A look back at the chaos of the 1968 DNC with Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale

[Moorbey]

By COREY STULCE

An unpopular war overseas ignited a fired-up uprising of protesters at the Democratic National Convention. But if you think you missed the newscast, it was 40 years ago.

As the DNC wound down last week and the GOP convention gears up to start Monday, anti-war protests in 2008 are relatively low-key. Rage Against the Machine reformed for a politically themed concert in Denver, about four miles from the Pepsi Center where the DNC was held. Iraq war veterans also marched near the convention last week, but their protests stand in contrast to those of Vietnam vets, some of whom publicly tossed away their medals in defiance of that war.
But in Chicago during 1968, the DNC was much more like a military state when a handful of "yippies" came to town, inviting anyone interested to join them, to protest the war in Vietnam.

The results saw thousands marching, public parks being gassed in order to get "campers" out after they closed for the evening and a strong police presence. The Windy City became a battleground with chaos and violence the order of the day.

Out of the rubble came a notorious trial that saw eight men - Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, David Dellinger, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and Bobby Seale (which eventually became seven when Bobby Seale was severed from the case) - being charged with conspiracy as relating to the violence at the convention. It was known as trial of the Chicago Eight.

The courtroom theatrics are revisited in the new film "Chicago 10," the added two referring to the attorneys, William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass, who defended the men. The film's tagline is, "The convention was drama. The trial was comedy."

At the time, though, Seale found nothing funny by him being literally bound and gagged for several days in the courtroom after his repeated outbursts caused Judge Julius Hoffman to have him restrained.

"Every time my name was mentioned, I would jump up and say, ‘I object. I object on the grounds .....' ‘Sit down, Mr. Seale,' the judge would holler out. ‘Sit down, nothin', man,' I said. Then they had the guards attack me a couple times and slam me in the chair. One time the chair rolled back and I fell out (of) the damn chair. These guys hammer-locked (my) arm ..... kicking me, pulling me. It was something else. There's drama here, heavy hell-ified drama, beyond what you see in the animation," Seale said during a recent phone interview with The Telegraph.

"Chicago 10" utilizes rotoscope-style animation, which is like tracing lines over performances by live actors. The courtroom scenes were recreated in this style, also using the actual transcripts for the dialogue. Actors such as Hank Azaria, the late Roy Scheider and Jeffrey Wright performed the voices of Hoffman, Judge Hoffman and Seale respectively.

"My voice should have been used," Seale said. "The director (Brett Morgen) admits to me - I met him in Hollywood about a month ago - ‘Seale, I thought you were gonna have a shaky, old voice because they said you were 71 years old, and you're sitting up here running off at the mouth like a 19 year old.'"

Seale argued for his Sixth Amendment Constitutional rights every time his name was mentioned, because his attorney, Charles Garry, was not present due to gall bladder surgery. Those outcries directed at the judge resulted in Seale tied to a chair with his mouth covered by a gag. That act and the trial prompted the song "Chicago" by Graham Nash, which featured the opening line, "Though your brother's bound and gagged, and they've chained him to a chair......." Crosby, Stills and Nash played a version of the song earlier this summer dubbed "Denver."

Seale is still a stickler for his constitutional rights, and has been since he formed the Black Panther Party for Self Defense with Huey P. Newton in 1966. Seale said after Newton went to jail he organized 5,000 members for the party across the country.

"We were sticklers for constitutional, democratic, civil rights," Seale said. "(‘Chicago 10' is) a good, necessary film documentary about a piece of history that really was about standing up for your Constitutional, democratic, civil, human rights, and that's what I did in that courtroom."

Interspersed with the courtroom scenes is footage of Chicago during the DNC, where protesters are seen being gassed, beaten and bloodied and hauled away by the Chicago police and 6,000 National Guardsmen deployed there. After the riots were over and the trial began, Abbie Hoffman and Jerry Rubin offered their own form of protest in the courtroom. At one point they arrived with a birthday cake for Seale. Another time, the duo showed up for court dressed in judge's robes; when Judge Hoffman demanded the robes removed, they were wearing police uniforms underneath.

"I loved 'em," Seale said of the antics. "As Jerry and Abbie Hoffman used to say, "This is great theater.'"

The trial went on for nearly six months, but by the end none of the seven - as Seale had been severed from the trial - were convicted of conspiracy, though Hoffman, Rubin, Dellinger, Hayden and Davis were convicted of crossing state lines with intent to start a riot. The sentence was five years in prison and a fine of $5,000. The United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit reversed the ruling in 1972, due in part to the biases of Judge Hoffman.

Seale still holds strong to his mantra, "All power to the people."
"I extend that phrase. My non-profit entity is the Bobby Seale R.E.A.C.H.! Foundation in bold capital letters. R.E.A.C.H.! stands for: Reclaiming, Recycling and Re-evolving, Ecological, Economic, Enviro-Empowerment Around All people's Active and Artistic Creative Co-operational Humanism.

