Robert George Bobby Seale (born October 22, 1936) is an American political activist. He is known for co-founding the Black Panther Party with Huey Newton. Seale and Newton, heavily inspired by Malcolm X, a civil rights leader assassinated in 1965, and his teachings, joined together in October 1966 to create the Black Panther Party for Self Defense and adopt the slain activists slogan “Freedom by any means necessary” as their own. Seale became the chairman of the Black Panther Party and underwent FBI surveillance as part of its COINTELPRO program. Bobby Seale was one of the original Chicago Eight defendants charged with conspiracy and inciting to riot, in the wake of the 1968 Democratic National Convention, in Chicago. The evidence against Seale was slim as Seale was a last-minute replacement for Eldridge Cleaver and had been in Chicago for only two days of the convention. Judge Julius Hoffman sentenced him to four years of imprisonment for contempt because of his outbursts, and eventually ordered Seale severed from the case, hence the Chicago Seven. During the trial, one of Seales many outbursts led the judge to have him bound and gagged as commemorated in the song Chicago written by Graham Nash and mentioned in the poem and song H2Ogate Blues by Gil Scott-Heron. Sharing History. Author Marcette Fochier
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 22:00:27 +0000