An excerpt of a presentation by Black Panther Party founder Bobby Seale titled 'UNFINISHED BUSINESS' delivered at the 45th Anniversary Celebration & Inaugural Ceremony of the Alumni Association of the Black Panther Party - October 28, 2011 in Philadelphia, Pa
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Proclamation Celebrating February Black History Month Honoring and Recognizing the Life and Contributions of Mr. Bobby Seale
Proclamation Celebrating February Black History Month Honoring and Recognizing the Life and Contributions of Mr. Bobby Seale, co-founder of the Youth Jobs North Richmond Tutorial Program (1964) and of the Black Panther Party (1966).
WHEREAS, for many decades Americans of all backgrounds have celebrated Black History Month during the month of February, the birth month of Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, W.E.B. DuBois, the 15th Amendment, the NAACP, and other remarkable individuals and milestones; and
WHEREAS, the City of Richmond has honored and recognized each year the lives, struggles and contributions of African Americans who confronted the horrible evils of racism and discrimination, injustice and abuse, locally, regionally and nationally; and
WHEREAS, the City of Richmond has many African American residents who at one point or another stepped up to the plate of self-defense, mobilized their neighbors and community members and went to the streets, to the ballot boxes and to the courts to advance the interests of African Americans, and others; and
WHEREAS, in 1964 Mr. Bobby Seale and five others designed and organized the first Youth Jobs North Richmond Tutorial Program, to provide job skills for young African Americans in North Richmond; and
WHEREAS, in 1965 Mr. Bobby Seale, while attending Merritt College was the creator of the "Black History Fact Group", to get four courses into Merritt College's curriculum to revisit and rewrite Black History from the perspective of the African American agents of that history; and
WHEREAS, on October 22, 1966 Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton wrote the final draft of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) Ten Point Program and Bobby Seale won the position of Chairman with the flip of a coin; and
WHEREAS, starting out with nothing, the Black Panther Party moved with the people to implement a total of 22 programs, including: free breakfast programs to feed hungry children, free preventive medical health clinics and sickle cell anemia testing to care for the sick, free shoe and clothing programs to clothe the needy, and Liberation Schools to educate the youth all while working along with Community Centers and the Black Community News Service to keep the community informed; and
WHEREAS, on April 1st 1967 in Richmond, CA, 22 year old African American Denzil Dowell was shot and killed by sheriffs deputies at Third and Chesty, an unincorporated area of North Richmond, and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, responded to the Dowell family's call for protection from the police by placing Black Panther Party guards in the area demanding a full and objective investigation of the homicide, educating the residents about their rights, and rallying and mobilizing the residents for justice to be served; and
WHEREAS, many African Americans may have chosen ways of advancement different than the ones of the Black Panther Party, it is nevertheless clear that through the attacks suffered from outside and from inside of the organization, through false charges, unfair incarcerations, violence and assaults, through high and low moments, the Black Panther Party represented and cried out the tired and frustrated voice of so many in Black America, and became one of the most important social change movements in American and African American history; and
WHEREAS, Bobby Seale with the Black Panther member organization helped stopped the riots in North Richmond following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and encouraged pursuing an electoral path of unified struggle for liberation; and
WHEREAS, the message of the Black Panther Party continues to resonate and inspire many in the quest for justice; the struggles and mobilizations which took place in Richmond forty-two years ago around the homicide of Denzil Dowell are obliged, unfortunately, to continue today in order to reject, condemn and stop once and for all the crimes committed against the African American community, including the one suffered by Mr. Oscar Grant on a BART station on the first of January this year; and
WHEREAS, Richmond and its residents have been and continue to be beneficiaries through years of witnessing and often following the example of commitment to justice and equality, and of the many significant changes brought about by the community organizing struggles led by Mr. Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party, including Mr. Seale's wife, Ms. Leslie M. Johnson-Seale, who worked with the North Richmond Panther Community Center.
THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, on behalf of the Richmond City Council and in celebration of February Black History Month 2009 proclaim that the City of Richmond Honors Mr. Bobby Seale, founding Chairman and national organizer of the Black Panther Party in forty-five chapters and branches across the USA, and one of the last surviving architects of this nationally and internationally recognized instrument of African American Liberation, for his life of commitment to social change, and
THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, and proclaimed that the City of Richmond is indebted and grateful to Mr. Seale, to his organization, and to all the Black Panthers who through the decades came to Richmond, or emerged from Richmond to activate, unite, organize, educate, mobilize, rally and increase awareness and hope for a better future for all the residents of our city.
