Northridge

Eldridge Cleaver, a former Black Panther Party leader and author of “Soul on Ice,” will speak about the history and future of activism in a lecture Thursday at Cal State Northridge.

Cleaver’s lecture, part of the university’s Black History Month celebration, will begin at noon at the Northridge Center in the university’s Student Union, 18111 Nordhoff St.

The Black Panther Party was established in the 1960s as a militant black organization that advocated education and political empowerment of the African American community. As minister of information for the Panthers, Cleaver garnered national attention and ran for president in 1968 as the Peace and Freedom Party’s candidate. After several violent run-ins with government authorities, Cleaver fled to Cuba and Algeria. He returned to the U.S. in the late 1970s as a born-again Christian and entrepreneur.

Cleaver’s speech, sponsored by CSUN’s Pan African Studies Department and the College of Humanities, is free to the public.

For more information, call CSUN’s Pan African Studies Department at (818) 677-3311.