Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton

I read this book in the 1970s, shortly after it came out in hardback. It was then and remains today a document more about American racism, the still-prevalent bias that confronts people of color. That the author was a hero in standing up against the prejudice of his time, is true but less important than the enduring lesson of his ultimate destruction. Heroes are not little plastic figurines to put on dashboards, nor are they to be reduced to a five-second soundbyte about "having a dream"--their lives say far more than that, and I commend this book to anyone who wants to understand the Panthers, the atmosphere of racism that prevailed in the 1960s/70s, and the issues that call today for us to still actively combat racism.

Now featuring a new introduction by the author Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton is the reissue of a protest-era manifesto first published in 1970. Recorded and written by the author during 1969 and 1970 when he was a political prisoner in the San Francisco County Jail - incarcerated as a defendant in two prejudiced political trials that he later won in court - Seize the Time offers an amazing, up-close and personal view of the Black Panther Party's formation, goals, and obstacles both within and without. The party's strict code of conduct, including an absolute prohibition against drug use or the misuse of firearms, is described in depth, as are the lives of its founders. From persecution and harassment by all levels of government to the need to expel individuals who were "black racists", or who tried to use the party for personal status and reputation without doing any work to promote the party's cause of equality, awareness, and self-defense, Seize the Time is an absorbing true portrayal of the rocky road of resistance to racism and class oppression. Highly recommended.

In schools you are taught to think of the Black Panthers as rebels with communist intentions. The true nature of the black panthers is revealed in Bobby Seale's book. The amount of struggle that blacks had to go through in the "free" nation of America was depressing. The problem with history books is that they are sugar coated with so-much utopian ideas that you wonder if America's political system is flawless. Having a backgound of Jamaican and Indian, this book is a must for any person who's been confronted with prejudices of any sort. A must-read is the chapter "Gagged and Shackled", I honestly couldn't believe how Bobby Seale was treated. The problem today is that blacks in America still believe that they have rights and freedoms. In essence corperate America puts rich blacks in the media instead of the educated ones. This systematic brain washing system allows for the youth of today to look up to these so-called blacks and always wanting to attain this rich lifestyle. Suggestive readings should be of Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, WEB Dubois, Fidel Castro, Marcus Garvey, Angela Davis.

Seize the Time shows the true colors of an American life. It not only shows the racial injustice but opens the eyes of the majority in our United States. It gives a detailed account of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense from its conception to the time Mr. Seales wrote the book. This should be a required text in the American school system to wake those who might think we have equality. The book relates to the lives of all American citizens the same as it did thirty years ago. It shows the institutional racism in its purest form, through the police and the government.

This defidentally is Bobby Seale's best book. It exposes the 60's police for who they were giving details in the murders of Bobby Hutton and Denzil Dowell. And tells a real story of the Panthers in the Co-founders own words. It also goes into detail on what the party was really about.