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'{{short description|American law professor and activist}} {{Infobox person | honorific_prefix = | name =Kathleen Cleaver | honorific_suffix = | image =File:01.JerichoRally.LafayettePark.WDC.27March1998.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption =Cleaver speaking at Free U.S. Political Prisoners Spring Break Jericho March Rally on 27 March 1998 | birth_name = Kathleen Neal | birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1945|5|13|mf=yes}} | birth_place = Dallas Texas | death_date = <!--{{death date and age|2000|1|31|1900|1|31}}--> | death_place = | death_cause = | body_discovered = | resting_place = | resting_place_coordinates = <!-- {{Coord|LAT|LONG|type:landmark|display=inline}} --> | monuments = | residence = | nationality = | other_names = | ethnicity = <!-- Ethnicity should be supported with a citation from a reliable source --> | citizenship = | education = | alma_mater = | occupation = | years_active = | employer = | organization = | agent = | known_for = | notable_works = | style = | influences = | influenced = | home_town = | television = | title = | term = | predecessor = | successor = | party = [[Black Panther Party]] | movement = [[Black Power Movement]] | opponents = | boards = | religion = <!-- Religion should be supported with a citation from a reliable source --> | denomination = <!-- Denomination should be supported with a citation from a reliable source --> | criminal_charge = <!-- Criminality parameters should be supported with citations from reliable sources --> | criminal_penalty = | criminal_status = | spouse = {{marriage|[[Eldridge Cleaver]]|1967|1987|reason=div.}} | partner = | children = 2 }} '''Kathleen Neal Cleaver''' (born May 13, 1945) is an American professor of law, known for her involvement with the [[Revolutionary]] movement and the [[Black Panther Party]]. == Early life == Kathleen Cleaver Neal was born in [[Dallas, Texas]] on May 13, 1945. Her parents were both activists and college graduates of the [[University of Michigan]]. Her father was a [[sociology]] professor at [[Wiley College]] in [[Marshall, Texas]], and her mother earned a master's degree in [[mathematics]]. Three years after Cleaver was born, her father, Ernest Neal, accepted a job as the director of the Rural Life Council of [[Tuskegee Institute]] in [[Alabama]], and they moved to a predominantly black community beside the campus. Six years later, Ernest joined the [[United States Foreign Service|Foreign Service]]. The family moved abroad and lived in such countries as [[India]], [[Liberia]], [[Sierra Leone]], and the [[Philippines]].<ref name="loc interview">{{cite web |url=https://cdn.loc.gov/service/afc/afc2010039/afc2010039_crhp0051_cleaver_transcript/afc2010039_crhp0051_cleaver_transcript.pdf |title=Kathleen Cleaver oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Atlanta, Georgia, 2011-09-16. |last= Mosnier |first=Joseph |date=16 September 2011 |website=Library of Congress |publisher= |access-date=1 May 2019 |quote=}}</ref> Spending time in India exposed Kathleen to different beliefs, including socialism, communism, and nationalism. The family returned to the United States after her brother died from [[leukaemia]] and the family broke apart. Cleaver attended a [[Quaker]] boarding school near [[Philadelphia]], [[George School]], which had just been desegregated.<ref name="loc interview" /> She graduated with honors in 1963. She continued her education at [[Oberlin College]], and later transferred to [[Barnard College]]. In 1966, she left college for a secretarial job with the New York office of the [[Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee]] (SNCC) after her friend from childhood, Sammy Younge, had been murdered by white supremacists. The shift of the movement was characterized by the change from "Freedom Now" to "[[Black Power]]."<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/cleaverwomenpowerrev.html |title=Women, Power, and Revolution |last=Neal Cleaver |first=Kathleen |date=1998 |website=historyisaweapon.com |publisher= |access-date=1 May 2019 |quote=About two weeks before I joined SNCC, "Black Power" replaced "Freedom Now" as the battle cry.