Eric Sevareid
File:Sevareid.jpg
Born	November 26, 1912 Velva, North Dakota, U.S.
Died	July 9, 1992(1992-07-09) (aged 79) Washington, D.C., U.S.
Nationality	United States
Ethnicity	Norwegian American
Education	University of Minnesota B.A. 1935
Occupation	News journalist

Arnold Eric Sevareid (November 26, 1912 – July 9, 1992) was a CBS news journalist from 1939 to 1977. He was one of a group of elite war correspondents hired by pioneering CBS newsman Edward R. Murrow, and thus dubbed "Murrow's Boys". He was the first to report the fall of Paris when it was captured by the Germans during World War II. Traveling into Burma during World War II, his aircraft was shot down and he was rescued from behind enemy lines by a search and rescue team established for that purpose. He was the final journalist to interview Adlai Stevenson before his death. After a long and distinguished career, he followed in Morrow's footsteps as a commentator on the CBS Evening News for 12 years for which he was recognized with Emmy and Peabody Awards.

Early life[link]

Sevareid was a child of the northern Great Plains, born in Velva, North Dakota, to Alfred E. and Clara H. Sevareid. Following the failure of the bank in Velva^[1] in 1925, his family moved to Minot, and then to Minneapolis, Minnesota, settling on 30th Avenue North. He graduated from the University of Minnesota in 1935. Of Norwegian ancestry, he preserved a strong bond with Norway throughout his life.

Sevareid was adventurous from a young age. Several days after he graduated from high school, he and his friend Walter Port embarked on an expedition sponsored by the Minneapolis Star, from Minneapolis to York Factory on Hudson Bay. They canoed up the Minnesota River and its tributary, the Little Minnesota River to Browns Valley, Minnesota, portaged to Lake Traverse and descended the Bois des Sioux River to the Red River of the North which led to Lake Winnipeg, then went down the Nelson River, Gods River, and Hayes River to Hudson Bay, a trip of 2,250 miles (3,620 km).^[2] Sevareid's book, Canoeing with the Cree, was the result of this canoe trip. The book is still in print.^[3]

Reporter in college[link]

At the age of 18, Sevareid entered journalism as a reporter for the Minneapolis Journal, while a student at the University of Minnesota in political science. He continued his studies abroad, first in London and later in Paris at the Sorbonne, where he also worked as an editor for United Press. He then became city editor of the Paris Herald Tribune. He left that post to join CBS as a foreign correspondent, based in Paris; he broadcast the fall of Paris, and followed the French government from there to Bordeaux and then Vichy, before leaving France for London and finally Washington. He was appointed CBS's Washington bureau chief in July, 1942.^[4]

He wrote about the Plains influence on his life in his early memoir Not So Wild A Dream (1946), which covered his life in Velva, his family, the Hudson Bay trip, hitchhiking around the USA, mining in the Sierra Nevada, the Great Depression years, his early journalism and especially his experiences in World War II. This book remains in print.

World War II reporting[link]

Relationship with Edward Murrow[link]

Sevareid's work during World War II, with Edward R. Murrow as one of the original Murrow's Boys, was at the forefront of broadcasting. He was the first to report on the fall of France and the French surrender to Nazi Germany in 1940. Shortly after, he joined Murrow to report on the Battle of Britain. Later Sevareid would refer to the early years, working with Murrow, in fond terms. "We were like a young band of brothers in those early radio days with Murrow", he said. Later, in his final broadcast with CBS, in 1977 he would call Murrow the man who "invented me."^[5]

Rescue in Burma[link]

On August 2, 1943, Sevareid was on board a Curtiss-Wright C-46 Commando that developed engine trouble over Burma while on a Hump airlift mission. He grabbed a bottle of Carew's gin^[6] before parachuting out of the plane.^[5] The U.S. Air Force formed a search and rescue team to bring the group out from behind enemy lines. The operatives parachuted in, located the party, and evacuated them safely.^[7][8]

Sevareid later reported on Tito's partisans while in Yugoslavia.

