| Written by Kam Williams, (Contributing Writer), on 07-31-2008 10:01 |
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Page 1 of 4  Seizing the Time with the Black Panther Founder
Robert George Seale was born on October 22, 1936 in Dallas, Texas where, from the age of six, he was raised by his father to be a carpenter-builder and a hunter-fisherman. During WWII, the family migrated to Northern California where Bobby graduated from Berkeley High with plans of becoming an architect. However, those plans were put on hold when he instead enlisted in the Air Force, serving for almost four years, till being discharged for insubordination. He then moved to Los Angeles to take a shot at showbiz as a stand-up comedian and as a jazz musician, before returning to the Bay Area in 1961. The next year, while working the night shift, full-time in the aerospace industry, Bobby attended Merritt College as an Engineering Design major. It was during this period of his life that he would meet Huey Newton and develop a passion for grassroots organizing and progressive politics. After identifying some pressing needs of black America, the two decided to create a grass roots community-based organization. On October 15, 1966, they founded the Black Panthers, outlining the new political party's 10-Point Platform, and naming Bobby its Chairman, and Huey its Minister of Defense, after flipping a coin. The organization membership rolls surged in the wake of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, when most young African-Americans began to question the wisdom of the late civil rights leader's philosophy of civil disobedience and passive resistance. But the government would come down hard on the Panthers, using the FBI's notorious Counter-Intelligence Program (COINTELPRO) along with local authorities to discredit, kill, frame, imprison and otherwise neutralize its members and sympathizers. Although Bobby would himself spend over two years in jail on a variety of trumped-up charges, he was ultimately vindicated in every case. The most famous trial he was ever associated, dubbed the Chicago 8, began after his arrest along with 7 other activists for conspiracy and inciting to riot at the Democratic Convention in Chicago during the Summer of 1968. The proceedings became something of a shameful spectacle when the judge had Bobby bound, shackled and gagged in the courtroom for repeatedly demanding that he be allowed to exercise his Constitutional right to represent himself. Here, he reflects on the new animated docudrama about the trial called Chicago 10, and on his enduring career as an unwavering advocate of the rights of the disenfranchised and the downtrodden.
SENTINEL: Hey, Bobby, it's an honor to speak with you. Thanks for the time.
BS: Thank you, Kam. How do you spell your name? SENTINEL: K-A-M. It's short for Kamau, an African name.
BS: Oh, I see, not C-A-M but K-A-M. SENTINEL: Yeah. So, what did you think of the film, Chicago 10?
BS: Well, it needed my voice. SENTINEL: I take it you would've preferred to do your own voice for the animation, instead of having Jeffrey Wright do you.
BS: Sure, the director [Brett Morgen] has since admitted to me that when he heard I was 70 years-old, he didn't even consider me. He expected that I was going to be an old guy with a shaky voice going, “Well, you know, back in the day…” I said, “No, brother,” and got to reciting strings of historical facts about the Black Panther Party, and he said, “My God! You run off at the mouth like you're 19!” SENTINEL: I guess it must be strange to hear someone else doing you, especially since you have such a distinct, and recognizable voice.
BS: Well, it's alright, thought I feel he should have at least made a better effort to contact me and consult me about the film and about the history, regardless of how he ultimately made the movie. Plus, I had produced my own documentary, so I'm aware of a lot of the factors that go into making a halfway decent movie. I think I could've made a hellified contribution in terms of the storyline.
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