}}</ref><ref>Mosnier, 2011 - Page 20 </ref> Cleaver had been trying to get involved with the movement since she was sixteen. Gloria Richardson, Diane Nash, and Ruby Doris Robinson are among the Civil Rights fighters that inspired her to be involved in change and question the role of gender. ''''''Bold text''''''== Black Panther Party == Cleaver was in charge of organizing a student conference at [[Fisk University]] in [[Nashville, Tennessee]]. At the conference, Cleaver met the minister of information for the [[Black Panther Party]], [[Eldridge Cleaver]], who was speaking at the conference. He had just gotten out of jail and published ''[[Soul On Ice (book)|Soul on Ice]]''. She moved to [[San Francisco]] in November 1967 to join the Black Panther Party, and just a month and a half later, right after Christmas, Eldridge and Kathleen had married.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Bloom |first1=Joshua |last2=Martin|first2=Waldo E, Jr. |last3=Martin |first3=Waldo E |date=2012 |title=Black Against Empire: The History and Politics of the Black Panther Party |url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=D7UwDwAAQBAJ&lpg=PA468&ots=b9AnZwr6ii&dq=connie%20matthews%20black%20panther%20party&pg=PA313#v=onepage&q=connie%20matthews&f=false |dead-url= |location= |publisher= |isbn=9780520293281 |archive-url= |archive-date= |page= 106 |quote=|</ref> She joined about three to four weeks after [[Huey Newton]] was charged for killing an Oakland policeman in a pre-drawn shootout <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cleavers |first1=Kathleen |title=Women, Power, and Revolution |date=June 2, 1999 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=231 |doi=10.1080/07393149908429865 |accessdate=23 May 2019}}</ref>. Another month and a half later, Just after Christmas 1967, Kathleen and Eldridge were married}}</ref> It was in San Francisco that Kathleen became the Communications Secretary for the party and worked on organizing demonstrations, creating pamphlets, holding press conferences, designing posters, and speaking at rallies and on TV.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Stephen |last2=Ellis |first2=Catherine |date=August 31, 2010 |title=Say It Loud: Great Speeches on Civil Rights and African American Identity |url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=qUt74kyV3LgC&pg=PA69&dq=Kathleen+Cleaver&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwja076csPvhAhVyUBUIHVoGB8g4FBDoAQgvMAE#v=onepage&q=Kathleen%20Cleaver&f=false |location= |publisher=The New Press |page=70 |isbn= |author-link= }}</ref> Cleavers applied everything that she learned from the SNCC to the Black Panther Party. She created the position herself, motivated by Julian Bond in SNCC. The party was revolutionary in the way that gender was approached; over two thirds of the members were women.{{Citation needed|date=May 2019}} Cleaver became the communications secretary and the first female member of the Party's decision-making body. She also served as the spokesperson and press secretary. Notably, she organized the national campaign to free the Party's minister of defense, [[Huey Newton]], who was jailed. Kathleen Neal Cleaver was among a small group of women who were prominent in the [[Black Panther Party]], which included [[Elaine Brown]] and [[Ericka Huggins]].<ref>{{cite book|last1=Clark Hine|first1=Darlene|last2=Thompson|first2=Kathleen|title=A Shining Thread of Hope|date=1998|publisher=Broadway Books|location=New York, NY|isbn=0-7679-0110-X|page=298|edition=first}}</ref> The first major attack against the Black Panther Party was in the 1960s by Los Angeles’s first ever SWAT team. As a few years went by, in 1971 almost 30 of the members of the black panther party had been killed. Cleaver had a difficult time healing from the passing of so many of her fellow colleagues and has been emotionally scarred. What helped her the most was going to the root of it all, which was finding where the anxiety and trauma came from. As time went on, there was a group of women from the Black Panther Party, including Cleavers, who would meet up and discuss what happened to them, restore their health, and to recover from the injuries and traumatic experiences they faced <ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cleavers |first1=Kathleen |title=Women, Power, and Revolution |date=June 2, 1999 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=231 |doi=10.1080/07393149908429865 |accessdate=23 May 2019}}</ref> In 1968 (the same year her husband ran for president on the Peace and Freedom ticket) she ran for [[California]]'s 18th state assembly district, also as a candidate of the [[Peace and Freedom party]]. Cleaver received 2,778 votes<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/candidate/1270 |title=Kathleen N. Cleaver |publisher=JoinCalifornia |date=1945-05-13 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> for 4.7% of the total vote, finishing third in a four-candidate race.