Bobby Seale to Reissue 'Seize the Time' and Release New Memoir 'I, Bobby'

Black Panther co-founder Bobby Seale will reissue his 1970 jailhouse memoir, Seize the Time, and follow it with a new book, I, Bobby, as he approaches his 90th birthday, Blackstone Publishing has announced.

In a statement, Seale said that when his story is told incorrectly, part of the movement is buried along with the falsehood. He described Seize the Time as the blueprint and the beginning, and said I, Bobby would complete what he started, told in his own voice, memory and words.

Seize the Time is scheduled for release in February, while I, Bobby is expected toward the end of 2027.

Seale, who turns 90 next month, was held in a San Francisco County jail in the late 1960s on charges tied to two separate trials. During that period, he began recounting to a local journalist the story of the militant organisation he and Huey P. Newton founded in 1966, along with the principles of revolutionary change it advocated.

The memoir had been out of print in recent years. Its new edition will carry an introduction by actor-comedian D.L. Hughley and will be issued for the first time as an e-book and an audio edition.

The Panthers were described by then-FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover as the country's "greatest threat to internal security." The group peaked in the late 1960s and went into decline over the following decade amid violent personal and political splits and FBI infiltration. Newton disbanded the organisation in the early 1980s, years after Seale had left it.

Since then, Seale has taught Black studies at Temple University, worked with young activists and published several books, including Power to the People: The World of the Black Panthers, a 2016 collaboration with photographer Stephen Shames.

According to Blackstone, I, Bobby will examine the movement's internal fractures, government persecution and lasting legacy, while giving Seale the chance to set the record straight on his life once and for all.