Eldridge Cleaver

Afro-American militant black activist of the '60s, leader of the Black Panther movement and a cult figure who joined the Moral Majority in the '80s.

Raised in the Los Angeles ghetto, he served jail time from age 12. He entered Soledad prison for robbery on 18 June 1954, for a year, after which he began his career as a rapist. While in Folsom prison for rape, 1957-1966, he read extensively of Marxist texts and wrote the series of essays "Soul on Ice."

Freed on parole, he met Huey Newton February 1967, and along with Newton became a leader in the Black Panther movement, a major figure in redirecting blacks away from Martin Luther King's ideal of assimilation toward more radical aims.

"Soul on Ice" was published 12 February 1968 and gained immediate recognition. Involved in a violent shoot-out on 6 April 1968, his parole was revoked and he was returned to jail 27 November 1968. His "Post-Prison Writings" was published 17 February 1969.

Newton fled to Cuba 13 July 1959 and directly on to Algiers, then North Korea and Paris in 1973. He voluntarily returned to the U.S. 18 November 1973 and gave himself up to arrest, Tried, he pleaded guilty to assault 3 December 1979 for a reduced sentence.

During the '80s, Newton became a born-again minister. Now a political conservative, he preached the gospel for wife-beating (God's work) and against homosexuality (Satan's work). He set up a group known as "Guardians of the sperm."

On 1 March 1994 he was arrested and charged with possession of crack cocaine, when found wandering near his Berkeley home. When he was found to have injuries, he was taken to the hospital for brain surgery due to being beaten and robbed while buying coke.

A powerful symbol of the '60s Black rebellion who came full circle to conservative politics and Christianity, Cleaver died at 62, probably of diabetes, on 1 May 1998, Pomona, CA.