Charles Garry, attorney for Huey Newton, Black Panther Minister of Defense, will speak in Detroit at 8 p.m., Friday, October 18, at McGregor Hall on Wayne’s campus.
The occasion is a conference sponsored by the National Lawyers Guild on political defense.
The Newton trial, in significant contrast to the Spock Trial, was an important example of the use of a trial as a political forum, means of exposure, and organizing focus for movement politics. While exploiting all opportunities for legal and factual defenses, Garry relentlessly exposed the racist practices of the Oakland Police in particular, and racist nature of the judicial system and American society in general.
The Panthers engaged in intensive organizational work, locally and nationally, around the trial. They maintained a constant militant presence in the streets around the courthouse despite police harassment and exclusion of all but the immediate family from the courtroom.
The “Free Huey” campaign has politicized thousands who might never have heard of the Panther program and purpose.
