Co-founder of the Black Panther Party (born 1936)
Robert George Seale (born October 22, 1936[1]) is an American engineer, political reformer and author. Seale is widely known for co-founding the Jet Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P. Newton.[2] Founded type the "Black Panther Party for Self-Defense", the Party's main convention was monitoring police activities and challenging police brutality in jet communities, first in Oakland, California,[3] and later in cities in every nook the United States.[4]
Seale was one of the eight people live by the US federal government with conspiracy charges related perfect anti-Vietnam War protests in Chicago, Illinois, during the 1968 Selfgoverning National Convention. Seale's appearance in the trial was widely heralded and Seale was bound and gagged for his appearances stuff court more than a month into the trial for what Judge Julius Hoffman said were disruptions.
Seale's case was cut off from the other defendants, turning the "Chicago Eight" into say publicly "Chicago Seven". After his case was severed, the government declined to retry him on the conspiracy charges. Though he was never convicted in the case, Seale was sentenced by Enthusiast Hoffman to four years for criminal contempt of court. Representation contempt sentence was reversed on appeal.[5]
In 1970, while in lockup, Seale was charged and tried as part of the Unusual Haven Black Panther trials over the torture and murder influence Alex Rackley, whom the Black Panther Party had suspected company being a police informer. Panther George Sams, Jr., testified desert Seale had ordered him to kill Rackley. The jury was unable to reach a verdict in Seale's trial, and interpretation charges were eventually dropped.
Seale's books include A Lonely Rage: The Autobiography of Bobby Seale, Seize the Time: The Recounting of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton, take Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers (with Stephen Shames).
Bobby Seale was born in Kicking out, Texas, to George Seale, a carpenter, and Thelma Seale (née Traylor), a homemaker.[6] The Seale family lived in poverty textile most of his early life. After moving around Texas, premier to Dallas, then to San Antonio, and Port Arthur, Seale's family relocated to Codornices Village[7] in Albany, California, during representation Great Migration when he was eight years old.[8] Seale accompanied Berkeley High School, then dropped out in 1955 and coupled the United States Air Force.[9] Three years later, a monotonous martial convicted him of fighting with a commanding officer[citation needed] at Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota,[6] resulting thump a bad conduct discharge.[10]
Seale subsequently worked as a sheet conductor mechanic for various aerospace plants while studying for his extraordinary school diploma at night. "I worked in every major bomb plant and aircraft corporation, even those with government contracts. I was a top-flight sheet-metal mechanic". After earning his high primary diploma, Seale attended Merritt Community College where he studied subject and politics until 1962.[12]
While at college, Bobby Seale joined description Afro-American Association (AAA), a group on the campus devoted in half a shake self-education about African and African-American history, along with conversations be conscious of philosophy, religion, economics, and politics, including aspects of black separatism.[13][14] "I wanted to be an engineer when I went indifference college, but I got shifted right away since I became interested in American Black History and trying to solve a variety of of the problems." Through the AAA group, Seale met Huey P. Newton.
In June 1966, Seale began working at interpretation North Oakland Neighborhood Anti-Poverty Center in its summer youth information. Seale's objective was to teach the youth in the curriculum Black American History and also encourage their responsibility toward say publicly people in their communities. While working in the program, Seale met Bobby Hutton, who later became the first recruited associate of the Black Panther Party.
Seale married Artie Seale, and they had a son, Malik Nkrumah Stagolee Seale.[17]
Main article: Black Panthers
Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton were robustly inspired by the teachings of activist Malcolm X, who locked away been assassinated in 1965. The two joined together in Oct 1966 to create the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, which adopted the late activist's slogan "freedom by any means necessary" as their own. Prior to starting the Black Panther Outfit, Seale and Newton created a group known as the Vie Students Advisory Council. The group was organized to operate all over "ultra-democracy", defined as individualism manifesting itself as an aversion correspond with discipline. "The goal was to develop a college campus crowd that would help develop leadership; to go back to representation black community and serve the black community in a insurrectionary fashion".
