Activist and cofounder of the Black Panther Party, Bobby Seale, entered the Sun Room of the Memorial Union to a standing ovation.

Seale, speaking in front of a crowd of about 300 Tuesday night, spoke on the struggle for equality for all of humanity in his lecture “Activism Then and Now.”

The lecture, which lasted nearly three hours, was the first event of Black History Month.

During the speech, Seale related experiences from his academic youth, his awakening in college to the histories of Africa and African-American people and the events leading to his forming the Black Panther Party, as well as the ideals behind the movement.

“The real slogan to the Black Panther Party was `All power to all people,’ ” Seale said. “We measured you by what was in your heart and soul.”

Seale said he, Huey Newton and a handful of peers began planning their organization after Malcolm X’s death.

“I didn’t know what to do when Malcolm X died,” he said. ” That day I broke with the revolutionary movement. To me, they were just armchair revolutionaries.”

On Oct. 22, 1966, the Black Panther Party formed around the principles of the group’s “Ten Point Program,” which outlined the reasons and ways the party hoped to empower members against an oppressive government, Seale said.

The organization, which eventually included more than 5,000 people, was not made up of “street hooligans,” but of educated young adults influenced by the protest movement and armed by knowledge of the law, he said.

“The party was more than just about guns,” Seale said.

Among other things, the Panthers were known in the media for their “thug” activities – legally arming themselves and preventing abuse by police on the streets. They also worked to unite the vote and get power to the people, create free breakfast programs for children and establish free preventative medical care programs that spanned the country, he said.

The audience, with a wide age range, received Seale’s stories, jokes and ideas with enthusiasm. Minita May, sophomore in hotel, restaurant and institution management, said she hopes the audience of many racial backgrounds will spread Seale’s message – that the Black Panther movement was not about thugs and guns.

“I liked how he kept it real and didn’t try to give you a high-class image,” she said. “He just said it like it was.”