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Information AboutEldridge Cleaver |
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Born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas , Cleaver's family moved to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles . As a teenager he became involved in petty crime, and in 1957 was convicted of assault with intent to murder. While in prison, he wrote a book of essays, ''Soul on Ice'', which was influential in the Black Power movement and is now considered a classic by many people. In the book, Cleaver infamously acknowledges Raping several White women, which he defended as "an insurrectionary act." He also admitted that he began his career as a rapist by "practicing on black girls in the ghetto." He maintains that his criminal actions have nothing to do with the views expressed in the book. Cleaver was released from prison in 1966 , after which he joined the Oakland -based Black Panther Party and served as its Minister of Information (spokesperson). He was a candidate for President in 1968 on the ticket of the Peace And Freedom Party . That same year, he was injured in a conflict between the Panthers and Oakland police. Charged with attempted murder, he jumped bail to flee to Algeria – where he was joined by Timothy Leary . Cleaver placed Leary under "revolutionary arrest" as a counter-revolutionary, although Leary was later released. Cleaver later left Algeria, and spent time in both Cuba , and France . In 1975 , Cleaver modeled anatomically fitted men's pants he designed featuring a "Cleaver sleeve" which was a Penis Sheath that was basically a sock protruding from the front of a pair of pants (see "Eldridge Cleaver Models his hot new pants" in Rolling Stone issue 197 dated October 9, 1975). The sleeve accommodated free movement and size changes of the enclosed male organ. ''SOUL ON ICE'' In his 1978 book '' Soul On Fire '' Cleaver revealed several surprising aspects of his exile in Algeria:
RETURN TO AMERICA Cleaver returned to the United States in 1975 , and subsequently renounced the Black Panthers. Legal wrangling ended in his being sentenced to probation for assault. As a Conservative Republican , he even unsuccessfully ran for the Republican nomination for United States Senate from California in 1986 . At one point he became involved with Sun Myung Moon 's campus ministry organization CARP and became involved with Mormonism . In the mid- 1980s , Cleaver became addicted to crack Cocaine . In 1992 he was convicted of cocaine possession and burglary. In 1994 , after nearly dying in a cocaine-related assault, he kicked his Addiction and returned to Christianity. Cleaver died of Prostate Cancer in Pomona, California in 1998 at the age of 62, and is interred in the Mountain View Cemetery, Altadena, California . He is survived by his daughter, Joju Younghi Cleaver, and son Macio Cleaver.
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