The founder of the Black Panther Party believes his organization has been represented unfairly as a group of "hoodlums and colored thugs."
In a talk at the Law School yesterday, Bobby Seale attacked what he called "institutionalized racism in America" and objected to those who have maligned his organization.
Seale talked about his work to start community service programs in order to disassociate the movement from the widely publicized violence of the late 1960s.
"We were young political revolutionaries," Seale said. "[Then-California Gov.] Reagan said we hated white folk. That's not true."
Growing up in a government housing project in Berkeley, Calif., Seale originally studied engineering design.
While he counts Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Malcolm X as his main inspirations, Seale did not begin to investigate his African-American heritage until his experience with the Afro-American Association and Black Panthers co-founder Huey Newton.
"Huey told me, 'We're not Negros, colored, jiggaboos or any other derogatory term.' I learned that Tarzan didn't run Africa," Seale said. "This blew my mind. I remember in high school I was told, 'Maybe slaves liked slavery. They could sit on a porch and play a banjo.'"
Seale recited a profanity-filled poem entitled "Uncle Sam They Call Me Lucifer" and detailed an experience in the late '60s in which he was charged with a year of probation for reading the poem and fighting with an undercover officer who tried to arrest him for public obscenity.
"I turned to [the officer] and said, 'The first rule of the Constitution of the United States is, 'Fuck you.' And then he hit me in the stomach," Seale said.
Seale said that there were no shootouts between the Black Panthers and police during the movement's first year. The Panthers took a stand against using weapons, opting to be arrested instead of acting violently, Seale said, adding that the Panthers won 98 percent of the arrest cases that went to trial.
Students attending the packed event seemed to enjoy the speech, giving Seale a standing ovation at the end.
"We all have these preconceived notions of what the Black Panther movement is. Some were confirmed and some were changed," College freshman Kristin Brinkley said.
Despite his age, Seale stays active in the movement, raising money for charities across the nation. The organization, he said, is open to all types and races.
"We didn't care if you were white, black, green, yellow or polka-dotted. We just wanted to know where your heart was," Seale said.
