When donors visited the Black Panther Party, they came and saw our real programs, a real clinic, with real doctors and medics, giving service to people. – Bobby Seale
On the one hand, the guns were there to help capture the imagination of the people. But more important, since we knew that you couldn’t observe the police without guns, we took our guns with us to let the police know that we have an equalizer. – Bobby Seale
They came down on us because we had a grass-roots, real people’s revolution, complete with the programs, complete with the unity, complete with the working coalitions, where we crossed racial lines. – Bobby Seale
The first point was we wanted power to determine our own destiny in our own black community. And what we had done is, we wanted to write a program that was straightforward to the people. We didn’t want to give a long dissertation. – Bobby Seale
I’d have no trouble being the barbecue kingpin of America. I’d just add it to all the other things I am: jazz musician, carpenter, architect, engineer and revolutionary. – Bobby Seale
The FBI’s Counter-Intelligence Program would work hand-in-hand with police departments, literally planning attacks on Black Panther Party offices throughout the United States of America. They did this over a period of time. – Bobby Seale
If they had not murdered Malcolm X, there probably never would have been a Black Panther Party. – Bobby Seale
I think I can capture the taste buds of the average right-wing conservative who loves barbecue. – Bobby Seale
Being so closely related to the South, barbecue was part of segregation and helped defeat it. – Bobby Seale
There’s nothing wrong with being a cop. There’s nothing wrong with being a white person. It’s about where your heart is… We’ve got to get everyone beyond the xenophobic isolationism. – Bobby Seale
I’m going to have to call up Spike Lee. I did a cameo for him in ‘Malcolm X,’ and I’m trying to get him to do my life story and the history of the Black Panther Party. – Bobby Seale
We were like heroes, to stand there and observe the police, and the police were scared to move upon us. – Bobby Seale
Lots of people think I went to prison. I never went to prison. I was in jail without bail. – Bobby Seale
Money is the medium of exchange, and it’s how you make things happen. To say you hate it is some farfetched, idealistic crap. – Bobby Seale
Electoral politics was always an objective of the Black Panther party, so Barack Obama is a part of what we dreamed and struggled and died for. – Bobby Seale
People called me a hoodlum and a thug. But they didn’t tell you I was a carpenter, an architect, a stand-up comic – even a bartender. And a barbecue cook. But they didn’t tell you that. – Bobby Seale
The Black Panther Party was not a gang. They grew out of a young black intelligentsia on college campuses. – Bobby Seale
Revolution is about the need to re-evolve political, economic and social justice and power back into the hands of the people, preferably through legislation and policies that make human sense. That’s what revolution is about. Revolution is not about shootouts. – Bobby Seale
I’m still a political revolutionary. The fire never went out of me, but perceptions and realizations change. – Bobby Seale
There is an entire generation of young people who know nothing about how viciously the FBI attacked The Black Panther Party, and why. – Bobby Seale
