Robert George "Bobby" Seale (b. 1936) is a political activist and was co-founder of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1966. The Seattle Chapter of the Black Panther Party was established in 1968, after Aaron Dixon, Elmer Dixon, Anthony Ware, Gary Owens and several other future Panthers met BPP Chairman Bobby Seale in Oakland when they travelled there to attend a memorial service for 17 year-old Bobby Hutton, who had been killed in a shootout with local police. Seale's subsequent visit to Seattle marked the beginning of the Seattle chapter, one of the first authorized chapters outside of California. The Seattle chapter also lasted longer than most, surviving until 1978.

This photo shows Bobby Seale at a press conference before his speaking engagement at University of Washington's Edmundson Pavilion that evening. Seale was addressing the defection of Eldridge Cleaver from the Black Panther Party. Seale was a candidate for mayor of Oakland at the time. He won the second-most votes in a field of nine candidates, but lost in a run-off with the incumbent.

Caption information source: "Black Panthers are unified, Seale asserts" by Don Hannula, Seattle Times, May 17, 1972, p. 28.
Caption information source: University of Washington Seattle Black Panther Party History and Memory Project at http://depts.washington.edu/civilr/BPP.htm