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.joincalifornia.com/election/1968-11-07 |title=11-07-1968 Election |publisher=JoinCalifornia |date=1968-11-07 |accessdate=2010-08-27}}</ref> As a result of their involvement with the Black Panther Party, the Cleavers were often the target of police investigations. The Cleavers' apartment was raided in 1968 before a Panther rally by the San Francisco Tactical Squad on the suspicion of hiding guns and ammunition. Later that year, Eldridge Cleaver staged a deliberate {{debatable|date=February 2016}} ambush of Oakland police officers during which two police officers were injured. Cleaver was wounded and fellow Black Panther member [[Bobby Hutton]] was killed in a shootout following the initial exchange of gunfire.<ref name=KateColeman/> Charged with attempted murder, he jumped bail to flee to [[Cuba]] and later went to [[Algeria]]. When Cleaver returned to the United States, he stated the shootout was a deliberate ambush against police. The same author who broke the news of this claim doubted its veracity, because it was in the context of an uncharacteristic speech in which Cleaver stated "we need police as heroes," and said that he denounced civilian review boards of police shootings for the reason that "it is a rubber stamp for murder." The author speculates that it could have been a pay off to the Alameda County justice system, whose judge only just days earlier had given Eldridge Cleaver probation instead of prison time; Cleaver was sentenced to community service after getting charged with three counts of assault against three Oakland police officers.<ref name=KateColeman>Kate Coleman, [http://colemantruth.net/kate1.pdf "Souled Out: Eldridge Cleaver Admits He Ambushed Those Cops"], ''New West'', May 19, 1980.</ref> The PBS documentary A Huey Newton Story finds that "Bobby Hutton was shot more than twelve times after he had already surrendered and stripped down to his underwear to prove he was not armed."<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/hueypnewton/people/people_hutton.html|title=A Huey P. Newton Story - People - Bobby Hutton - PBS|author=|date=|website=www.pbs.org}}</ref> During Kathleen Cleavers time with the Black Panther Party she helped feed people, provided medical care to families, and took families to visit loved ones in prison. She also “helped put together healing retreats for women who had been in the Black Panther Party, women who had been living underground, who had been tortured, who had been exiled” <ref>{{cite web |last1=Bandele |first1=Asha |title=Kathleen Cleavers |url=http://webscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=16691371&scope=site|website=EBSCO Host |publisher=Essence |accessdate=16 May 2019}}</ref> == Living in exile == [[File:Kathleen Cleaver.jpg|thumb|Kathleen Cleaver delivering a speech in [[Ruby Diamond Auditorium]] at Florida State University, November 1971.]] Kathleen reunited with Eldridge in [[Algeria]] in 1969,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Alexander |first= Leslie M |last2=Rucker, Jr |first2=Walter C. |date= |title=Encyclopedia of African American History |url=https://books.google.ie/books?id=uivtCqOlpTsC&pg=PA707&dq=Kathleen+Cleaver&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiBh-Sk8_rhAhWCUBUIHZeuBR04ChDoAQgzMAI#v=onepage&q=Kathleen%20Cleaver&f=false |location= |publisher= |page=707 |isbn=1851097694 |author-link= }}</ref> which was a single-party socialist regime with revolutionary Third World credentials, though also increasingly authoritarian. Cleaver gave birth to their first son, Maceo, soon after arriving in Algeria. A year later in 1970, she gave birth to their daughter Joju Younghi Cleaver, while the family was in [[North Korea]]. In 1971, [[Huey Newton]], a fellow party member, and Eldridge had a disagreement; this led to the separation of the International Branch of the Black Panther Party, as the Cleavers formed a new organization called the [[Revolutionary People's Communication Network]]. Cleaver returned to promoting and speaking about the new organization. To accomplish this, she and the children moved back to New York. The Algerian government became disgruntled with Eldridge and the new organization. Eldridge was forced to leave the country secretly and meet up with Kathleen in [[Paris]] in 1973. Cleaver left for the United States later that year to arrange Eldridge's return and raise a defense fund. In 1974, the French government granted legal residency to the Cleavers, and the family was finally reunited. After only a year, the Cleavers moved back to the United States, and Eldridge was sent to jail. He was tried for the shoot-out in 1968 and was found guilty of assault. He was sentenced to five years' probation and 2,000 hours of community service. Cleaver went to work on the Eldridge Cleaver Defense Fund and he was freed on bail in 1976. Eldridge's legal situation was not finally resolved until 1980. Throughout this time, Eldridge shifted his political views to the right. == Later life == After leaving Eldridge, Kathleen Cleaver went back to university in 1981, receiving a full scholarship from [[Yale University]]. She graduated in 1984, [[Phi Beta Kappa]] and [[summa cum laude]] with a Bachelor of Arts degree in history.