Post-war career[link]

After the war, Sevareid's continued to work for CBS. In 1946 he reported on the founding of the UN and then penned Not So Wild a Dream. The book, whose title comes from part of the closing passage of Norman Corwin's radio play "On a Note of Triumph", appeared in eleven printings and became one of the primary sources on the lives of the generation of Americans who had lived through the Great Depression only to confront the horrors of World War II. In the 1976 edition of the book Sevareid wrote, "It was a lucky stroke of timing to have been born and lived as an American in this last generation. It was good fortune to be a journalist in Washington, now the single news headquarters in the world since ancient Rome. But we are not Rome; the world is too big, too varied."^[5]

Sevareid always considered himself a writer first and often felt uneasy behind a microphone, even less comfortable on television. Nonetheless, he worked extensively for CBS News on television in the years following the war and the decades after. During the mid to late 1950s Sevareid found himself on television as the host and science reporter of CBS' Conquest. He also served as the head of the CBS Washington bureau from 1946–1954 and became one of the early critics of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-Communism tactics. It was during the early 1950s that Sevareid caught the attention of the FBI in their attempts to identify and root out American Communists.

Investigated by FBI[link]

Internal FBI documents, declassified in 1996, show that the agency took an active interest in Sevareid's reporting and activities during the 1940s and early 1950s. A March 1953 document, titled "Security Information", is one of several that chronicle Sevareid's activities during the 1940s. It refers to unsubstantiated reports that while Sevareid attending the University of Minnesota in 1941, he was alleged to have associated with Communists. The files also alleged that while working for the school newspaper at the university Sevareid participated in an active campaign against the ROTC. It also noted his involvement in an awards banquet held by the Joint Anti-Fascist Refugee Committee, which had been designated a Communist organization by Executive Order 9835. The FBI files noted a May 17, 1945 report in the Daily People's World which stated Sevareid was a scheduled speaker at the Committee's banquet. The FBI called the Daily People's World the West Coast communist newspaper and said that Sevareid was identified as a radio commentator in its reports.

Other information in the FBI files noted a May 19, 1945 "newspapermen's forum" titled "The Free Press" held at the California Labor School in which Sevareid participated. In two separate 1948 reports Attorney General Tom C. Clark called the California Labor School "a subversive and Communist organization." The files included information that Sevareid's name was listed as one of those who was willing to raise funds to help support Hollywood celebrities appearing before the House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1947. The information the FBI received about Sevareid's purported Communist activity was provided by "a representative of another governmental agency" and was never confirmed by their investigations.^[9]

The information contained in the bureau's files was circulated during March 1953 while Sevareid anchored a CBS news program, A Report to the Nation. The FBI was specifically interested in his March 8, 1953 broadcast during which he interviewed Harold Stassen, then Director for the Mutual Security Agency. The FBI developed information documenting what they alleged was his "disloyal" activities.^[9]

By April 1953, the FBI documents show that the bureau found no reason to open a more extensive investigation into Sevareid's activities.^[9]

European correspondent[link]

Sevareid wound up the 1950s as CBS' roving European Correspondent from 1959–1961. He contributed stories to CBS Reports during this time and served as moderator on a number of CBS series. Those include, Town Meeting of the World, The Great Challenge, Where We Stand and Years of Crisis. Sevareid also appeared in or on CBS coverage of every presidential election from 1948 until 1976, the year before his retirement.^[5]

Final interview with Adlai Stevenson[link]

One of Sevareid's biggest scoops from this time period was his 1965 exclusive interview with Adlai Stevenson, shortly before Stevenson's death. Oddly enough, the interview was not broadcast over CBS but instead appeared in Look magazine. However it was Sevareid's familiar "think-pieces" which familiarized him with viewers worldwide.^[5]

CBS Evening News appearances[link]

