“The Struggle for Freedom, Justice, and Equality Transcends Racial and National Boundaries”: Anti-Imperialism, Multiracial Alliances, and the Free Huey Movement in the San Francisco Bay Area

This article examines the 1967–1971 political prisoner solidarity movement for Black Panther Party co-founder Huey P. Newton as a case study of multiracial radical alliances in the San Francisco Bay Area. In contrast to the predominant trope of “unlikely allies,” I argue that the activists examined in this article who formed alliances with Newton and the Panthers were predisposed to collaborative activism through their common anti-imperialist orientation, expressed as anti-racism, anti-capitalism, and anti–U.S. military interventionism. In addition, I show that earlier alliances laid the foundation for alliances with later movements and organizations, creating what I term “genealogies of alliance” within the Free Huey Movement that demonstrate a persistent desire for collaborative activism throughout this era. This article prompts a reconsideration of Sixties radicalism; in contrast to scholarly and popular interpretations that focus on activists’ sectarianism and divisiveness, the Free Huey Movement illuminates how activists theorized and endeavored to work toward the collective liberation of all people.