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Show Reformed Black Panther nj BobbyJ Seales Bigo Change of Pace By Paul Hendrickson Washington Post Writer WASHINGTON Bobby Seale has mellowed, everybody says. Thats because Im not going around saying Off the pig.' You got to meet the climete of the times, man. For one thing, there is no J. Edgar Hoover out there Or John Mitchell. Or Mayor Daley, God bless his racist soul. Hell, yes, Im still a revolutionary But that don't mean Im going down the street carrying guns The firebrand symbol of '60s Black Power is 41 now. Though his body is still taut and explobive-lookinthe face is softer these days, fuller, with creases under the dark, hooded eyes and a cer-tatiredness maybe sadness inside them. The hair that used to ring his jaw in a malevolent-lookin- g Fu- Manchu is trimmed to a mustache. Sitting at a friends kit then table in Washington recently, wearing - cranberry double-knit- s sipping a can of Miller, Bobby Seale could be a claims adjuster for Allstate. Almost anything, in fact, save what he was: chairman and cofounder of the Black Panther Party for Self Defense. The Black Panthers. Oakland Calf., 1966. Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Berets and black leather jackets. Upraised fists. Vigilante patrols. The takeover of the visitors gallery at the Sacramento statehouse. Police Raid And Later: a predawn police raid at Fred sin to have a lonely rage,' Well, theres your title, he said." He says he got a $26,000 advance to write the book. I had a $35,000 offer from another publisher, but they wanted it This ones all mine. He admits the book has not been very well re ceived by activist blacks. They wanted more the tissue of political events. Well, it wasnt supposed to be that. It was supposed to be an autobiography. It is Seale's story to be sure from the dirt poor Texas boyhood to the ers, looking for Mama's wooden-handlebutcher knife. I had to have her knife, you see. I think what had piled up in my head all this time was a horrible fear my father was one day going to hurt my mother. Anyway, I found it, faced George, and said, 'Okay, you nasty nigger mother, Im going to cut your guts out. " He is off the chair, standing in the center of the room, his eyes large as walnuts. The voice, calm a moment ago, is high and racing. Started Crying discharge from the Air Force. identifiFrom a teen-ag- e cation with the American Indian ("We were some kmda nigger macho Tar-zan- s with buckskin and Bowie knives and everything") to trying to make it later as a jazz drummer and stand-u- p comic. Lifelong Rebellion If there is one psychological thread running through Bobby Seales story, it is his murderous and nearly lifelong rebellion against a violent, move-abofather who was forever exploiting his family and beating up on his elder son. One time Bobby aimed to kill him We were all in the living room my brother John, who was home from the Air Force, my sister Betty, Mama. George was sitting on this old, worn, maroon couch and he kept getting on me til Im in a killing rage. I ran into the kitchen rattling through draw- - school I used to get As in the tiniest details." Controls Super Ego He is comfortable with such terms his "super ego" now, and how he controls it. He learned this on his own "My mind is my own laboratory. Not long ago Seale formed Homicide Prevention Inc., and organization he says helps deal with the high rate of d And all thats conflict-motivate- homicides. two-thir- in this country are They conflict- usually arise from an irresolvable conflict between two individuals, maybe a husband beating his wife, maybe a white cop trying to pin a rap on a black. Parents raise their children with too much repressed when we My brother and Betty and Mama. Even George. I just kept standing there, shaking but aiming to do it, let him and the whole damn world know how much I hated him. But when I saw those tears rolling down his face, I couldn't hold back my own. I started bawling and said, Ive always loved you. Im sorry. You used to be everything to me. Im sorry, Daddy. He walked off into the anger." How is his relationship with his father now? It's a whole new day. Hell, that old guy has learned a lot. And Ive learned a lot. We get along fine. He living room saying. Yeah, Im sorry, too. Seale contends his simmering rebellion against his father is at the root of his becoming a I don't revolutionary. say its absolute. But I say its highly possible that if I hadnt been a victim of maladaptive repressive behavior at home, I might have become a totally different adult. Look, man: I was once studying to be an architectural draftsman. I had started to college in engineering. In high See, nearly of all murders -motivated. started