From 1964 until he retired from CBS in 1977 Sevareid's two-minute segments on the CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite inspired those who endeared him to dub him "The Grey Eminence." During his long run as a commentator, his segments earned both the Emmy Awards and the Peabody Awards. In 1984, he was honored as an inductee into the Academy's Fourth Hall of Fame. Those who disagreed with his views nicknamed him "Eric Severalsides." Sevareid recognized his own biases that caused some to disagree with him vehemently. He said that as he had grew older he tended to become more conservative in foreign policy and liberal in domestic policy.^[5]

His commentary touched on many of the day's important issues. Following a 1966 trip to South Vietnam he commented that prolonging the war would be unwise and that the United States would be better off pursuing a negotiated settlement. He also helped keep alive another Murrow tradition at CBS that began with the interview show Person to Person. On Conversations with Eric Sevareid he interviewed such famous newsmakers as West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, novelist Leo Rosten and others. In somewhat of a spoof of this tradition he also had a conversation with King George III, portrayed by Peter Ustinov, titled The Last King in America.^[5]

In 1983, Sevareid hosted a 5-part documentary series on PBS, entitled Enterprise, which profiled how America portrays business.

Death[link]

Eric Sevareid died of stomach cancer on July 9, 1992, aged 79. Dan Rather gave a eulogy at his funeral. He was survived by his wife, two sons from his first marriage, and a daughter from his second marriage.

Sevareid in popular culture[link]

Sevareid portrayed himself in movies and on TV. He appeared as himself in The Right Stuff, Countdown to Looking Glass, and on Taxi as Tony Danza's character's fantasy.

The bumbling local-market newscaster Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) frequently compared himself to Sevareid on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. In a second-season episode of The Golden Girls, Blanche says that in certain lighting, Dorothy (Beatrice Arthur) looks just like Eric Sevareid. A spoof of Eric Sevareid named "Eric Clarified" appeared in the "Laugh-In Looks at the News" skits of Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In which ran from 1968–1974. The patriotic character "Sam the Eagle" on The Muppet Show has a 'Sevareid-ian' complex.

Honors[link]

• Recipient of the state of North Dakota's Roughrider Award.
• 1965: New York Newspaper Guild Page One Award
• 1950: Peabody Award
• 1964: Peabody Award
• 1976: Peabody Award
• Two-time Emmy Award winner
• 1981: Harry S Truman Award
• Two-time Overseas Press Club Award winner
• On October 5, 2007, the United States Postal Service announced that it would honor five journalists of the 20th century times with first-class rate postage stamps, to be issued on Tuesday, April 22, 2008: Martha Gellhorn; John Hersey; George Polk; Rubén Salazar; and Eric Sevareid. Postmaster General Jack Potter announced the stamp series at the Associated Press Managing Editors Meeting in Washington, D.C.. Sevareid covered World War II, on the fall of France to the Germans. He was a critic of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communism campaign.^[10]

Notes[link]

References and further reading[link]

1. Canoeing with the Cree, 1935, reprinted 1968 ISBN 0-87351-152-2
2. Not So Wild a Dream (autobiography), 1946, reissued 1976 ISBN 0-8262-1014-7
3. In One Ear: 107 Snapshots of Men and Events which Make a Far-Reaching Panorama of the American Situation at Mid-Century (essays), Knopf, 1952.
4. Small Sounds in the Night: A Collection of Capsule Commentaries on the American Scene, Knopf, 1956.
5. This is Eric Sevareid (essays), McGraw, 1964.
6. (With Robert A. Smith) Washington: Magnificent Capital, Doubleday, 1965.
7. (With John Case) Enterprise: The Making of Business in America, McGraw-Hill, 1983.

External links[link]

• Yesterday's News Excerpt from "Canoeing with the Cree" series, Minneapolis Star, September 6, 1930
• Farewell speech Recording of final broadcast message, Nov 30, 1977, YouTube.

