Kathleen Neal Cleaver

Kathleen Neal Cleaver is a professor of law, known for her involvement with the Black Panther Party. Kathleen Neal was born on May 13, 1945, in Dallas, Texas. Both of Kathleen’s parents had higher education; her father was a sociology professor at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas and her mother had a master’s degree in mathematics. Soon after Kathleen was born, her father, Ernest Neal, accepted a job as the director of the Rural Life Council of T... more

Kathleen Neal Cleaver is a professor of law, known for her involvement with the Black Panther Party. Kathleen Neal was born on May 13, 1945, in Dallas, Texas. Both of Kathleen’s parents had higher education; her father was a sociology professor at Wiley College in Marshall, Texas and her mother had a master’s degree in mathematics. Soon after Kathleen was born, her father, Ernest Neal, accepted a job as the director of the Rural Life Council of Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Six years later, Ernest joined the Foreign Service. The family moved abroad and lived in such countries as India, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and the Philippines. Kathleen returned to the United States to attend a Quaker boarding school near Philadelphia, George School. She graduated with honors in 1963. She continued her education at Oberlin College in Ohio, and later transferred to Barnard College in New York. In 1966, she left college for a secretary job with the New York office of the Student Nonviolent... less