Friends, family remember former Black Panther Cleaver
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Cleaver's daughter, Joju, and friends gather Thursday for a memorial service
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May 8, 1998
Web posted at: 9:51 a.m. EDT (1351 GMT)
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Funeral services for former Black
Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver will be held Saturday in Los
Angeles.
Cleaver was remembered Thursday by friends and colleagues at
a memorial service held at the University of LaVerne, a small
liberal arts college near Los Angeles, where he was a
consultant on racial diversity.
Those who spoke of Cleaver remembered him as compassionate
and concerned for the well-being of all members of society,
as well as a devout Christian.
At a news conference prior to Thursday's service, Cleaver's
daughter, Joju Younghi Cleaver, spoke of her father as a
caring man who loved "his people," meaning "everyone under
creation."
She said her father "left very strong fires that burn brightly in my brothers and as bright as ever in my heart."
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Cleaver, left, with members of the Black Panther Party
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Cleaver, 62, died May 1 at Pomona Valley Hospital Medical
Center in Los Angeles. No details on the cause of death were
released, at the request of Cleaver's family, hospital
officials said.
He was best known as a 1960s activist and author of "Soul on
Ice," a book he wrote in prison that became one of the most
influential works of the Black Power movement of the 1960s
and 1970s.
Cleaver was one of the original Black Panthers, formed in
1966 in Oakland, California, by Huey P. Newton and Bobby
Seale. More recently, though, he denounced his past stance
and joined the Republican Party.