Bob Schieffer
Bob Schieffer, April 11, 2006
Born	Bob Lloyd Schieffer (1937-02-25) February 25, 1937 (age 75) Austin, Texas, USA
Education	Texas Christian University
Occupation	Journalist, anchor
Notable credit(s)	Face the Nation moderator (1991–present) CBS Evening News 2005–2006 60 Minutes 1973–1996
Title	Chief Washington Correspondent; Anchor, Face the Nation
Spouse	Patricia Penrose Schieffer
Children	2
Relatives	Tom Schieffer
Website
CBS News Bio

Bob Lloyd Schieffer (pronounced /ˈʃiːfər/; born February 25, 1937) is an American television journalist who has been with CBS News since 1969, serving 23 years as anchor on the Saturday edition of CBS Evening News from 1973 to 1996; chief Washington correspondent since 1982, moderator of the Sunday public affairs show Face the Nation since 1991, and, between March 2005 and August 31, 2006, interim weekday anchor of the CBS Evening News. As of 2011, he is one of the primary substitutes for Scott Pelley.

Schieffer is one of the few journalists to have covered all four of the major Washington national assignments: the White House, the Pentagon, United States Department of State, and United States Congress. His career with CBS has almost exclusively dealt with national politics.

Schieffer is a survivor of grade III bladder cancer; he was diagnosed in 2003 and as of 2004 is cancer-free.^[1]

On October 13, 2004, he was the moderator of the third presidential debate between President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry in Tempe, Arizona. On October 15, 2008, Schieffer moderated the third presidential debate between Senator Barack Obama and Senator John McCain.

Youth[link]

Bob Lloyd Schieffer was born on February 25, 1937 in Austin, Texas, to the late John E. Schieffer and the former Gladys Payne Schieffer, and grew up in Fort Worth, Texas. He is an alumnus of North Side High School, and Texas Christian University (TCU), where he was a member of the Phi Delta Theta fraternity. The journalism school at TCU was later named after him.^[2] After graduating from TCU, he served in the U.S. Air Force as a captain and information officer. He was honorably discharged and joined the Fort Worth Star-Telegram as a reporter, with one of his key assignments a trip to Vietnam to profile soldiers from the Fort Worth area. At the Star Telegram he received his first major journalistic recognition on November 22, 1963. Shortly after President Kennedy was shot in Dallas, while in the Star-Telegram office, he received a telephone call from a woman in search of a ride to Dallas. The woman was Marguerite Oswald, Lee Harvey Oswald's mother, whom he accompanied to the Dallas police station. He then spent the next several hours there pretending to be a detective, enabling him to have access to an office with a phone. In the company of Oswald's mother Marguerite and his wife, Marina, he was able to use the phone to call in dispatches from other Star-Telegram reporters in the building. This enabled the Star Telegram to create four "Extra" editions on the day of the assassination. Schieffer later joined WBAP-TV in Fort Worth before taking a job with CBS in 1969.

Broadcasting career[link]

Schieffer was anchor of the Sunday evening news broadcast from 1973 to 1997 and of the Saturday evening news broadcast from 1977 until 1996. Between 1970 and 1974, he was assigned to the Pentagon, from 1974 to 1979 he was CBS's White House correspondent, and in 1982 he became Chief Washington Correspondent in addition to his anchor duties.

In the wake of Dan Rather's controversial retirement,^[3][4] he was named interim anchor for the weekday CBS Evening News.^[5] He assumed that job on March 10, 2005, the day following Rather's last broadcast. Under Schieffer, the CBS Evening News gained about 200,000 viewers, to average 7.7 million viewers, reversing some of the decline in ratings that occurred during Rather's tenure; while "NBC Nightly News" was down by 700,000 viewers, and ABC's World News Tonight lost 900,000.^[6] Some of this was attributed to the Schieffer family's closeness with President George W. Bush; Bush had previously refused to grant an interview to Rather. Schieffer closed the gap with ABC's World News Tonight when co-anchor Bob Woodruff was injured in late January 2006.^{[citation needed]} He made his last CBS Evening News broadcast on August 31, 2006,^[7] and was replaced in the anchor chair by Katie Couric.^[8] On Couric's second broadcast, he returned to provide segments for the evening news as Chief Washington Correspondent.

