The National Park Service expands its African-American history sites
The National Park Service is trying to include more Black history into the story of America. Some of the proposed sites are painful, others are controversial.
Oakland, CA – On a cool spring day, Fredrika Newton — the widow of Black Panther co-founder, Huey P. Newton — stands next to a bronze bust of her late husband. It's situated in a wide, landscaped median in the west end of Oakland that the Panthers called home.
"The Black Panther Party is an American story, and that's the job of the National Park Service is to tell the American story," Newton says.
Once upon a time, former FBI director J. Edgar Hoover called the Panthers the "greatest threat to internal security."
A half-century later, as perspectives have mellowed, the Huey Newton statue could eventually become part of a National Historical Park.
