A black activist and early member of the Black Panther Party, Eldridge Cleaver is still celebrated for his influence on the “black is beautiful” movement and his emphasis on black empowerment and self-defense. However, Cleaver is still a highly controversial figure in black history, in part because he was known to have raped many women, and in part because after the 1970s he gravitated toward the Republican Party, displeasing many of his left-wing allies.