Awards[link]

Schieffer has won six Emmy Awards, two Sigma Delta Chi Awards, was named Broadcaster of the Year in 2002 by the National Press Foundation, and was named to the Broadcasting/Cable Hall of Fame.

Books[link]

Schieffer has written three books about his career in journalism: Face the Nation: My Favorite Stories from the First 50 Years of the Award-Winning News Broadcast, This Just In: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV, and Bob Schieffer's America.

He has also written a book about Ronald Reagan called The Acting President, which was published in 1989.^[9]

Other interests[link]

Since leaving the anchor desk at CBS Evening News in 2006, Schieffer has entertained his longstanding interest in songwriting by collaborating with musicians in New York and Washington, D.C. His latest efforts have resulted in four songs with the Washington area band Honky Tonk Confidential, all of which appear on their CD, Road Kill Stew and Other News (with Special Guest Bob Schieffer). Schieffer sings "TV Anchorman" and wrote the lyrics for the others.

Family[link]

Schieffer is the older brother of Tom Schieffer, a friend and former business partner of President George W. Bush, who was appointed U.S. Ambassador to Australia 2001-2005 by President Bush and also served as U.S. Ambassador to Japan from April 2005 through January 2009. On March 2, 2009 Tom Schieffer announced he was forming an exploratory committee that will allow him to seek the Democratic nomination for Governor of Texas.

Schieffer is married to the former Patricia Penrose and has two daughters.

Current status[link]

In his most recent memoir, This Just In, Schieffer credits the fact he had been a beat reporter at CBS for his longevity at the network. He also noted a rare off-camera appearance in the Sunday comics. After fellow CBS newscaster and Texan Dan Rather was switched from the White House beat to hosting the documentary show CBS Reports in 1974, the Sunday October 13 edition of the Doonesbury comic strip^[10] featured a joking fantasy scene in which Schieffer, his successor, haltingly comments on the transition: "It was the affiliates – they just couldn't take him. I mean let's face it, Dan wasn't exactly MR. TACT!. I dunno.... Maybe it's just as well in the long run, I mean, you know? Anyway, this is Robert Schieffer at the White House...." (Schieffer notes that "The strip was right on except for one thing. My real name is Bob, not Robert").

Career timeline[link]

• 1972–1974: CBS Sunday Night News anchor^[11]
• 1973–1996: 60 Minutes contributor
• 1973–2005: CBS Evening News anchor (Summer and weekend editions)^[11]
• 1982 – present: CBS News Chief Washington correspondent^[11]
• May 1991 – present: Face the Nation moderator^[11]
• March 10, 2005 – August 31, 2006: CBS Evening News anchor^[11]

References[link]

External links[link]

Biography portal

• Bob Schieffer School of Journalism Texas Christian University
• Bob Schieffer And Bladder Cancer: A Survivor's Story RevolutionHealth.com, July 15, 2008
• InnerVIEWS with Ernie Manouse: Bob Schieffer (TV Interview) Google Videos
• Stephen Colbert Interview^{[dead link]} Comedy Central, March 6, 2006
• Biography - Bob Schieffer CBS News
• Bob Schieffer Notable Names Database
• Bob Schieffer at the Internet Movie Database
• Booknotes interview with Schieffer and Gary Paul Gates on The Acting President, August 13, 1989

Eldridge Cleaver
Eldridge Cleaver in 1968
Born	Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (1935-08-31)August 31, 1935 Wabbaseka, Arkansas
Died	May 1, 1998(1998-05-01) (aged 62) Pomona, California
Organization	Black Panther Party Peace and Freedom Party Republican Party (United States)
Religion	Mormon (After 1983)

Leroy Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) better known as Eldridge Cleaver, was a writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party. His book Soul On Ice is a collection of essays praised by The New York Times Book Review at the time of its publication as "brilliant and revealing."

