Black power leader talks on Panthers

Bobby Seale co-founded the Black Panthers in 1966 and was a leading proponent of black militancy. Even though he still wore a trademark beret, Bobby Seale came to campus last night promoting a message far different from the black militant one for which he became famous in the 1960s. In an animated two-hour speech before approximately 175 students, Seale, who co-founded the Black Panther Party over 30 years ago, said he and other members of his movement have been unfairly misrepresented by the media as "hoodlums" and "thugs." In reality, Seale explained, the party was based more on a desire to change the status quo than on a hunger for violence and retribution. Seale, along with Huey Newton, is known as a leading figure in the rise of the black power movement of the mid- to late-1960s. The imagery of the Panthers' berets, bandoleer belts and upraised fists remains today a lasting symbol of Seale and his activism. He was also a member of the "Chicago Eight" -- a group of radicals arrested for disrupting the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago. For his outbursts in court, Seale was ordered bound and gagged. While his ideologies may have changed over the years, his dramatic speaking style has not. Through a series of vivid descriptions of the past and colorful imitations of friends and foes, Seale set about dispelling various myths about the Panthers. He began by condemning the group's portrayal by the media. In particular, he criticized the 1995 film Panther. Calling it "poetic lies," he explained that the film promotes the same image of the Panthers being thugs that the government promoted in the past. "I think it's a bunch of cheap fiction crap," Seale said. "Only 10 percent was [based on real-life incidents]." Seale spent the majority of his address refuting this image of "hooliganism" and tracing the start of the radical group he founded with Newton, whom he met while both were attending Merritt Junior College in Oakland in 1962. Stressing the amount of reading and research that he and Newton engaged in before shaping the group, Seale gave a lengthy description of the intensive study of African-American history that precipitated the creation of the Panthers. "This is the kind of stuff that was? blowing my mind," he said, referring to the legacies of figures such as W.E.B. DuBois and Nat Turner. While Seale and Newton took active roles and promoted social change within their small college by advocating for a black history class, it was not until the death of Malcolm X that they decided to formally organize the Panthers. Shortly thereafter, they came up with the Ten Point Platform, which outlined the goals of the group. Included in the platform was the right to freedom from police brutality "We wanted to capture the imagination of real people," Seale said. Seale pointed out that the Panthers, especially in their early days, stayed well within the boundaries of the law, even though they are often remembered for their run-ins with police. Newton was in law school and tried to ensure that the Panthers followed at least some of the country's laws. Seale closed his remarks with a condemnation of all kinds of racism and called for a future of "cooperational humanism." "All power to all the people," he said as he left the stage to a standing ovation, echoing the message he has been promoting for the last 30 years. "It was very enlightening," University City High School student Nicole Harris said. And College junior Larissa Kopytoff said Seale's stories "really gave you a sense of the atmosphere of the time."