The Black Panther Party and its co-founder Huey P. Newton drew both allies and adversaries—most notably, the FBI—as they fought for social change and protection for Black Americans. Newton’s relationship with one of his most famous supporters is the subject of the new Apple TV+ miniseries The Big Cigar.
The six-episode series, which began Friday, stars André Holland as Newton and provides a dramatized account of the activist’s infamous flight to Cuba in 1974 while facing murder and assault charges in the United States. Based on a 2012 Playboy article written by Joshuah Bearman, The Big Cigar highlights movie producer Bert Schneider’s unlikely role in the scheme. He financed a fake film production to help Newton temporarily evade authorities and continue his quest for social revolution.
But the creative escape plot was only one part of the much more complex story of Newton’s role in the Black Panther Party and his repeated legal battles.
Newton’s impending arrest wasn’t his first
Newton had developed a contentious reputation after co-founding the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense with Bobby Seale in Oakland, California, in 1966. The Black Power socialist organization was dedicated to fighting police brutality, and its members openly carried firearms. The Black Panthers also took an active role in the community, establishing a school for Black children in Oakland.
The group contained a number of outspoken personalities, including Newton, Seale, and Eldridge Cleaver, the party’s minister of information who, like Newton years later, fled the United States in November 1968 to escape the police. As a result, according to The New York Times, the party was the subject of extensive FBI surveillance. Eventually, a 1976 report from the Senate Committee on Intelligence Activities found the agency carried out a nationwide effort to “destroy” the Panthers and divide leaders like Newton and Cleaver.
In the meantime, Newton regularly made headlines for unfavorable reasons. In 1967, he was arrested after allegedly killing Oakland police officer John Frey during a traffic stop. He was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in 1968 and sentenced to two to 15 years in prison, though the conviction was overturned two years later.
Then in August 1974, Newton was charged in the murder of a 17-year-old sex worker named Kathleen Smith. He was simultaneously accused of assaulting Preston Callins, a tailor, in a separate incident. Seeing little chance of defending himself against charges he insisted were false, Newton departed for Cuba—with Schneider starting production on a fake movie in order to help him escape. The communist leadership of Fidel Castro in Cuba offered a safe haven from prosecution.
He stayed in Cuba for almost 3 years
After financing Newton’s escape, Schneider continued to offer support from afar. The producer even invited some of his celebrity friends, including actors Candice Bergen and Jack Nicholson, to visit Newton on the island, according to The New York Times.
Roughly one year after his arrival, Newton detailed his experience abroad during an interview with AFRO News. “The Cuban Revolutionary Government has been generous and very considerate to me and my family,” Newton said, adding he hadn’t experienced any racism from the Cuban people.
Newton, then 34, said the Cuban government had asked him to work as a literature teacher at the nearby university, but he declined, instead opting to repair cement trucks at mechanical factories located in the countryside. He described his neighbors as “being like part of the family,” which at the time included his wife Gwen Fontaine.
Still, reporter Seth McMillan remarked that Newton seemed “homesick” in Cuba, and the revolutionary explicitly said he would continue his activism in the United States as soon he felt circumstances allowed. “It’s where I can identify with the total world struggle for socialism. But I think as a North American, as a Black North American, I have certain understandings—certain contributions—to make that are unique to the North American experience,” he said.
Newton eventually returned for his day in court
Newton finally left Cuba in June 1977 to face the charges against him, continuing to maintain they were false. He cited the Watergate Scandal and public revelations of abuses by the CIA and FBI as evidence he could prove his innocence. “A change of administration does not mean an end to the system of exploitation which I oppose,” Newton said, referring to the start of Jimmy Carter’s presidency earlier that year. “But there is now a more congenial atmosphere for the kind of court battle that we are going to fight. After all these revelations of recent years, the people are prepared to believe the kind of conspiracies that the government has inflicted on us.”
According to The Washington Post, Newton had reached an agreement with the U.S. Justice Department that dropped an outstanding federal charge of “unlawful flight to avoid prosecution” before surrendering. Newton officially pleaded not guilty to killing Smith and assaulting Callins on November 22, 1977.
Callins refused to testify against Newton in court. He was acquitted of the assault in September 1978 but sentenced to two years on a related weapons charge. He served nine months in prison almost a decade later in 1987.
As for the murder charge, a deadlocked jury voted 10 to 2 for acquittal, resulting in a mistrial on March 24, 1979. “I’ve been vindicated by the community,” Newton remarked, though he faced a retrial later that year. Again, the jury was stuck—this time at an 11 to 1 vote for acquittal—in another mistrial.
The Black Panther Party quickly fractured
Prior to his escape to Cuba, Newton had appointed Elaine Brown as the Black Panthers’ new leader. Brown installed women in key administrative positions, stoking discontent among male members. Upon Newton’s return to the United States, he was again the face of the party even without the official title as chair.
Newton and Brown argued over the party’s direction. Brown’s last straw came when Newton failed to condemn the assault of Regina Davis, a Black Panther school administrator, for a minor offense. “The beating of Regina would be taken as a clear signal that the words ‘Panther’ and ‘comrade’ had taken on gender connotations,” Brown wrote, “denoting an inferiority in the female half of us.” She soon left the party.
Newton, meanwhile, faced more legal trouble in May 1978, when he and his bodyguard were arrested and charged for assault with intent to commit murder following a bathroom brawl in California’s Santa Cruz County. He was later acquitted of these charges, though he faced additional ones for weapons offenses, parole violations, and financial misappropriations over the next few years. He also battled cocaine and heroin abuse. The party dwindled amid its lack of clear leadership and officially dissolved by 1982.
Despite escaping the legal problems that caused him to escape to Cuba, Newton couldn’t outrun his controversial standing in society. He was shot and killed on August 22, 1989, by a member of the Black Guerilla Family street gang, leaving a substantial but complex legacy that still fascinates today.
Watch The Big Cigar on Apple TV+
Executive producer Don Cheadle, who also directs the first two episodes of the new miniseries, said André Holland’s portrayal of Newton in the series reflects the Black Panther Party founder’s unyielding nature. “He stood 10 toes down, as they say, for what he believed in and was willing to go all the way for it,” Cheadle told The New York Times. “I think whenever we see that, we are fascinated by it. It’s compelling and it draws you in.”
The first two episodes of The Big Cigar are now streaming on Apple TV+. New episodes drop on Fridays through June 14.
Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
