He went on to a two-year college where he took a course in criminology, ''because I wanted to be a criminal but I didn't know which type.'' He even went to law school for a while. When he finally learned to read, his first book was Plato's ''Republic.'' He grew up in Oakland, Calif., and disliked school so much that he was suspended more than 30 times and was finally given a diploma just to get him out of the system. Posterity has labeled Newton a contradiction who could have been a gangster or a hero. Edgar Hoover, followed by a few words on piano lessons and André Watts. ''Nobody can argue with free grits, right?'' He segues to his opinion of J. Just like Charlton Heston's guns.'' Then he's on to the Panthers' good works, like a breakfast program for children. ''They were registered guns,'' Newton says. The play jumps around in terms of topics and time. Shown on the cable channel Black Starz last year, it has its broadcast premiere tonight on PBS. Peter Marks, writing in The New York Times, called the play ''an electrifying impersonation'' and ''a hypnotic performance.'' The 90-minute television adaptation lives up to that praise. Smith's 1997 one-man Off Broadway show, based on Newton's own words, into a highly charged docudrama. ''All you know is that you don't like things the way they are right now.'' ''You want to change the system, but you don't know what the system is going to be like after you change it,'' he says at one point. Watching him is a little like seeing a Shakespeare play at first the unfamiliar language gets in the way, but you get used to it and start hearing the message. As Newton, the Black Panthers leader, he speaks at what seems like a hundred miles an hour. Newton Story'' that it's difficult to understand him. Roger Guenveur Smith is so authentic in ''A Huey P. Sometimes an imitation or re-creation can be too good.
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