Black History Month: The Revolutionary Minds That Molded and Led The Black Panther Party

- By

Eldridge Cleaver

Cleaver was already making a name for himself before he joined the Panthers in 1966. In 1957, he was imprisoned for assault with intent to kill and was paroled in 1966. Cleaver assumed the position of minister of information for the Panthers. In 1968, he ran for U.S. President on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party; that same year, he was involved in a shootout with Oakland police that resulted in the death of fellow panther Bobby Hutton.

When he was faced with criminal charges, Cleaver jumped bail and fled the U.S. with wife Kathleen and lived in exile in Algeria, Cuba and France. During his time away, Cleaver and Huey Newton had a fallen out with each other (which was believed to have been initiated by the FBI) over the necessity of armed struggle as a response to government actions.

After he returned to the U.S. in 1975, he underwent a religious and political transformation that included becoming a republican in the 1980s. Cleaver died in May 1998.

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