Co-Founder of Black Panther Party to Give Talk at Holy Cross

Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, will give a talk on Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. in the Hogan Campus Center Ballroom at the College of the Holy Cross. The talk is free and open to the public.

Seale will discuss the Black Panther Party’s ’60s protest movement history. Formed by Seale and Huey Newton to fight institutional racism, discrimination and police brutality, the Black Panther Party was established in 1966 with 400 members. During his eight years as chairman of the organization, he helped increase membership to 5,000. He was the key national co-coordinator, initiating community-based service programs such as breakfasts for school children, free busing for senior citizens, preventative medical health care, co-operative housing, people’s free food programs, and mass voter registration drives.

Defining himself today as a “revolutionary humanist,” Seale is the author of Seize the Time: The Story of The Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton (Vintage Books, 1970) and A Lonely Rage: The Autobiography of Bobby Seale (Bantam Books, 1979).

The talk is sponsored by the Black Student Union.