Seale still protesting 40 years after 'Chicago 8' trial

It became an enduring image of the Vietnam era: Bobby Seale, the outspoken co-founder of the Black Panthers, shackled and gagged inside a Chicago courtroom.

Seale was one of the eight defendants in the conspiracy trial that resulted from the violence surrounding the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The restraints were ordered by Julius Hoffman, the presiding judge in the case, after repeated verbal clashes with Seale.

Marshals cuffed Seale's arms behind him, chained his legs to a metal folding chair and put a gag over his mouth before bringing him back into the courtroom. Seale responded by rattling the chains against the metal chair as hard as he could to disrupt the proceedings.

"What was going through my mind? Pure protest," Seale recalled during a recent phone interview. "That judge violated my constitutional rights, and I was prepared to do whatever necessary to make myself heard. So I made those chains go 'clang! clang! clang!'"

It's a key moment in "Chicago 10," a documentary about the '68 convention and the trial. The film, which combines archival convention footage with animated re-creations of the trial, arrives on DVD today, while this year's Democratic National Convention is under way in Denver (see a review of the DVD on Page 2).

The '68 convention occurred during a turbulent year marked by the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert Kennedy and growing opposition to the Vietnam War. Counterculture groups like the Yippies planned public protests during the convention that ended in bloody clashes with Chicago police - violence captured on film and broadcast on television across the world.

In the aftermath of the convention, federal prosecutors charged eight people with traveling across state lines with the intent to start a riot. In addition to Seale, the defendants were Abbie Hoffman, Jerry Rubin, Tom Hayden, Rennie Davis, John Froines, Lee Weiner and David Dellinger. Mostly prominent antiwar activists, they became known to supporters as "the Chicago 8." (The 10 in the title of the documentary refers to the eight defendants and their two lawyers, William Kunstler and Leonard Weinglass.)

Seale said his problems with Judge Hoffman began even before the trial started, when he filed a motion to be represented by his own lawyer instead of Kunstler or Weinglass. Hoffman denied the motion and refused to let Seale represent himself.

"So every time my name was mentioned in testimony, I would jump up and demand to be able to represent myself," Seale said. "And the judge wouldn't allow it."

The restraining of Seale became a rallying cry for the antiwar movement - pop singer Graham Nash cited it in his 1971 song "Chicago (We Can Change the World)" - and it ignited a storm of criticism for the judge. Eventually, Hoffman severed Seale's case from the others and sentenced him to prison for contempt of court. An appeals court would later reverse that conviction, as well as the convictions against the other defendants.

Seale continues to be active in political causes today, lecturing to college students all over the country. He and others involved in the making of "Chicago 10" hope the film strikes a chord with young audiences. The DVD arrives exactly 40 years after the '68 convention, with the country embroiled in another unpopular war and again divided along political lines.

"We still need to protest and stand up for our rights," Seale said. "I have a son who was just shipped off to Iraq, so yes, I'm still very active."

Paul Krassner, a co-founder of the Yippies who was in Chicago during the convention and appears in the animated portion of the film, said protest today doesn't have to work the same way it did in the 1960s and 1970s.

"It's more 'inside' than it was back then," he said. "I think today, who people vote for will make a big difference, especially when it comes to the Supreme Court judges who will be appointed.

"There were millions of people marching around the globe to protest the war in Iraq, but our leaders ignored them. That was very demoralizing, but now we have a chance to make an important change."

Revolution: Seale lectures at colleges around country

<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Stories</h2> <ul class="links"> <li><a href="/story/?id=229634">'Chicago 10' no conventional documentary <span class="date">[08/25/08]</span></a></li> <li><a href="/story/?id=229635">1968 a violent year worldwide <span class="date">[08/25/08]</span></a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>