I expected to die. At no time before the trial did I expect to escape with my life. Yet being executed in the gas chamber did not necessarily mean defeat. It could be one more step to bring the community to a higher level of consciousness.
Meaning of the quote
Huey Newton, an American activist, did not think he would survive his trial. He believed he might be executed in the gas chamber. However, he felt that even if he was killed, it would not mean he had lost. Instead, it could be a way to make the community more aware and thoughtful about important issues. Even facing the possibility of death, he saw it as an opportunity to create positive change.
More quotes from Huey Newton
I expected to die. At no time before the trial did I expect to escape with my life. Yet being executed in the gas chamber did not necessarily mean defeat. It could be one more step to bring the community to a higher level of consciousness.
My fear was not of death itself, but a death without meaning.
There’s no reason for the establishment to fear me. But it has every right to fear the people collectively – I am one with the people.
The revolution has always been in the hands of the young. The young always inherit the revolution.
You can jail a Revolutionary, but you can’t jail the Revolution.
Any unarmed people are slaves, or are subject to slavery at any given moment.
There will be no prison which can hold our movement down.
If you stop struggling, then you stop life.
Black Power is giving power to people who have not had power to determine their destiny.
The first lesson a revolutionary must learn is that he is a doomed man.
We have two evils to fight, capitalism and racism. We must destroy both racism and capitalism.
The walls, the bars, the guns and the guards can never encircle or hold down the idea of the people.
I think what motivates people is not great hate, but great love for other people.
I do not expect the white media to create positive black male images.
Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.
The policemen or soldiers are only a gun in the establishments hand. They make the racist secure in his racism.
I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.