Black Panther Mom

Thelma Traylor Seale
1908-2008

I have always known about my shared ancestry with Bobby Seale, the co-founder of the Black Panther Party. I have had a great respect for his efforts in the Civil Rights movement. However, I know where there’s a strong, successful man there is usually a equally strong and determined woman supporting him. In most cases these women are quiet and almost invisible to the public. Bobby credits his mother, Thelma Traylor Seale, for his success. 

Thelma Traylor and her identical sister, Zelma, were born March 3, 1908 in Jasper County, Texas. Their father, Alexander (Alex) Traylor, was my third cousin. Her mother, Julie McCarthy Traylor, was also a distant cousin. They owned and worked their own farm in a community in Jasper County, Texas known to me as Traylor Settlement. 

In 1930 Thelma and her twin sister were 22 years old and living with their mother, Julia. Their father had passed away in 1920. 

Thelma married George Seale in 1933. In 1935 she and George were living in Beaumont, Texas on Dickerson Street. George worked a construction job at International Creosoting Company.

The 1940 census shows Thelma and her three children back on her mother's farm in Jasper County. Her marital status is listed as "widow". However, her husband, George is recorded on the 1940 census living in Beaumont, Texas. His marital status also recorded as “widow” (Thelma and George were said to have separated and reconciled many times).

George registered for the draft in 1941 in Port Arthur, Texas. Thelma is listed as his next of kin.

That same year Thelma and George moved to San Antonio. They both worked at Kelly Air Force Base. George worked as a carpenter and Thelma as a mail carrier. In 1943 Thelma and George were living in a housing project in Berkeley, California. By 1950 they owned their own home in Oakland, California that George designed and built. It was in the kitchen of that home that Bobby Seale and other members of the budding Black Panther Party organization did some of their planning.

During the Chicago Eight trial in 1968, Thelma was interview by KPIX-TV in San Francisco. She defended her son's actions. Thelma said, "I think he's a wonderful son. He's always have been a wonderful son. And what he's fighting for today it isn't only but one thing and... that is for the rights of people." 

On January 25, 2008, thirty seven days before her 100th birthday, Thelma died in Emeryville, California. She is buried in Richmond, California.

On February 25, 2008 Representative Barbara Lee of California recognized Thelma by reading a statement of her contributions on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives.