Cleaver, Eldridge, 1935-1998

Biography:

"American black militant whose autobiographical volume Soul on Ice (1968) is a classic statement of black alienation in the United States. After being paroled [from prison], Cleaver met Huey Newton and Bobby Seale, who had just founded the Black Panther Party in Oakland, Calif. Cleaver soon became the party's minister of information. The publication in 1968 of Soul on Ice, a collection of angry memoirs in which Cleaver traced his political evolution while denouncing American racism, made him a leading black radical spokesman. In April 1968, however, he was involved in a shoot-out in Oakland between Black Panthers and police that left one Panther dead and Cleaver and two police officers wounded. Faced with reimprisonment after the shoot-out, Cleaver jumped bail in November 1968 and fled first to Cuba and then to Algeria."-- "Cleaver, Eldridge." Encyclopaedia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopaedia Britannica Online. 1 Oct. 2007 .

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