Eldridge Cleaver

Eldridge Cleaver in 1968

Eldridge Cleaver (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an author, and a prominent American civil rights leader and activist, beginning as prominent member of the Black Panther Party.

Born in Wabbaseka, Arkansas, Cleaver's family moved to Phoenix and then to Los Angeles. As a teenager he became involved in petty crime, and in 1957 was convicted of assault with intent to murder. While in prison, he wrote a book of essays, Soul on Ice, which was influential in the black power movement and is now considered a classic by many people. In the book, Cleaver infamously acknowledges raping several white women, which he defended as "an insurrectionary act." He also admitted that he began his career as a rapist by "practicing on black girls in the ghetto." He maintains that his criminal actions have nothing to do with the views expressed in the book. Cleaver was released from prison in 1966, after which he joined the Oakland-based Black Panther Party and served as its Minister of Information (spokesperson).

He was a candidate for President in 1968 on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party. That same year, he was injured in a conflict between the Panthers and Oakland police. Charged with attempted murder, he jumped bail to flee to Algeria – where he was joined by Timothy Leary. Cleaver placed Leary under "revolutionary arrest" (kidnapped) as a counter-revolutionary, although Leary was later released. Cleaver later left Algeria, and spent time in both Cuba and France.

In 1975, Cleaver modeled anatomically fitted men's pants he designed featuring a "Cleaver sleeve" which was a penis sheath that was basically a sock protruding from the front of a pair of pants (see "Eldridge Cleaver Models his hot new pants" in Rolling Stone issue 197 dated October 9, 1975). The sleeve accommodated free movement and size changes of the enclosed male organ.

Soul on Fire

In his 1978 book Soul on Fire Cleaver revealed several surprising aspects of his exile in Algeria:

• Cleaver was supported by regular stipends from the Republic of North Vietnam, with which the USA was then at war.
• Cleaver was followed by other former-criminals-turned-revolutionaries, many of whom hijacked planes to get to Algeria. The Algerians expected Cleaver to keep his proteges in line, which he described as becoming increasingly difficult, as their increasing number stretched his North Vietnamese allowance to the breaking point. Cleaver organized a stolen car ring to employ his revolutionary proteges. They would steal cars in Europe, and sell them in Africa.
• Cleaver fled Algeria out of fear for his life. He could no longer control his proteges. Additionally, the Algerian police were cracking down on them. There had been gun battles. He abandoned his proteges and went to live underground in France.
• Cleaver experienced a Christian rebirth – became "born again" during his year of isolation, while living underground.

Return to America

Cleaver returned to the United States in 1975, and subsequently renounced the Black Panthers. After facing the subsequent legal process regarding his past crimes, he was sentenced to probation for assault.

In the early 1980s, Cleaver became interested in religion. After several public appearances with evangelicals, including Pat Robertson and Robert Schuller, he became disillusioned with the commercial nature of evangelical Christianity. After a brief brush with Sun Myung Moon's campus ministry organization CARP, Cleaver made his choice and was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints remaining a member until his death.

Politically, Cleaver became a conservative Republican, endorsing Ronald Reagan for President in 1980. In 1986 he embarked on a GOP campaign to win one of California's seats in the United States Senate. (He failed to win his party's nomination.)

Later in the 1980s, Cleaver became addicted to crack cocaine. In 1992 he was convicted of cocaine possession and burglary. In 1994, after nearly dying in a cocaine-related assault, overcame his addiction. He became involved in fighting addictions with healthy nutrition.

Death

Cleaver died of prostate cancer in Pomona, California in 1998 at the age of 62. He is interred at the Mountain View Cemetery, Altadena, California. and is survived by his daughter, Joju Younghi Cleaver, and son Macio Cleaver.

Quotes

• "All the gods are dead except the god of war."

• "History could pass for a scarlet text, its jot and title graven red in human blood."

• "I feel that I am a citizen of the American dream and that the revolutionary struggle of which I am a part is a struggle against the American nightmare."

• "I have taken an oath in my heart to oppose communism until the day I die."

• "If a man like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, if I myself and other former Muslims can change, if young whites can change, then there is hope for America."

• "In prison, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all."

• "Respect commands itself and can neither be given nor withheld when it is due."

• "The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less."

• "There is no calamity which a great nation can invite which equals that which follows a supine submission to wrong and injustice and the consequent loss of national self-respect and honor, beneath which are shielded and defended a people's safety and greatness."

• "You don't have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman."

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. Delta (January 12, 1999). ISBN 978-0385333795

• ________________. "Soul on Fire." Hodder & Stoughton General Division (March 1, 1979). ISBN 978-0340228647

• ________________. Target Zero: A Life in Writing. Palgrave Macmillan (January 9, 2007). ISBN 978-1403976574

• Oliver, John A. Eldridge Cleaver Reborn. Logos International (1977). ISBN 978-0882702339

External links

• CNN Obituary
• PBS Frontline Interview with Eldridge Cleaver
• Reason Magazine Interview with Eldridge Cleaver

Credits

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