Kathleen Cleaver/Mabel Williams event

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Claude Marks
The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
http://www.freedomarchives.org
http://www.freedomarchives.org

The Freedom Archives, EastSide Arts Alliance, and Malcolm X Grassroots Movement present
"SELF RESPECT, SELF DEFENSE & SELF DETERMINATION"
Mabel Williams & Kathleen Cleaver Speak

Sunday, March 14th, 2004 7:00 PM
First Congregational Church (27th & Harrison) in Oakland
$10.00/$5.00 students

No one turned away due to lack of funds

The Freedom Archives, EastSide Arts Alliance, Malcolm X Grassroots Movement, along with Hard
Knock Radio (KPFA) and other community activists are sponsoring a rare speaking appearance with
Mabel Williams and Kathleen Cleaver which focuses on the history and emergence of the Black
Power movement, self-defense as a human right, and their roles as leading women in the Black
liberation struggle. This historic event is the first time these two women have appeared
together in conversation.

Mabel Williams is the widow of the late Robert Franklin Williams, the author of Negroes with
Guns, a book that describes their activities in the civil rights struggle in Monroe, NC during
the 1950s and early 1960s. They were both exiled with their two sons from 1961-69 in Cuba and
the People's Republic of China. She traveled internationally with Robert to such places as
Hanoi, Moscow and Tanzania. They returned to the US in 1969 and continued their struggle for
human and civil rights until Robert's passing in 1996. As a result of her lifelong commitment to
the human rights struggle, Mabel makes a unique contribution to this history. Mabel participated
in the creation of their newsletter - The Crusader, and the radio program - Radio Free Dixie,
which emanated from Cuba and could be heard throughout the South in the 60s. Mabel continues to
be actively engaged in her community and is promoting the legacy of Idlewild, Michigan, a Black
resort area was the only place where Blacks!
in the Midwest could go for family entertainment during the 1940s and 1950s during the
segregation era.

Kathleen Cleaver, a major voice in the Black liberation movements of the 1960s and 70s,
continues today, to speak out against racism, sexism and economic inequality. In 1966, Cleaver
fist became active in the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). From 1967 to 1971,
she was the Communications Secretary of the Black Panther Party and the first woman member of
its Central Committee. After sharing years of exile with her former husband Eldridge Cleaver,
she returned to the United States in late 1975. Since graduating from Yale Law School in 1987,
Cleaver has combined legal work, teaching and activism. She has taught at numerous universities
including Emory, Yale and Sara Lawrence. She served on the Georgia Supreme Court Commission on
Racial and Ethnic Bias in the Courts and became a Board Member of the Atlanta-based Southern
Center for Human Rights. She has been active in the campaigns to free death row prisoner Mumia
Abu-Jamal and former Panther Geronimo Pratt (rel!
eased in 1997). Her writings and essays have appeared in numerous magazines, books and
newspapers and her memoir, Memories of Love and War, is forthcoming from Random House.

ADDITIONAL CONTACTS ARE:
* Kali Acuno - Malcolm X Grassroots Movement 510-433-0115
* Greg Morozumi / Elena Serrano - EastSide Arts Alliance ­ 510-533-6629