crying. Bobby d calls me up every once in a while to get a little money. Even his feelings toward Judge Hoffman have softened. (In his book Seale describes A Screwed-u- p old face that peered down round metal-rithrough his glasses. Him? Oh? Oh, I imagine he's pretty much like he was. But I dont hold a grudge. Thats over. Numbers Down Seale says he doesnt see his old comrades much anymore. I recognize now that one of my problems was that I always had a psychologi- - cal friend-dependenc- Section Sunday Morning, April 9, C Page One 1978 It that way with Huey. I'm on my own now Besides, he says, the was Panthers, as everybody are a shadow of former selves down from 22 chapters and several thousand members in 1969 to probably less than 100 active members in just two chapters today, one in North Carolina, the other in Oakland, where the party began. That is true. It is also knows, their true that the Black Panthers are far from the militant organization they once were. As party spokesman David G. Dubois said a few years ago, the emphasis has changed from the old by any means necessary to the new by any means available. In the '70s the party regrouped under Elaine Brown, one of the original members and a former minister of information. Under her the Panthers established a health clinic, a free food stamp program and the private Oakland Community School. Amazing Recall Seals seems to have amazing recall of events in his life; he can even remember exact conversations, he says. It all started when I was in the joint at Greys-ton- e Prison in California. Wed be in lockup and not come out for three days, and then just to shower and shave and go back in. Half the guys in there were in mania states, banging their heads against the bars, screaming at the bulls. Man, I wanted out of there so bad. Id lie in my stor$Tbiiyjn apartment (two slain, four wounded). The con-- ' spirarcy trial of the Chicago 7. Judge Julius Hoffman . . . In the nearly eight years since he sat bound and gagged in a Chicago courtroom, eyes spitting Salt fake Sfilntnc l)r ' the new house we were going to get. Or all tne plans Huey and I had in the beginning. By the time I was ready to write the book, I had it all remembered. In 1973 Seale ran for mayor of Oakland as a Democrat. He conducted a hard, bunk wide awake. Thats when I got the idea of escape dreams. I trained my mind to concentrate so hard I could be gone from that cell just remembering how far it things. Like was from Jasper to San Antonio. Or what my mama used to say about d revolutionary, he says, but has become more mellow to meet the climate of the times. campaign and received 44,000 votes to the incumbent's 77,000. We were dead serious," he says. Like Huey used to say: If I should move one grain of sand from one spot to another, the world will never be the same. We made our point." Nnwaoys, Seale says. 7oIUm e THOME OFlGREATlVAlUfS California, fallen out with the Black Panthers (exactly why is still an mystery), e ambivalently, then come to Inkleys and learn how to use it. Our Certified Photographic Conselors will show you the ins and outs of fine photography. Yes, you can buy a camera anywhere, but you might as well buy it at INKLEYS because . . . . . . having okayed Kings being called a in' bootlicker Panther newspapers. Lonely Rage "James said, 'Now Bobby, what are you trying to say in this book and I said, I'm trying to say it aint no OWN YOUR OWN MONEY BUSINESS KniUHT Ml 2.000 unocm "BECOME A FINANCIER" tdwai for uicutivt typo potoo Oprata from your own drgniftad coma to you for vantur ba uncart with Capital Asantanca Mu wall roundad buunau background in Want btgrt incoma for right paroon oHtct profonal CnU U.S. Si 8.000 Ca Mr Vaaaar CotMMtar Capital Hollywood U. (0021 CASH REQ. m wrUa. (2 IS) tantarabaa. ftagLi 2 A. laulawd, Laa n. 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He has pretty much left the Bay Area behind, he says Hottman, Bobby Seale has faced a murder trial in New Haven, helped negotiate peace at Attica, run for office in and dropped from sight to write his autobiogan oddly moving raphy and lucid book titled A Lonely Rage." Now, like any good capitalist, he is out promoting it. You can go to the whitest, most racist community in America and they still know who Bobby Seale is," he says, unable to stop a grin. I figured that was a good starting base. Seale says James Baldwin, his literary hero, provided the books title. The two had first met the day of Martin Luther Kings funeral in Atlanta, in Marlon Brandos hotel suite. Seale had come v's Washington Post Photo Bobby Seale, firebrand symbol of 1960s as leader of Black Panther Party, is still a defiance at Judge inner-circl- s 484-439- 7 262-924- 5 328-056- 1 486-392- 1 292-147- 4 |