Eldridge Cleaver Is Critical After Brain Surgery

Eldridge Cleaver, a leader in the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s, was reported in critical condition Tuesday following surgery for a brain hemorrhage.

A few hours before his hospitalization, Cleaver had been arrested for alleged cocaine possession and intoxication, authorities said.

Cleaver, 59, was taken into custody after police received reports of a prowler in a Berkeley neighborhood about 3:50 a.m. Tuesday, investigators said. Cleaver fell ill while being booked at police headquarters, police said.

Cleaver was taken to Alta Bates Medical Center in Berkeley where he was diagnosed with a subdural hematoma, or bleeding of the brain. He underwent almost five hours of surgery to relieve pressure on his brain, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Cleaver was later reported in critical condition, but the spokeswoman said this was normal after such surgery.

A native of Arkansas, Cleaver spent much of his childhood in Watts before serving time in reformatories for bicycle theft and selling marijuana. After completing high school, he studied the works of Thomas Paine, Karl Marx, Voltaire and W.E.B. Du Bois while serving time at Soledad Prison for another marijuana conviction.

After his parole from prison, he met Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale, co-founders of the Black Panthers, in February, 1967.

In April, 1968, Cleaver, who had become an information minister for the Panthers, was involved in a shootout in West Oakland during which party member Bobby Hutton was killed.

Cleaver, who was wounded, was arrested after the shootout, but jumped $50,000 bail and fled the United States. When he returned in 1975, he denounced the Panthers and said he had undergone a religious conversion.

After a protracted legal battle, attempted-murder charges connected to the West Oakland shootout were dropped.

In subsequent years, Cleaver became a born-again Christian.