Karen Wald

Editor’s Note: Huey P. Newton, Minister of Defense of the Black Panther Party and Peace and Freedom Party candidate for Congress is currently standing trial at the Alameda County Courthouse in Oakland, California. Newton is charged with the murder, last October 28, of Patrolman John Frey of the Oakland Police Department. During the two weeks spent selecting a jury for the trial, the bias of the court has been apparent. Any possibility of Newton getting a fair trial disappeared with the selection of the jury. Of the 100 potential jurors questioned, working class blacks, and blacks and whites opposed to capital punishment were systematically excluded by District Attorney Lowell Jensen and Judge Monroe Friedman. The Fifth Estate will continue to provide up-to-date coverage of the Newton trial in future issues.

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Dear Julius,

Although our actual contact has been infrequent, I have felt very close to you since we first met, and our shared experiences, including writing for the same papers, added to this. But in recent months your columns have puzzled and confused me. I don’t know you any more; I don’t know where you’re at; I can’t imagine why you are saying (writing) the things you are.

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SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (The Daily World and LNS)—After the California Appellate Court had overturned the decision in the Huey Newton case, clearing the way for a new trial or freedom for the Black Panther Party Minister of Defense, all the press were clamoring for interviews.

Under this pressure, the authorities at California Men’s Colony—East temporarily let down the wall they had built to isolate Huey and his ideas from the public, and a stream of reporters filed through the bright, sunny visitor’s lounge on June 4.

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