2. Background Info Bobby Seale was born October 22, 1936 and Huey Newton was born on February 17 1942 and died on August 22 1989. Growing up both men’s families were extremely poor and their families were forced to moved around a lot. The two met through the Afro-American Association or AAA in September 1962 and four years later they formed The Black Panther Party for Self Defense.
3. Black Panther Party The Black Panthers, who were influenced greatly by Malcolm X, were founded in 1966. They were an armed group that was started to stop unnecessary Police violence and discrimination against Blacks in Oakland. Each of the founders had a major role in the group Seale was a Chairman and Newton was The Defense Minister. In the beginning there were only six members in the group shown in the picture on the right. Elbert Howard Huey P. Newton Sherman Forte, Bobby Seale Reggie Forte and “Little” Bobby Hutton
4. In 1967 the group marched in California’s capitol Sacramento to protest the ban on weapons. They believed Blacks needed weapons to protect themselves from police brutality. The group had many shoot-outs with the Police. One of the most important ones resulted in Newton being jailed for the Murder of a Police Officer, another resulted in the murder of “Little” Bobby Hutton. There were some men who were defiantly guilty of crimes and deserved punishment for their actions but police were harassing members of the group who had done nothing. Very often the results of this harassment ended up in violent attacks. This is what Seale and Newton worked for throughout the entire time the group was active.
