Editing Eldridge Cleaver (section)

===Early life===
Eldridge Cleaver was born in [[Wabbaseka, Arkansas]]. As a child he moved with his large family to [[Phoenix, Arizona|Phoenix]] and then to [[Los Angeles]].<ref name=Gates2004>{{Cite book |title=African American Lives |last1=Gates |first1=Henry Louis |author-link=Henry Louis Gates |last2=Higginbotham |first2=Eveleyn B. |date=2004 |publisher=Oxford University Press |location=Oxford / New York |isbn=019516024X |pages=173–175 |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=3dXw6gR2GgkC |access-date=May 15, 2012 }}</ref> He was the son of Leroy Cleaver and Thelma Hattie Robinson.<ref name="Cleaver, Eldridge Cleaver 2006">Cleaver, Eldridge Cleaver; edited by Kathleen Cleaver (2006). ''Target Zero: A Life in Writing''. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. {{ISBN|1-4039-6237-5}}.</ref> He had four siblings: Wilhelima Marie, Helen Grace, James Weldon, and Theophilus Henry.<ref name="Cleaver, Eldridge Cleaver 2006"/> Both of his grandfathers were Protestant preachers.<ref name="Alexander Street, part of Clarivate 2015">{{cite web | title=Eldridge Cleaver: Brigham Young University Speech | website=Alexander Street, part of Clarivate | date=October 23, 2015 | url=https://search.alexanderstreet.com/preview/work/bibliographic_entity%7Cvideo_work%7C2859239 | access-date=February 18, 2023}}</ref>

As a teenager, he was involved in [[petty crime]] and served time in [[youth detention center]]s. At the age of 18, he was convicted of a [[felony]] drug charge (marijuana) and sent to the adult prison at [[Soledad State Prison|Soledad]]. In 1958, he was convicted of [[rape]] and [[assault]] with intent to [[murder]], and was incarcerated in [[Folsom State Prison|Folsom]] and [[San Quentin State Prison|San Quentin]] prisons,<ref name=Gates2004/><ref name=NYTobit /> where he became radicalized. He received a copy of ''[[The Communist Manifesto]]'',<ref name="Cleaver, Eldridge Cleaver 2006"/> and read widely in economics, philosophy, literature and political theory.<ref>{{harvnb|Cleaver|1968|p=[https://archive.org/details/soulonicebyeldridgecleaver/page/n25/mode/2up 12]}}</ref> He joined the [[Nation of Islam]] (NOI) and led a radical faction of San Quentin's [[African-American Muslims|Black Muslims]].<ref>{{harvnb|Cummins|1994|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=QXpejAPTqH0C&pg=PA95 95]}}</ref><ref>{{harvnb|Cleaver|1969|pp=[https://archive.org/details/eldridgecleaverpostprison/page/12/mode/2up 13–17]}}</ref> However, Cleaver grew dissatisfied with the NOI and left it at roughly the same time that [[Malcolm X]] had his publicized rift with [[Elijah Muhammad]] and formed the [[Organization of Afro-American Unity]] (OAAU).<ref>{{harvnb|Cleaver|1969|pp=[https://archive.org/details/eldridgecleaverpostprison/page/n9/mode/2up x–xi]}}</ref>

Cleaver was paroled from San Quentin on December 12, 1966, with a discharge date of March 20, 1971. His parole was granted with the help of [[Edward Michael Keating]], founder of [[Ramparts (magazine)|''Ramparts'']] magazine, who had started publishing Cleaver's prison essays in June 1966 and guaranteed him a job in the magazine's San Francisco office.<ref name=":4">{{Cite book |last=Richardson |first=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5jf6K9MMcSUC&pg=PA69|title=A Bomb in Every Issue: How the Short, Unruly Life of Ramparts Magazine Changed America|date=August 18, 2009|page=69|publisher=The New Press |isbn=978-1-59558-525-7|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Marine |first=Gene |title=The Black Panthers |year=1969 |page=52 |location=New York |publisher=New American Library |series=A Signet book |lccn=74017254}}</ref>