Eldridge Cleaver Charged With Cocaine Possession
Former Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver was charged Thursday with felony possession of cocaine after he was stopped leaving a suspected crack house, police said.
Cleaver, 56, who runs a recycling pickup service, was information minister for the Black Panther Party in the 1960s. He is author of “Soul on Ice” and “Soul on Fire,” seminal works of the black power movement.
Cleaver, who lives in Berkeley, was arrested Tuesday night leaving a suspected crack house in Oakland, said Officer Jeff Ferguson.
Cleaver said from his jail cell: “The officers did claim what I had was cocaine but that is subject to analysis. I don’t think it was. It was just something I got from someone.” He said he never went into the house or had cocaine.
Cleaver was placed on probation in 1988 after separate convictions for burglary and cocaine possession.
Cleaver ran for President in 1968 on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket. He later was purged from the Panthers in a dispute with the late co-founder Huey P. Newton.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
