NIU will get a glimpse of America’s political past tonight when a former Black Panther Party leader visits campus.

Bobby Seale will speak at 7 p.m. today at the Holmes Student Center’s Carl Sandburg Auditorium.

Seale is the former chairman, surviving-founder and national organizer of the Black Panther Party, USA.

“I believe that Bobby Seale will provide some insight and a better understanding of his life and the things that he’s done through the years, and things that have been misconstrued or have been misunderstood,” said DuJuan Smith, director of public relations for the Black Student Union. “I think his perspective will help to bring more unity among us by just listening to his perspective.”

After his speech, Seale will sell copies of some of his books and participate in a brief, informal signing session. The free event is part of the Black Heritage Month celebration coordinated by Campus Activities Board’s Unity in Diversity committee.

“[Students] should come out because they don’t know a lot about him,” said Smith, a junior sociology major. “It’s very rare that people who have had such an impact historically on a society come to schools.”

Seale was born in Dallas, Texas, but grew up in the 1950s in the Oakland and Berkeley, Calif., communities. He worked as a carpenter, stand-up comedian, jazz drummer, draftsman and sheet-metal mechanic.

He began a career as a community organizer through the Revolutionary Action Movement at Merritt College (Calif.) in 1963. Three years later, he and friend Huey P. Newtonco founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense.

As national organizer, Seale directed the creation of 48 BPP chapters and branches nationwide, with more than 5,000 members, according to his personal Web site. He also was one of the eight original defendants in the Chicago Conspiracy Trial. On Nov. 5, 1969, Judge Hoffman severed Seale’s case from the other defendants, who would become the infamous Chicago Seven.

One of Seale’s best-remembered speeches, given at Grant Park before the trial, included wording such as, “If the police get in the way of our march, tangle with the blue-helmeted motherf—— and kill them and send them to the morgue slab.”

On his Web site, Seale describes himself as “the old cripple-footed revolutionary humanist.” His site is about “getting to the future via the whole synthesis of the quantum, computer and DNA molecular revolutions, and within the cyberspace non-linear range.” For information, visit www.niu.edu/cab, www.bobbyseale.com or www.blackpanther.org.