Makeda "Dread" Cheatom (born 1942) is an American entrepreneur and civil activist in San Diego's African-American community.
She is the founder of the WorldBeat Cultural Center in Balboa Park, creator of the Children’s EthnoBotany Peace Garden, and co-founder of Casa del Tunel in Tijuana, Mexico.
[2] As a restaurateur, Makeda founded Prophet International Vegetarian Restaurant (1971–1985), which was the first vegetarian restaurant in San Diego attracting luminaries such as George Harrison, Gloria Swanson, Dick Van Dyke, Dyan Cannon, and Dick Gregory.
[6] As a Cultural Ambassador, Makeda acknowledges that San Diego and Balboa Park are ancestral Kumeyaay Indian territory, and she states this at the beginning of programs run at the WorldBeat Center.
[9] The garden is home to two Multinational Peace Poles,[10] and is co-recipient of a four-year National Science Foundation grant with Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology to incorporate African American and Latino students.