Kathleen Cleaver met the young Panther Mumia in 1968. Activist and internationally known writer Jamal now sits on Pennsylvania's Death Row. Kathleen Cleaver, now a law professor, after helping free Geronimo Pratt, works on his defense.
Producer: Maria Gilardin Uploaded by: Maria Gilardin
Women of the Sixties: Kathleen Cleaver on Mumia Abu Jamal In 1968 a teenager sat in the audience of a television studio in New York City. He had come to see an interview with Kathleen Cleaver, the communications secretary of the Black Panther Party. It would take almost 30 years until the two met again. The young man, Wesley Cook, would later take the name of Mumia Abu Jamal and become an activist and internationally known writer. He now sits on Pennsylvania's Death Row. Kathleen Cleaver, now a law professor, works on his defense committee.
After the demise of the Black Panther Party she had followed her husband, Eldridge Cleaver, into exile in Algeria and France. They separated after their return and, in the 1980s, Kathleen Cleaver earned a law degree from Yale. She is teaching African American Studies and history of the American law of slavery. Her work for Mumia Abu Jamal began when she was part of the support committee for former Black Panther and personal friend of hers' Geronimo Ji Jaga Pratt. He was finally released in 1997 after 27 years in jail.
Kathleen Cleaver spoke at San Francisco State University. She began by remembering that day, over 30 years ago, when she first met Mumia Abu Jamal
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