Cleaver went on to become a prominent member of the Black Panthers, having the titles Minister of Information, and Head of the International Section of the Panthers while in exile in Cuba and Algeria. As editor of the official Panther's newspaper, Cleaver's influence on the direction of the Party was rivaled only by founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Cleaver and Newton eventually fell out with each other, resulting in a split that weakened the Party.

A reformed serial rapist and racist, in Soul on Ice Cleaver wrote, "If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."^[1] Cleaver eventually turned to the right-wing, becoming an LDS Church member and a member of the Republican Party.

Early life[link]

Born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, as a child Cleaver moved with his family to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles.^[2] In 1967 he married Kathleen Neal Cleaver; they divorced in 1987. They had a son, Ahmad Maceo Eldridge Cleaver, and a daughter, Joju Younghi Cleaver.

As a teenager he was involved in petty crime and spent time in detention centers. At the age of eighteen he was convicted of a felony drug charge and sent to the adult prison at Soledad. In 1958, he was further convicted of rape and assault with intent to murder and eventually served time in Folsom and San Quentin prisons.^[2][3]

[edit] Soul on Ice (1968)

While in prison, he wrote a number of philosophical and political essays, first published in Ramparts magazine and then in book form as Soul on Ice.^[1] In the essays, Cleaver traces his own development from a "supermasculine menial" to a radical black liberationist, and his essays became highly influential in the black power movement.

In the most controversial part of the book, Cleaver acknowledges committing acts of rape, stating that he initially raped black women in the ghetto "for practice," and then embarked on the serial rape of white women. He described these crimes as politically inspired, motivated by a genuine conviction that the rape of white women was "an insurrectionary act."^[1] When he began writing Soul on Ice, he unequivocally renounced rape and all his previous reasoning about it.^[2][3]

The essays in Soul on Ice are divided in four thematic sections:^[4] "Letters from Prison", describing Cleaver's experiences with and thoughts on crime and prisons; "Blood of the Beast", discussing race relations and promoting black liberation ideology; "Prelude to Love – Three Letters", love letters written to Cleaver's attorney, Beverly Axelrod; and "White Woman, Black Man", on gender relations, black masculinity, and sexuality.

Black Panther Party[link]

Eldridge Cleaver was released from prison in 1966, after which he joined the Oakland-based Black Panther Party, serving as Minister of Information, or spokesperson. What initially attracted Cleaver to the Panthers as opposed to other prominent groups was their commitment to armed struggle.^[5]

In 1967, Eldridge Cleaver, along with Marvin X, Ed Bullins and Ethna Wyatt, formed the Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco. Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez, Askia Toure, Sarah Webster Fabio, Art Ensemble of Chicago, Avotcja, Reginald Lockett, Emory Douglas, Samuel Napier, Bobby Hutton, Huey Newton, and Bobby Seale were Black House regulars.^[6]

He was a Presidential candidate in 1968 on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party.^[7] Cleaver was born on August 31, 1935, and therefore would not have been the requisite 35 years of age until more than a year after Inauguration Day 1969. (Although the Constitution requires that the President be 35 years of age, it does not specify if he must have reached that age at the time of nomination, or election, or inauguration.) Courts in both Hawaii and New York held that he could be excluded from the ballot because he could not possibly meet the Constitutional criteria.^[8] Cleaver and his running mate Judith Mage received 36,571 votes (0.05%).

Also in 1968, Cleaver led an ambush of Oakland police officers, during which two officers were wounded. In the aftermath of the ambush, Cleaver was wounded and seventeen-year-old Black Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed.^[9] Charged with attempted murder, he jumped bail to flee to Cuba and later went to Algeria. Following Timothy Leary's Weather Underground assisted prison escape, Leary stayed with Cleaver in Algeria; however, Cleaver placed Leary under "revolutionary arrest" as a counter-revolutionary for promoting drug use. Cleaver later left Algeria and spent time in France.

