Free the Seattle Eight: Free Bobby Seale (Original handbill)
[No Place]: [No Publisher], [1970].
4.25" x 5.5", single-sided handbill flyer. Good, horizontally creased, missing triangular chips at corners, wrinkled, toned. No other copies located in commerce or in institutional collections such as University of Washington's Vietnam War Era Ephemera Collection.
A scarce piece of propaganda from the American anti-Vietnam War movement, demanding the freeing of the protestors that would become famous as The Seattle Seven. On February 17, 1970 the Seattle Liberation Front organized a protest of about 2,000 people against the imprisonment of the Chicago Seven including Black Panther Bobby Seale, converging on the Seattle federal courthouse. About 200 protestors chanting "Free Bobby!" attacked the building with rocks and paint and were reputedly tear-gassed by Seattle Police. Eight protestors would later be indicted: Jeff Dowd, Michael Abeles, Joe Kelly, Michael Lerner, Susan Stern, Roger Lippman, Chip Marshall, and Michael Justesen. Jutesen skipped town and was never found, so the group became known as The Seattle Seven. Most of the charges would eventually be dropped. Jeff Dowd, though, would become a film producer and later gain cult fame as an inspiration for "The Dude" in The Coen Brothers' 1998 film The Big Lebowski. Hence The Dude's lines, "Ever heard of the Seattle Seven? That was me. Well, me and six other guys." One was actually a lady, but otherwise the reference was quite real.
Price: $1,500.00