WHEREAS, for many decades Americans of all backgrounds have celebrated Black History Month during the month of February, the birth month of Frederick Douglas, Abraham Lincoln, W.E.B. DuBois, the 15th Amendment, the NAACP, and other remarkable individuals and milestones; and
WHEREAS, the City of Richmond has honored and recognized each year the lives, struggles and contributions of African Americans who confronted the horrible evils of racism and discrimination, injustice and abuse, locally, regionally and nationally; and
WHEREAS, the City of Richmond has many African American residents who at one point or another stepped up to the plate of self-defense, mobilized their neighbors and community members and went to the streets, to the ballot boxes and to the courts to advance the interests of African Americans, and others; and
WHEREAS, in 1964 Mr. Bobby Seale and five others designed and organized the first Youth Jobs North Richmond Tutorial Program, to provide job skills for young African Americans in North Richmond; and
WHEREAS, in 1965 Mr. Bobby Seale, while attending Merritt College was the creator of the "Black History Fact Group", to get four courses into Merritt College's curriculum to revisit and rewrite Black History from the perspective of the African American agents of that history; and
WHEREAS, on October 22, 1966 Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton wrote the final draft of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense (BPP) Ten Point Program and Bobby Seale won the position of Chairman with the flip of a coin; and
WHEREAS, starting out with nothing, the Black Panther Party moved with the people to implement a total of 22 programs, including: free breakfast programs to feed hungry children, free preventive medical health clinics and sickle cell anemia testing to care for the sick, free shoe and clothing programs to clothe the needy, and Liberation Schools to educate the youth all while working along with Community Centers and the Black Community News Service to keep the community informed; and
WHEREAS, on April 1st 1967 in Richmond, CA, 22 year old African American Denzil Dowell was shot and killed by sheriffs deputies at Third and Chesty, an unincorporated area of North Richmond, and the Black Panther Party for Self Defense, led by Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, responded to the Dowell family's call for protection from the police by placing Black Panther Party guards in the area demanding a full and objective investigation of the homicide, educating the residents about their rights, and rallying and mobilizing the residents for justice to be served; and
WHEREAS, many African Americans may have chosen ways of advancement different than the ones of the Black Panther Party, it is nevertheless clear that through the attacks suffered from outside and from inside of the organization, through false charges, unfair incarcerations, violence and assaults, through high and low moments, the Black Panther Party represented and cried out the tired and frustrated voice of so many in Black America, and became one of the most important social change movements in American and African American history; and
WHEREAS, Bobby Seale with the Black Panther member organization helped stopped the riots in North Richmond following the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and encouraged pursuing an electoral path of unified struggle for liberation; and
WHEREAS, the message of the Black Panther Party continues to resonate and inspire many in the quest for justice; the struggles and mobilizations which took place in Richmond forty-two years ago around the homicide of Denzil Dowell are obliged, unfortunately, to continue today in order to reject, condemn and stop once and for all the crimes committed against the African American community, including the one suffered by Mr. Oscar Grant on a BART station on the first of January this year; and
WHEREAS, Richmond and its residents have been and continue to be beneficiaries through years of witnessing and often following the example of commitment to justice and equality, and of the many significant changes brought about by the community organizing struggles led by Mr. Bobby Seale and the Black Panther Party, including Mr. Seale's wife, Ms. Leslie M. Johnson-Seale, who worked with the North Richmond Panther Community Center.
THEREFORE, be it resolved that I, Mayor Gayle McLaughlin, on behalf of the Richmond City Council and in celebration of February Black History Month 2009 proclaim that the City of Richmond Honors Mr. Bobby Seale, founding Chairman and national organizer of the Black Panther Party in forty-five chapters and branches across the USA, and one of the last surviving architects of this nationally and internationally recognized instrument of African American Liberation, for his life of commitment to social change, and
THEREFORE, BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, and proclaimed that the City of Richmond is indebted and grateful to Mr. Seale, to his organization, and to all the Black Panthers who through the decades came to Richmond, or emerged from Richmond to activate, unite, organize, educate, mobilize, rally and increase awareness and hope for a better future for all the residents of our city.
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