Eldridge Cleaver and Huey Newton eventually fell out with each other over the necessity of armed struggle as a response to COINTELPRO and other actions by the government against the Black Panthers and other radical groups.^[10] Cleaver advocated the escalation of armed resistance into urban guerilla warfare, while Newton suggested the best way to respond to was to put down the gun, which he felt alienated the Panthers from the rest of the Black community, and focus on more pragmatic reformist activity.^[11][12]

Cleaver returned to the United States in 1975, became a born again Christian and subsequently renounced his ultra-radical past. With regard to the attempted murder charge stemming from the armed Panther attack on Oakland police in 1968, legal wrangling ended in Cleaver being sentenced to probation for assault. In 1980, he admitted that he had led the Panther group on a deliberate ambush of the police officers, thus provoking the shoot-out.^[13]

[edit] Soul on Fire (1978)

Playing on the title of Soul on Ice, Cleaver published Soul on Fire in 1978.^[14] Cleaver made several claims regarding his exile in Algeria: he claimed he was supported by regular stipends from the government of North Vietnam, which the United States was then bombing. Cleaver stated that he was followed by other former criminals turned revolutionaries, many of whom hijacked planes to get to Algeria. Apparently, the Algerians expected Cleaver to keep his proteges in line, which he described as increasingly difficult as their increasing numbers stretched his North Vietnamese allowance to the breaking point. Cleaver organized a stolen car ring, stealing cars in Europe to sell in Africa. Around this time Cleaver discovered his wife had a lover; the lover was subsequently murdered. Cleaver eventually fled Algeria out of fear for his life. He could no longer control his proteges and the Algerian police were cracking down on them. He subsequently lived underground for a time in France. Cleaver became a born again Christian during his year of isolation, while living underground. He later led a short-lived revivalist ministry called Eldridge Cleaver Crusades, "a hybrid synthesis of Islam and Christianity he called 'Christlam'."^[2]

Later life[link]

In the early 1980s, Cleaver became disillusioned with what he saw as the commercial nature of mainstream evangelical Christianity and examined alternatives, including Sun Myung Moon's campus ministry organization CARP, and Mormonism.^[15] Cleaver was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on December 11, 1983,^[16][17] periodically attended regular services, lectured by invitation at LDS gatherings, and was a member of the church in good standing at the time of his death in 1998.

By the 1980s, Cleaver had become a conservative Republican. He appeared at various Republican events and spoke at a California Republican State Central Committee meeting regarding his political transformation. In 1984 he ran for election to the Berkeley City Council but lost.^[18] Undaunted, he promoted his candidacy in the Republican Party primary for the 1986 Senate race but was again defeated.^[19]

In 1988, Cleaver was placed on probation for burglary and was briefly jailed later in the year after testing positive for cocaine.^[20] He entered drug rehabilitation for a stated crack cocaine addiction two years later, but was arrested for possession by Oakland and Berkeley Police in 1992 and 1994. Shortly after his final arrest, he moved to Southern California, falling into poor health.^[20]

Death[link]

Eldridge Cleaver died at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical Center on May 1, 1998. His family asked that the hospital not reveal the cause of death, although he was known to have diabetes and prostate cancer.^[21] He is buried at Mountain View Cemetery in Altadena, California.^[22]

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Rout, Kathleen (1991). Eldridge Cleaver. Boston: Twayne Publ. ISBN 0805776206.

External links[link]

	Biography portal
	African American portal

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Eldridge Cleaver

• Cleaver, Eldridge. The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07
• From Muslim to Mormon: Eldridge Cleaver's Rhetorical Crusade
• Guide to the Eldridge Cleaver Papers at The Bancroft Library
• PBS Frontline Interview with Eldridge Cleaver
• Reason Magazine Interview with Eldridge Cleaver