The Rape of Eldridge Cleaver

Eldridge Cleaver became an instant celebrity at Ramparts prison in San Francisco. Like Huey Newton he argued that the most genuine revolutionaries were those who were the most oppressed, black prison inmates and gangbangers. Unlike Stokely Carmichael, Cleaver embraced white radicals who adored him. But while the Newton Cleaver marriage gave the panther's instant legitimacy in radical white circles, it introduced an ideological rift that would eventually split the party. The absence of both Newton and Bobby Seal created a leadership vacuum that was filled by Eldridge Cleaver.