The press release announced a legal and public campaign, led by Bayard Rustin and Kathleen Cleaver, to win Eldridge Cleaver’s release on bail, arguing that new parole guidelines showed he had already served more than his original sentence required. It emphasized that a parole hold, not new charges, was keeping him jailed and hindering his ability to prepare for trial, prompting calls for public support and upcoming public events.
Bayard Rustin's "Why I Support Eldridge Cleaver"
Rustin announced the Eldridge Cleaver Defense Fund by emphasizing that, despite their past political opposition, he was defending Cleaver’s right to a fair trial, not his past actions. He highlighted Cleaver’s political maturation, the abandonment and distortion by former allies and the media, and argued that Cleaver’s hard-won critique of totalitarianism made him a uniquely credible voice on the value of democratic reform.
