Oakland to Honor Bobby Seale, Black Panther Party Cofounder, With Street Renaming

On Wednesday, Oct. 22, the City of Oakland will celebrate the 89th birthday of Black Panther Party cofounder Bobby Seale with a formal proclamation of “Bobby Seale Day” and a commemorative street renaming.

Seale, who helped create one of the Unites States’ most well-known community activist groups of the 20th century, also ran for mayor of Oakland in 1973.

Seale was born in Liberty, Texas. His family moved to the Bay Area when Seale was a child, first residing in Albany’s Codornices Village before moving to North Oakland’s 57th Street.

At a Wednesday evening block party, the intersection of 57th Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Way will officially be renamed Bobby Seale Way.

Bobby Seale himself will be in attendance at the event, which runs from 5 p.m.–7 p.m. and is open to the public.

Hosted by North Oakland lyricist and entrepreneur Mistah F.A.B., the party will also feature comments from Oakland Mayor Barbara Lee, a performance by The Curtis Family C-Notes and a speech from thespian and comedian Donald Lacy Jr.

The city proclamation honoring Bobby Seale notes that his “visionary leadership and fearless activism have not only transformed Oakland but have left a lasting impact on national movements for racial and economic justice.”

The proclamation also praises Seale’s leadership of the Black Panther Party in Oakland, which “rose to national prominence not only for its stance against police brutality but for its pioneering community-based programs, including free breakfast programs for children, health clinics, educational initiatives, and mutual aid efforts that served as blueprints for future social welfare models.”

In recent years, the City of Oakland has taken strides to honor its local luminaries. Tupac Shakur has a commemorative plaque on Grand Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard near Lake Merritt, and rapper Too Short has a street sign mounted on the corner of High Street and Foothill Boulevard. Black Panther Party cofounder Dr. Huey P. Newton has a sculpture and a three-block section of 9th Street in West Oakland named in his honor. And in June of this year a street sign in recognition of Black Panther leader Elaine Brown was unveiled in West Oakland.

Seale’s story has been told extensively, both through his autobiography A Lonely Rage and his book Seize the Time: The Story of the Black Panther Party and Huey P. Newton. The cover of the latter shows Seale bound and gagged as the result of a order from the presiding judge in the Chicago 8 trial.

That case was also depicted in the 2020 film The Trial of the Chicago 7, where Seale was portrayed by Oakland’s Yahya Abdul-Mateen II.

Seale’s name already graces the halls of Merritt College — the campus where he met Newton, and where the seeds of the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense took root. Now, Seale will have a street and a day dedicated in his honor as well.

The public unveiling of Bobby Seale Way takes place on Wednesday, Oct. 22, from 5 p.m.–7 p.m. at the intersection of Martin Luther King Jr. Way and 57th Street in Oakland.