Preview
Identifier
Kanza1978_127
Object Type
Yearbook
Creation Date
1-1-1978
Description
A 1978 Kanza yearbook page detailing a visit by ex-Black Panther leader, Bobby Seale, who was a keynote speaker for Black Heritage Week. Included are three photographs of Seale speaking about ending poverty and homicide.
Transcription
Speakers
Bobby Seale... ex-Black Panther leader
The fierce appearance that once fit neatly into the white stereotype of what a Black Panther looked like has undeniably mellowed, but Bobby Seale still calls himself a revolutionary. Seale was a guest of the Student Senate Emphasis Program and also the keynote speaker for Black Heritage Week.
At times showing flashes of the leadership qualities that enabled him to be an integral part of the American revolution circa 1968, ex-Black Panther leader Seale explained to an audience of 150 at Carney Hall on February 8 his new program for eliminating poverty. Reminding people that there are more than 60 million persons living at or below a subsistence level in America, Seale stressed community-based economic development, for which he is asking Congress for $20 billion a year for ten years.
Seale called his economic stimulus program “a test for Jimmy Carter.” He said he was surprised to receive a personal response from President Carter concerning his proposals – “He said I had good ideas.” But Seale said the substance of the President’s letter was mostly a put-off.
To counter such rebuff’s Seale has organized a lobbying organization, Advocates Scene, which he called “a lobby group with militant teeth.” Seale wants to use federal funds to enable communities to incorporate and to enable people to become stockholders. He explained individuals could own shares where they were businessmen, workers or welfare recipients – equal shares for all. Because all persons living in a community contribute to its economic livlihood, they should all be part owners, he said.
Seale also spoke on behalf of Homicide Prevention, a national organization which seeks to defuse potential homicides before they occur, primarily through counseling centers. Seale said he was a victim of child abuse which created a basis for his own lonely rage. He said those days of lonely rage ended when he helped found the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. With Huey Newton and other Panther members, Seale patrolled the Oakland ghetto carrying “tape recorders, law books, and shot guns in an attempt to observe brutality.
The Panthers catapulted to national prominence when they went on the floor of the California legislature with loaded guns to protest legislation forbiding carrying of weapons in an incorporated area. He remembered the incident which was a highlight of his career, but explained that it, the Chicago conspiracy trial stemming from the 1968 Democratic National Convention protest and his New Haven murder acquittal are all in the past.
Downplaying the use of firearms, Seale said legislative action is now the key for solving domestic problems. However, if federal protection is hard to get, “I’m still a revolutionary, and if I need to, I might pick up a gun someday.”