<ref name="emory">{{cite web |url=http://law.emory.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/faculty-profiles/cleaver-profile.html |title=Kathleen N. Cleaver |author=<!--Not stated--> |date= |website=emory.edu |publisher= |access-date=1 May 2019 |quote=}}</ref> In 1987, she divorced Eldridge Cleaver. She decided she wanted to become a lawyer as she watched the Watergate Hearing in the early 1970's.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Cleavers |first1=Kathleen |title=Women, Power, and Revolution |date=June 2, 1999 |volume=21 |issue=2 |page=231 |doi=10.1080/07393149908429865 |accessdate=23 May 2019}}</ref> Therefore, she then continued her education by getting her law degree from [[Yale Law School]] in 1989. After graduating, she worked for the law firm of [[Cravath, Swaine & Moore]], and followed this with numerous jobs including: law clerk in the [[United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit]] in Philadelphia under Judge A. Higginbotham, the faculty of [[Emory University]] in [[Atlanta]], visiting faculty member at the [[Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law]] in New York City, the Graduate School of Yale University and [[Sarah Lawrence College]]. In 2005, Cleaver was selected an inaugural [[Fletcher Foundation]] Fellow. She then worked as a Senior Research Associate at the Yale Law School, and a Senior Lecturer in the African American Studies department at Yale University. She is currently serving as senior lecturer at [[Emory University School of Law]].<ref name="emory" /> In addition to her career, she works on numerous campaigns, including freedom for death-row inmate [[Mumia Abu-Jamal]] and habeas corpus for [[Geronimo Pratt]]. Cleaver has also worked for many years on and published her book ''Memories of Love and War''. Cleaver has had her writing appear in multiple newspapers and magazines including Ramparts, The Black Panther, The Village Voice, The Boston Globe, and Transition, and she has contributed scholarly essays to the books Critical Race Feminism, Critical White Studies, The Promise of Multiculturalism, and The Black Panther Party Reconsidered. She has also helped edit essays and a writing done by Eldridge Cleaver, Target Zero: A Life in the Writing.<ref>{{cite web |title=Kathleen Cleaver |url=http://law.emory.edu/faculty-and-scholarship/faculty-profiles/cleaver-profile.html |website=Emory Law |publisher=Emory School of Law |accessdate=20 May 2019}}</ref> Her and other former members of the Black Panther Party continue to meet and discuss issues and heal from the movement. == See also == * ''[[The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution]]'' == References == {{Reflist}} *Linfield, Susia. "The Education of Kathleen Neal Cleaver." Transition.77 (1998): 172. ProQuest. Web. 28 May 2017. *Cleaver, Kathleen Neal. "Women, Power, and Revolution." New Political Science, vol. 21, no. 2, June 1999, p.&nbsp;231. EBSCOhost, www.pierce.ctc.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=6673500&scope=site. ==External links== *[http://www.spartacus-educational.com/USACcleaverK.htm Spartacus Educational bio] * [https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2010039_crhp0051#about-this-item Video: Kathleen Cleaver oral history interview conducted by Joseph Mosnier in Atlanta, Georgia, 2011-09-16] {{Civil rights movement}} {{Black Panther Party}} {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Cleaver, Kathleen Neal}} [[Category:1945 births]] [[Category:Activists for African-American civil rights]] [[Category:Activists from Texas]] [[Category:African-American activists]] [[Category:American women activists]] [[Category:Barnard College alumni]] [[Category:Cravath, Swaine & Moore people]] [[Category:Emory University faculty]] [[Category:George School alumni]] [[Category:Living people]] [[Category:Members of the Black Panther Party]] [[Category:Oberlin College alumni]] [[Category:People from Dallas]] [[Category:People from Hall County, Texas]] [[Category:Yale Law School alumni]]'