Radio broadcast of Bobby Seale at “Free Huey Newton” Rally (1968)

brother Huey's right hand man: Bobby Seale. Bring him on! [applause] Brothers and sisters, I want to, tonight, have the chance to tell you in large mass something about brother Huey P. Newton, a Black man that I have been knowing for about eight years. A Black man who first introduced me to what Black nationalism was all about. A Black man that I have been closely associated with for the last three years in the organizing of a black people's

party on a level that dealt with Black people's problems. To explain to you who brother Huey P. Newton is in his soul, I got to explain to you also your soul, your needs, your political desires and needs because that is Huey's soul. [applause] You know, I met Huey, and he told me that he first learned how to read real good when he was about 16 or 17 when he was coming out of high school. One of these counselors in school told him he couldn't be college material. So Huey got mad. He didn't like no white man tell him what he couldn't do. And Huey learned how to read. And Huey went to Oakland City College and I went right there with him, and Huey got a 4.0, that's a A in

sociology, psychology, political science, law. You run it on down, he got A's all the way through. And said "later" for the man, I know what I can do. [applause] Huey learned the need for Black people to develop a perspective and a understanding of our oppressive conditions. Now, when we first organized the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense, he would say, "Bobby," he says, "we're going to draw up a basic platform, just basic. Black people can read." He says, we don't want to go real elaborate with all these essays and dissertations and all this stuff cause the brother gone look at that and he gonna say say, man I ain't got time for that. I gotta go see what I can do for myself.

Just a basic platform that the mothers who struggle hard to raise us, that the fathers who worked hard, that the young brothers in school who come out of school semi-literate, saying, reading broken words. He say, we just want a basic platform to outline Black people's basic political desires and needs first. So we sit down. Huey say we want freedom, we want power to determine the destiny of our Black community. Number two: we want full employment for our people. Number three: we want one housing fit, decent housing fit for shelter of human beings. Number four: we want all Black men to be exempt from military service. Number five: [applause] We want decent education for our Black people in our community that teaches us the true nature of this decadent racist society and to

teach Black people and our young Black brothers and sisters their place in this society because if they don't know their place in society and in the world, they can't relate to anything else. Number six: We want an end to the robbery by the white racist businessmen of Black people and the Black peoples in their communities. Number seven: we want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of Black people. [applause] Number eight: we want all Black men held in county, state, federal jails and prisons to be released because they have not had a fair trial because they've been tried by all white juries, and that's just like being tried in Germany being a Jew. [applause] We want Black people, number nine, when brought to trial to be tried by members of their peers and a peer being one

who comes from the same economic, social, religious, historical, and racial background, that, in fact, the Black people, if the United States government and the courts and the local courts did this, theey would have to choose Black people from the Black community to sit up on the jury. They'd have to choose some of them mothers who've been working 20 years in Ms. Anne's kitchen scrubbing floors like my mother done done. [applause] They have to choose some of them hard working fathers. They have to choose some of those brothers who stand on the block out there wondering where they gone get a gig. They gone have to choose these Black people. And number 10, Huey say let's just summarize it. We want housing. We want clothing. We want education. We want justice. And we want peace. It's the basic platform. In case you never knew it or not, of all the things that you've heard in the press. Of

all the derogatory statements that's been made in the press about brother Huey P. Newton and I. Of all these derogatory statements, was to guide you away from seeing this basic platform that Huey was talking about for his own people. [applause] We have learn to look through the white press. We have to learn to see what's going on. Now out of this platform, Huey P. Newton realized that it was necessary for us to start working on these points, these ten points, practically. Remember number seven? We want an immediate end to police brutality and murder of bBlack people. This is very, very important. Huey did a year and a half in law school after he got out of Merritt College with an associate arts degree in the social sciences. He articulated to brothers on the block, and he articulated in a manner where they understood it, what their rights were in law and how in

fact, we could exercise a position in the Black community to begin to show Black people how we could defend ourselves on point number seven. Now, the papers call the organization hoodlums and thugs. I'm going to show you how smart brother Huey is. He says now the paper's gone call us thugs and hoodlums. A lot of people ain't gone know what's happening. He said, but the brothers on the block, who the man been calling thugs and hoodlums for 400 years gone them some out of sight thugs and hoodlums up there. [applause] The brother on the block is gone say who is these thugs and hoodlums? In fact, them dudes look just like me. In fact, I know John, I know George Dow. In fact, I know Bobby Hutton. Hey man, I know that dude over there. Hey man, what you cats doing with them rods?

In other words, when the man call us nigger for 400 years with all this derogatory connotations, Huey was smart enough to know that Black people gone say, well they been calling us niggers, thugs, and hoodlums for 400 years. That ain't gone hurt me. I want to check out what these brothers is doing. [applause] [applause] The insight that Huey had and knowing how to deal with organizing Black people and knowing how to bring Black people together, now at the same time, many of our older brothers and sisters were going to say, they must really be thugs and hoodlums. But they talk about police brutality and many of you have related in one way or another to relatives or members of your family etc. to the conditions and how police brutality is, you would sit in your homes and say

yeah, we should have did it 400 years ago. We should have got out there and started defending ourselves in this fashion. Now, at the same time, many people get the notion that we were supposed to go out in the streets with 500 Black people lined up with guns and shoot it out with a 1,000 policemen. No, this wasn't the case at all. This was the case at all. On the contrary, every Black man in his home has a right to defend his home. It was necessary to bring to Black people the understanding that they were going to have to stand in defense of life, of community, of your children, of your mothers, of our young. We have to defend ourselves starting at point number seven because we don't end self-defense there. Because Huey say you still have to defend yourself against the gross unemployment we subjected to, against the indecent housing we subjected to,

against the indecent education that we getting, against the way Black men are drafted off into the military service after we fought in the Civil War 186,000, and World War II, World War I 350,000, in World War II 850,000, and all the way down to the Korean conflict. And now they got that giant Vietnam War, and they drafting our Black brothers off the block over there 90 miles an hour you say uh-uh. And they been promising us freedom for all these years, Huey said no. That's a very, very important point. [applause] Every Black man in this house should be against the war in Vietnam. He's got to be against the war in Vietnam because they killing our Black brothers over there. [applause] Huey brought it down to a practical level for us to try and understand. When Huey organized

these brothers, he didn't just run them out in the street with a zero understanding. Huey sit those brothers down and taught them 12 basic points of law on how to exercise their constitutional rights. Huey sit those brothers down to talk to them. Huey taught those brothers that it wasn't the gun that was dangerous. It's the person behind it that's dangerous. It's very important. Huey taught the brothers safety of those weapons. You haven't heard of one Black panther shooting another Black panther. Accidentally. [applause] But from the information in one appearance in court with Charles Garry the lawyer, he's saying that one cop down there shot the other cop where Huey was. [applause] Now look, the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense

is a revolutionary party. Revolution means that we've got to get down to the nitty gritty and change the situation that we in and don't miss any nits or any grits. That's very important. All the time. [applause]