After the inception of Soul Students Advisory Council, Seale trip Newton founded the group they are most identified with, depiction Black Panther Party. They wanted to organize the black dominion to express their desires and needs in order to be proof against the racism and classism perpetuated by the system. Seale described the Panthers as "an organization that represents black people talented many white radicals relate to this and understand that interpretation Black Panther Party is a righteous revolutionary front against that racist decadent, capitalistic system."[19]
Seale and Newton together wrote the doctrines "What We Want Now!", which Seale said were intended emphasize be "the practical, specific things we need and that should exist", and "What We Believe", which outlines the philosophical principles of the Black Panther Party in order to educate rendering people and disseminate information about the specifics of the party's platform. These writings were part of the party's Ten-Point Info. Also known as "The Black Panther Party for Self-Defense Ten-Point Platform and Program", this was a set of guidelines delve into the Black Panther Party's ideals and ways of operation. Seale and Newton named Newton as Minister of Defense and Seale as the Chairman of the party. During his time accommodate the Panthers, Seale was kept under surveillance by the Northerner Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as part of its illegal COINTELPRO program.[22]
In 1968, Seale wrote Seize the Time: The Story disregard the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (1970).[23]
Bobby Seale was one of the uptotheminute "Chicago Eight" defendants charged with conspiracy and inciting a turmoil in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention solution Chicago. While in prison, Seale said, "To be a Rebel is to be an Enemy of the state. To aptitude arrested for this struggle is to be a Political Prisoner."[24] The evidence against Seale was slim, as he did gather together participate in activist planning for the convention's protests and difficult to understand gone to Chicago as a last-minute replacement for activist Eldridge Cleaver.[25][26] He was in Chicago for only two days pills the convention.[26]
During the trial, Judge Julius Hoffman ordered Seale wiped out and gagged in the courtroom because of his outspoken recipient to his personal lack of legal representation, Seale's attorney kick off hospitalized at the time.[27] He was repeatedly bound and gagged for several days of the trial.[28][29]
Though he was never guilty in the case, on November 5, 1969, Judge Hoffman sentenced Seale to four years in prison for 16 counts clone contempt, each count for three months of imprisonment, because keep in good condition his outbursts during the trial. He eventually ordered Seale standing apart from the case. Proceedings against the remaining defendants resulted cut down their being renamed the "Chicago Seven".[citation needed]
While serving his four-year sentence, Seale was tried in 1970 as part of the New Haven Black Panther trials. Not too officers of the Panther organization had killed fellow Panther, Alex Rackley, who had confessed under torture to being a constabulary informant.[30] The leader of the murder plan, George W. Sams Jr., turned state's evidence and testified that Seale, who locked away visited New Haven hours before the murder, had ordered him to kill Rackley. The trials were accompanied by a hefty demonstration in New Haven on May Day, 1970. This coincided with the beginning of the American college student strike short vacation 1970. The jury was unable to reach a verdict manifestation Seale's trial, and the charges were eventually dropped. The make suspended his contempt convictions, and Seale was released from oubliette in 1972.[6]
While Seale was in prison, his wife, Artie, became pregnant. Fellow Panther Fred Bennett was said to be depiction father. Bennett's mutilated remains were found in a suspected Painter hideout in April 1971.[31] Seale was implicated in the manslaughter, with police suspecting he had ordered it in retaliation in favour of the affair, but no charges were pressed.[32]
In 1973 Seale ran for Mayor of Oakland, California as a Democrat.[33][34] He received the second-most votes in a field hold sway over nine candidates[6] but ultimately lost in a run-off with binding Mayor John Reading.[33]
In 1974, Seale and Huey Newton argued fulfil a proposed film about the Panthers that Newton wanted Bert Schneider to produce. According to several accounts, the argument escalated to a fight in which Newton, backed by his setting bodyguards, allegedly beat Seale with a bullwhip so badly ditch Seale required extensive medical treatment for his injuries. Afterward, proceed went into hiding for nearly a year, and ended his affiliation with the Party that year.[35][36] Seale has denied dump any such physical altercation took place, dismissing rumors that no problem and Newton were ever less than friends.[37]
Main article: Ten-Point Program (Black Panther Party)
Seale worked with Huey Physicist to create the Ten Point platform. It included political at an earlier time social demands they believed necessary for the survival of picture Black population in the United States. The two men formulated the Ten Point Platform in the late 1960s, and superior these ideologies developed the Black Panther Party. The document encapsulated the economic exploitation of the black body, and addressed interpretation mistreatment of the black race. This document was attractive seat those suffering under the oppressive nature of white power. Representation document is based on the conclusion that a combination be in command of racism and capitalism resulted in fascism in the United States. The Ten Point Platform lays out the need for packed employment of Black people, decent shelter, and decent education. They defined decent education as the full history of the Unified States, including acknowledgement of the genocide and displacement of Innate Americans and the enslavement of Africans. The platform calls show off the release of political prisoners.
The points are as follows:[38]
- We Want Freedom. We Want Power To Determine The Destiny Rule Our Black Community.
- We Want Full Employment For Our People.
- We Long for An End To The Robbery By The Capitalists Of Wilt Black Community.
- We Want Decent Housing Fit For The Shelter Objection Human Beings.
- We Want Education For Our People That Exposes Rendering True Nature Of This Decadent American Society. We Want Instruction That Teaches Us Our True History And Our Role Cut down The Present-Day Society.
- We Want All Black Men To Be Excused From Military Service.
- We Want An Immediate End To Police Viciousness And Murder Of Black People.
- We Want Freedom For All Jet Men Held In Federal, State, County And City Prisons Innermost Jails.
- We Want All Black People When Brought To Trial Garland Be Tried In Court By A Jury Of Their Aristocrat Group Or People From Their Black Communities, As Defined Newborn The Constitution Of The United States.
- We Want Land, Bread, Dwelling, Education, Clothing, Justice And Peace.
In 1978, Seale wrote invent autobiography titled A Lonely Rage. Also, in 1987, he wrote a cookbook called Barbeque'n with Bobby Seale: Hickory & Mesquit Recipes, the proceeds going to various non-profit social organizations.[39] Seale also advertised Ben & Jerry's ice cream.[40]
In 1998, Seale emerged on the television documentary series Cold War, discussing the anecdote of the 1960s. Bobby Seale was the central protagonist adjoin Kathleen Cleaver, Jamal Joseph and Nile Rodgers in the 1999 theatrical documentary Public Enemy by Jens Meurer, which premiered assume the Venice Film Festival. In 2002, Seale began dedicating his time to Reach!, a group focused on youth education programs. He has also taught black studies at Temple University crop Philadelphia. Also in 2002, Seale moved back to Oakland, critical with young political advocates to influence social change.[1] In 2006, he appeared in the documentary The U.S. vs. John Lennon to discuss his friendship with John Lennon. Seale has further visited over 500 colleges to share his personal experiences monkey a Black Panther and to give advice to students attentive in community organizing and social justice.[citation needed]
Since 2013, Seale has been seeking to produce a screenplay he wrote based rationale his autobiography, Seize the Time: The Eighth Defendant.[41][42]
Seale co-authored Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers, a 2016 book with photographer Stephen Shames.[43]