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.
Bayard Rustin's “Eldridge Cleaver and the Democratic Idea”: Reclaiming Democracy after the Ruins of Revolution
Rustin’s Humanist article argues that Eldridge Cleaver’s return from exile matters because he came home with a transformed, deeply democratic politics, rejecting authoritarianism after firsthand experience and embracing “radical democracy” over violent revolution. Rustin presents Cleaver as a rare figure willing to admit past errors, defend American democratic principles without denying their flaws, and challenge the left to take democracy, and Cleaver’s right to a fair trial, seriously.
