Explorations in Black Leadership

Co-Directed by Phyllis Leffler & Julian Bond

Seale, Robert (Bobby) (1936–)

Seale is an African American political activist who advocated militant black empowerment over the nonviolent rhetoric of the civil rights movement. He grew up in California and joined the US Air Force in 1955. He met Huey Newton while protesting the Cuba blockade and they quickly became friends. Seale and Newton formed the Black Panthers in 1966, which became the Black Panther Party. Focusing on community outreach, the Panthers spread across the nation. Seale spent four years in prison following charges that he conspired to start riots at the DNC in Chicago, and afterward began writing, publishing A Lonely Rage in 1978 and a cookbook in 1987.