Kathleen Cleaver Biography

Fast Facts

• Became the co-director of the Human Rights Research Fund in 2000, investigating violations of human rights in the United States
• Was one of the inaugural recipients of Harvard University's Alphonse Fletcher Sr․ Fellowship in 2005
• Studied at Barnard College, graduated Summa Cum Laude from Yale College with a degree in History in 1984, and earned her law degree from Yale Law School in 1989
• Started out as a member of the campus program at the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and joined the Black Panther Party in 1967 as their communications secretary
• Worked as an associate at Cravath, Swaine & Moore in New York after graduating from law school
• Best known as a law professor and for her involvement with the Black Panther Party
• Works as a senior lecturer at Yale University's African American Studies Department and as a senior lecturer and research fellow at Emory University's School of Law
• Co-edited "Liberation, Imagination, and the Black Panther Party" with George Katsiaficas and edited her former husband Eldridge Cleaver's "Target Zero: A Life in Writing․"
• Has been a visiting faculty member at Yale University's Graduate School, the University of Texas Law School, the Benjamin N․ Cardozo School of Law, and Sarah Lawrence College
• Her articles have appeared in numerous publications, including The Village Voice, Ramparts, The Boston Globe, and Transition