Eldridge Cleaver facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Eldridge Cleaver
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Cleaver in 1968
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Leroy Eldridge Cleaver
August 31, 1935 Wabbaseka, Arkansas, U.S.
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| Died | May 1, 1998 (aged 62) Pomona, California, U.S.
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| Occupation | Writer, political activist |
| Political party | Black Panther (1967–1971) Peace and Freedom (1968) Republican (1980s) |
| Movement | Black Power Movement Civil Rights Movement |
| Spouse(s) | |
| Children | 2 |
Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party.
Biography
Eldridge Cleaver was born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas. As a child he moved with his large family to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles. He was the son of Leroy Cleaver and Thelma Hattie Robinson. He had four siblings: Wilhelima Marie, Helen Grace, James Weldon, and Theophilus Henry. Both of his grandfathers were Protestant preachers.
As a teenager, he was involved in petty crime and spent time in youth detention centers.
In 1968, Cleaver wrote Soul on Ice, a collection of essays that, at the time of its publication, was praised by The New York Times Book Review as "brilliant and revealing". Cleaver stated in Soul on Ice: "If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."
Cleaver went on to become a prominent member of the Black Panthers, having the titles Minister of Information and Head of the International Section of the Panthers, while a fugitive from the United States criminal justice system in Cuba and Algeria. Cleaver was convicted of a series of crimes and eventually served time in Folsom and San Quentin prisons until being released on parole in 1968.
As editor of the official Panthers' newspaper, The Black Panther, Cleaver's influence on the direction of the party was rivaled only by founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Cleaver and Newton eventually fell out with each other, resulting in a split that weakened the party.
After spending seven years in exile in Cuba, Algeria, and France, Cleaver returned to the U.S. in 1975, where he became involved in various religious groups (Unification Church and CARP) before joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as becoming a conservative Republican, appearing at Republican events.
In 1984, he ran for election to the Berkeley City Council but lost. Undaunted, he promoted his candidacy in the Republican Party primary for the 1986 Senate race but was again defeated. The next year, his 20-year marriage to Kathleen Neal Cleaver came to an end.
Cleaver died at age 62 on May 1, 1998, at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center in Pomona, California. He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.
See also
In Spanish: Eldridge Cleaver para niños
