Bobby Seale

Robert George Seale born October 22 1936 is an American political activist and author Seale is widely known for cofounding the Black Panther Party with fellow activist Huey P Newton Founded as the Black Panther Party for SelfDefense the Partys main practice was monitoring police activities and challenging police brutality in Black communities first in Oakland California and later in cities throughout the United States Seale was one of the eight people charged by the US federal government with conspiracy charges related to antiVietnam War protests in Chicago Illinois during the 1968 Democratic National Convention Seales appearance in the trial was widely publicized and Seale was bound and gagged for his appearances in court more than a month into the trial for what Judge Julius Hoffman said were disruptions Seales case was severed from the other defendants turning the Chicago Eight into the 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 Judge Hoffman to four years for criminal contempt of court The contempt sentence was reversed on appeal5 In 1970 while in prison Seale was charged and tried as part of the New Haven Black Panther trials over the torture and murder of Alex Rackley whom the Black Panther Party had suspected of being a police informer Panther George Sams Jr testified that Seale had ordered him to kill Rackley The jury was unable to reach a verdict in Seales trial and the charges were eventually dropped Seales books include A Lonely Rage The Autobiography of Bobby Seale Seize the Time The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P Newton and Power to the People The World of the Black Panthers with Stephen Shames Description above from the Wikipedia article Bobby Seale licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia