American Historical Ephemera & Photography

3 pamphlets involving Eldridge Cleaver and the Peace and Freedom Party, including:

Peace & Freedom Party Platform. New York: Peace and Freedom Party, ca 1968. 8vo. Illustrated pamphlet. Original yellow and black wrappers, featuring illustrations of Eldridge Cleaver ("For President") and Judy Mage ("For Vice President") on inside cover, with blue insert outlining the "black panther party ten point program," and addressing the economy, principles, foreign policy, and other issues (very fine). 

Eldridge Cleaver for President. New York: Peace and Freedom Party, ca 1968. 8vo. Pamphlet. Original illustrated wrappers (creasing and folds, including vertical creases through front cover, some soiling). 

Though candidates with the party affiliation first appeared on ballots in 1966, the Peace and Freedom Party was officially founded on 23 June 1967. Gathering over 100,000 registrants, the party qualified for ballot status in California in January 1968. Black liberation and anti-Vietnam War were the major platforms for the left-wing party. Cleaver, although he was not 35 years old, was nominated and ran on a platform of ending the war in Vietnam and Black liberation.

Cleaver course position paper issued by Center for Participant Education and Individuals Representing the Campus Community. [University of California-Berkeley], October 1968. 8vo. Pamphlet. Original wrappers (very fine).

The University of California-Berkeley was one of the key sites of the 1960s-era campus activism and played a pivotal role in the rise of Black Studies and Third World Student movements. In 1966, African Americans made up 1% of the student population at the university, but by 1968, the number began to rise. Early in 1968, a coalition of Black student activists and local community members demanded the creation of a Black Studies Department. Chancellor Roger Heyns promised the establishment of the new department by the Fall of 1969. In the meantime, Black students worked with the College of Letters and Sciences to offer a selection of courses on the "Black Experience" during the 1968 school year, including a course that would be guest taught by Black Panther Minister of Information, Eldridge Cleaver. The 10-lecture class, titled "Social Analysis 139X: Dehumanization and Regeneration of the American Social Order," was sponsored by the Center for Participation in Education. As students began to enroll in the course, Governor Ronald Reagan and state legislators pressured the Board of Regents to pass a new rule stating that classes could only include one guest lecture per semester in an attempt to limit Cleaver's platform on campus. This move set off a new controversy over academic freedom on campus and helped spur the mobilization of the Third World Liberation Front, a coalition of Black, Latin American, Asian American, and Mexican American students that organized the longest strikes in US history. Subsequently, Cleaver gave six lectures on campus in 1968. This pamphlet was created in defense of the "Cleaver Course," as it became known on UC Berkeley's campus. 

[With:] 3 pamphlets and flyers related to civil rights activist Angela Davis, including: 

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners. The Newsletter of the United Committee to Free Angela Davis. No. 2. Los Angelas, CA: National United Committee to Free Angela Davis, 8 December 1970. 8 1/2 x 11 in. printed, double-sided newsletter (folds, some creasing). 

Political Prisoners: The Cases of Angela Davis, Ruchell Magee, and the Soledad Brothers. [Memphis, TN]: [Southern Committee to Free Angela Davis and All Political Prisoners], ca 1971. 8vo. Illustrated pamphlet. Original illustrated wrappers (very fine). Profiles the cases of the prominent Black prisoners referenced in the title. The pamphlet also provides information on lesser known Black prisoners in the southern United States who are identified as political prisoners by the authors. 

Freed by the People: The Closing Defense Statement Made in the Angela Davis Case. San Francisco: National United Committee to Free Angela Davis, 1972. 8vo. Illustrated pamphlet. Original illustrated wrappers (very fine).

Together, 6 imprints.