CLEAVER, KATHLEEN.
Kathleen Cleaver papers, 1900-2019 (bulk: 1960-2019)

Restrictions on Access

Special restrictions apply: Collection stored off-site. Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance to access this collection.

Use copies have not been made for audiovisual material in this collection. Researchers must contact the Rose Library at least two weeks in advance for access to these items. Collection restrictions, copyright limitations, or technical complications may hinder the Rose Library's ability to provide access to audiovisual material.

Researchers must contact the Rose Library in advance for access to unprocessed born digital materials in this collection. Collection restrictions, copyright limitations, or technical complications may hinder the Rose Library's ability to provide access to unprocessed born digital materials.

Terms Governing Use and Reproduction

All requests subject to limitations noted in departmental policies on reproduction.

Related Materials in Other Repositories

Eldridge Cleaver Papers, The Bancroft Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Source

A portion of this collection was a gift of Jojuyounghi Cleaver, and a portion of this collection was purchased from Kathleen Cleaver, 2020.

Custodial History

Jojuyounghi Cleaver is the daughter of Kathleen Cleaver. Rose Library staff packed the collection at Kathleen Cleaver's home and transferred it to the library. From 2017-2020, prior to the Rose Library's acquisition of the material, a team organized, labeled, and inventoried the photographs in the collection, including rehousing them in archival sleeves and boxes. Dr. Leigh Raiford lead a team of faculty, archival professionals, and artists from a variety of institutions. This team included Stephanie Alvarado, Dr. Lia Bascomb, Dr. Robin Hayes, Sierra King, Delphine Sims, John Stephens, and Tierra Thomas.

Citation

[after identification of item(s)], Kathleen Cleaver papers, Stuart A. Rose Manuscript, Archives, and Rare Book Library, Emory University.

Appraisal Note

Curator of African American Collections, Pellom McDaniels, III, acquired the collection as part of the Rose Library's holdings in Civil Rights and Post-Civil Rights Movements history. Archivists have retained all material received with the collection.

Processing

Arranged and described at the collection level by Meaghan O'Riordan, March 2020.

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Biographical Note

Kathleen Neal Cleaver (1945-) was born in Dallas, Texas, to activists. In 1948, Cleaver's father, Ernest Neal, accepted a job as the director of the Rural Life Council of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. In 1954, Ernest joined the Foreign Service. The family moved abroad and lived in such countries as India, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Philippines. They returned to the United States after Cleaver's brother died from leukemia.

Cleaver graduated from George School, a Quaker boarding school in Newton, Pennsylvania, in 1963. She continued her education at Oberlin College (Ohio) and later transferred to Barnard College (New York, New York). 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, was murdered by white supremacists.

At a student conference at Fisk University (Nashville, Tennessee), Cleaver met the Minister of Information for the Black Panther Party, Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), a speaker at the conference. Kathleen moved to San Francisco, California, in November 1967 to join the Black Panther Party and married Eldridge in December that same year. Cleaver became the Communications Secretary and the first female member of the Party's decision-making body, the Central Committee. She organized the national campaign to free the Party's Minister of Defense, Huey Newton, who was jailed and charged for killing an Oakland (California) police officer.

In 1968, Eldridge Cleaver was charged with attempted murder after a shootout with Oakland police officers, during which fellow Black Party Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed. He fled to Cuba and later Algeria. Kathleen reunited with Eldridge in Algeria in 1969 and gave birth to their son, Ahmad Maceo (1969-2018). In 1970 in North Korea, she gave birth to their daughter, Jojuyounghi Cleaver.

Kathleen Cleaver attended Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut) from 1981-1984, completing a Bachelor of Arts in history. In 1987, she divorced Eldridge Cleaver. She continued her education at Yale Law School, earning a J.D. in 1989. After graduating, Cleaver worked for the law firm of Carvath, Swaine & Moore (New York, New York). Later, she served as a law clerk in the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. She served as a faculty member at several different colleges and law schools, including the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law (New York New York), the Graduate School of Yale University (New Haven, Connecticut), and Sarah Lawrence College (Yonkers, New York). Cleaver joined the faculty at Emory University School of Law (Atlanta, Georgia) in 1992. In addition to her teaching career, she continued her work as an activist for prison reform, including freedom for death-row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal and habeas corpus for Geronimo Pratt.

Scope and Content Note

The collection consists of the papers of African American activist and lawyer, Kathleen Cleaver, and includes photographs, printed material, audiovisual and born digital material, books and periodicals, writings, subject files, and correspondence. It includes extensive files documenting her speaking engagements and activism, and manuscript drafts of her unpublished memoir, Memories of Love & War. The collection also contains internal documentation on the Black Panther Party's activities, including material relating to the International Section. Also included are a significant number of photographs, including family photographs with Eldridge Cleaver and their children, and a number of photographs of Black Panther activities and associates. Audiovisual material includes films from the time that Kathleen and Eldridge spent in Algeria in the 1970s, as well as speeches, lectures, and interviews by notable civil rights figures, such as Malcolm X, Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Fred Hampton, Stokely Carmichael, and Robert F. Williams.

Arrangement Note

Arranged by record type. Items remain in original physical order but are arranged alphabetically by type in the container list to facilitate access.