Told with Huey’s own brother and nephew at the mic, this is oral history as much as biography — Walter and Armelia Newton’s lives, and the world that formed their sons.
3. Why it matters now. In a moment of book bans and repression, recovering this history is itself an act of resistance — which is why the show keeps returning to one simple charge: read it.
Go deeper
Get the book: Huey P. Newton’s Family: Roots of a Revolutionary Suicide by Lise Pearlman — and, as the show urges, share it widely while you can.
From the archive
Pair it with last week’s Black August show — the fight to free Mumia Abu-Jamal:
FULL EPISODE ~ Building Bridges radio | Black August and the Fight to Free Mumia Abu-Jamal
Black August is a month for those who gave everything for Black liberation. This year it carries an urgent demand: free Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Take Action
Read and circulate the book, stand with your library and local bookstores against the wave of book bans, and keep the Black August tradition alive — study, remember, organize.
Listen Live:
Mondays · 7 PM EST · Building Bridges Radio
WBAI 99.5 FM & WPFW 89.3 FM & streaming online
🔗 wbai.org/listen-live
