California State University, Northridge

February 21, 1997

Contact: Carmen Ramos Chandler,
(818) 677-2130
cchandler@exec.csun.edu

Former Black Panther Talks About Activism

Cleaver's speech, "Activism: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow," will take place at noon in the Northridge Center of the University Student Union on the east side of the campus at 18111 Nordhoff St. in Northridge.

Cleaver drew national attention in the 1960s as the minister of information for the Black Panthers, a militant black organization that advocated the political empowerment and education of the African American community. He ran for president in 1968 for the Peace and Freedom Party.

Cleaver and the Panthers had many run-ins with the police, several of them violent. Cleaver eventually fled the country in the late 1960s. He went first to Cuba and then Algeria, where he founded the Panther's international branch.

During this period, Cleaver wrote "Soul on ICE," about his feelings of black youth growing up in a white society.

Cleaver returned to the United States in the late 1970s as a born-again Christian and entrepreneur.

His appearance at CSUN, part of the university's Black History Month celebration, is being organized by the Pan African Studies Department and is sponsored by College of Humanities.

For more information, call the Pan African Studies Department at (818) 677-3311.