The Black Panther, 1966-2016

"Another Problem for the Fascists"

For many Panther families, and at various points in the Party’s development, children symbolized hope for a future void of class disparity. Party literature offers glimpses into moments when the organization highlighted children as the torchbearers of the movement against capitalism. The birth of Maceo Cleaver is a telling example of this. Born in July 1969 to BPP Communications Secretary, Kathleen Cleaver, and Minister of Information, Eldridge Cleaver, Maceo’s entrance into the world made Party headlines as one of the first Panther cub births of members serving in the Party’s International chapter.[1] The August 1969 article, which featured in bold letters Eldridge’s description of his son as “Another problem for the fascists,” helps highlight how members like Cleaver recognized the revolutionary potential of the next generation. Maceo’s name further reflected this, as his parents named him after the nineteenth-century Cuban revolutionary, Antonio Maceo.
 
[1] Eldridge Cleaver, Target Zero: A Life in Writing, ed. Kathleen Cleaver (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), xxi. 

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