"It's a mouthful, but it's an extension of ‘All power to the people.'"

He said he considers not allowing people to protest, in a non-violent way, unconstitutional, and that the bulk of protests that were planned this year were not even within earshot of the party conventions. He said progressive protests are important and would like to see more young people get involved - and watching "The Chicago 10" would be a good start.

"When you start talking about real change and the final analysis, it's about legislation and policies that make human sense - legislation and policies that negate exploitation," Seale said.

He said the Black Panthers were about coalition politics across all racial and ethnic lines, and that he's proud of some of the changes they were responsible for, like the Free Breakfast for School Children Program in California, that eventually saw similar programs spring up in other states.

"That's our legacy, fighting, by example and showing examples; defending ourselves when we're attacked. After they attacked and killed so many peaceful protestors before us, we just believed in the right to self defense, you know what I mean?" Seale said.

Aside from hosting a barbecue cooking show and writing books, Seale still speaks at 20 to 30 colleges a year around the country.

"I'm 71, (but) I'm very agile; I go to the gym every day," he said.

"Chicago 10" has just been released on DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment and is available for rent and sale.

The Associated Press provided some information for this article.

corey_stulce@thetelegraph.com

[nattyreb]

Asante sana for the posting, i didn't know of this rotoscope-animation film til now. Of course after reading this i went to read more about R.E.A.C.H. and googled up this site, Bobby Seale's Homepage, Black Panther Party Founder.

[Moorbey]

I had a chance to see the Chicago 10 and i recommend seeing it...

[nattyreb]

Dag, i'm always missing something. Did you check out Bro. Bobby's site, i didn't know whether i should have added this emoticon: or maybe this one: but not so much anymore, so will just settle for this: .

Originally Posted by bigdaddiej

I had a chance to see the Chicago 10 and i recommend seeing it...

[Moorbey]

I was looking for a little more content concerning tha 60's and the 70's it was more to promote his barbecue book and sauce.But i ain't mad at him.....

[nattyreb]

Ona move, strong Bro., i hear ya, it's definitely not my place to have any quarrel with him selling his BBQ sauce or anything else for that matter. And i really hate to be perceived as being unduly negative, especially in this forum dedicated to our Freedom Fighters (of which he most certainly is!), or as unappreciative of the Afrikan genius and immense courage this Bro. possesses.

But i just can't help but state my years-long, ongoing, and profound disappointment that Chrmn Bobby Seale doesn't do more on behalf of our PP's/POW's. i know he's been supportive to some degree and i'm not saying he doesn't care. All i can say is that it would be a tremendous help to many campaigns if he would come out and support activities by speaking out and encouraging others to act on their behalf on a regular basis. Even if he doesn't want to eff with any committees/orgs in existence today, why not at the very least feature their stories, support committees, even just their *addresses* on his websites, of which i visited today and saw little if any mention of our people.

Originally Posted by bigdaddiej

I was looking for a little ore content concerning tha 60's and the 70's it was ore to proote his barbecue book and sauce.But i ain't mad at him.....

[Moorbey]

Originally Posted by nattyreb

Ona move, strong Bro., i hear ya, it's definitely not my place to have any quarrel with him selling his BBQ sauce or anything else for that matter. And i really hate to be perceived as being unduly negative, especially in this forum dedicated to our Freedom Fighters (of which he most certainly is!), or as unappreciative of the Afrikan genius and immense courage this Bro. possesses.

But i just can't help but state my years-long, ongoing, and profound disappointment that Chrmn Bobby Seale doesn't do more on behalf of our PP's/POW's. i know he's been supportive to some degree and i'm not saying he doesn't care. All i can say is that it would be a tremendous help to many campaigns if he would come out and support activities by speaking out and encouraging others to act on their behalf on a regular basis. Even if he doesn't want to eff with any committees/orgs in existence today, why not at the very least feature their stories, support committees, even just their *addresses* on his websites, of which i visited today and saw little if any mention of our people.

I am in total agreement with you that Brutha Bobby Seale on the strentgh of his name alone could do a alot as a voice speaking on behalf of our pows/pp but he choses to do other things.And i truly think that for all that he did back in the day it seemed to eeasy for him to walk away and forget that for alot of our people the situation has not gotten bettter but worse....

[Walk Wit Me]

Originally Posted by bigdaddiej

I had a chance to see the Chicago 10 and i recommend seeing it...

I tried downloading that flick from a torrent but its stuck at 99.6 %

and I think Steven Speilberg is directing a flick about this which is due to come out in 2009/2010

Will Smith is suppose to portray Bobby Seale