Three years later, Seale was famously bound and gagged in a Chicago courtroom after outbursts in the trial stemming from the demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention.
The "Chicago Eight" became the "Chicago Seven" when Seale's case was severed from the remaining defendants.
And in 1971, he was accused of ordering the killing of a police informant in New Haven. The murder charges were dismissed after the jury failed to reach a verdict.
At 71, Seale is now a law-abiding citizen, living in the house that his family has owned for decades.
He does 20 speaking dates a year, serves on the board of a youth arts group and is busy trying to get multiple projects off the ground or to completion: a cooking/interview televison show; a memoir about the Chicago trial; an updated barbecue cookbook with vegetarian recipes; and a documentary about the Panthers.
But turn back the clock a couple of decades, and you'd find Seale in Philadelphia, volunteering for Wilson Goode's 1983 mayor's race. While he lived in Philadelphia, he worked for Temple University, ran a youth program, wrote three books and perfected barbecue recipes for a successful cookbook.
Ask for his fondest associations with Philly, and the answer is surprising for a man who founded an organization famed for gun battles with police.
"I have quite a few good friends in Philadelphia who were police officers," Seale said. "There were more police than you'd think who supported us in the [Black Panther] party, because they saw the institutionalized racism of the time"
Asked how he views the gun-toting militancy of the Panther movement today, Seale said he sees it as the product of a time when racism and police brutality were widespread.
Seale regards the Panthers' community service as the forgotten and ultimately more meaningful part of its work.
