Gloria Naylor
American writer
Eldridge Cleaver
American activist (1935-1998)
Eldridge Cleaver was an influential American writer and political activist who played a key role in the Black Panther Party. His essay collection ‘Soul on Ice’ was praised as ‘brilliant and revealing’, and he later became a prominent member of the Black Panthers before fleeing to exile and eventually returning to the US, where he joined various religious and political groups.
Table of Contents
About the Eldridge Cleaver
Leroy Eldridge Cleaverwas an American writer and political activist who became an early leader of the Black Panther Party.
In 1968, Cleaver wrote Soul on Ice, a collection of essays that, at the time of its publication, was praised by The New York Times Book Review as “brilliant and revealing”. Cleaver stated in Soul on Ice: “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.”
Cleaver went on to become a prominent member of the Black Panthers, having the titles Minister of Information and Head of the International Section of the Panthers, while a fugitive from the United States criminal justice system in Cuba and Algeria. Cleaver was convicted of a series of crimes including burglary, assault, rape, and attempted murder and eventually served time in Folsom and San Quentin prisons until being released on parole in 1968. In 1968 he became a fugitive after leading an ambush on Oakland police officers, during which two officers were wounded. Cleaver was wounded during the clash and Black Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed. As editor of the official Panthers’ newspaper, The Black Panther, Cleaver’s influence on the direction of the party was rivaled only by founders Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale. Cleaver and Newton eventually fell out with each other, resulting in a split that weakened the party.
After spending seven years in exile in Cuba, Algeria, and France, Cleaver returned to the U.S. in 1975, where he became involved in various religious groupsbefore joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as becoming a conservative Republican, appearing at Republican events.
Frequently Asked Questions
Eldridge Cleaver was an American writer and political activist who was an early leader of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s.
Eldridge Cleaver wrote ‘Soul on Ice’, a collection of essays that was praised by The New York Times Book Review as ‘brilliant and revealing’ at the time of its publication.
Eldridge Cleaver stated in ‘Soul on Ice’ that if people like Malcolm X could change and repudiate racism, then there was hope for America to overcome its racist attitudes.
Eldridge Cleaver became a prominent member of the Black Panthers, serving as the Minister of Information and Head of the International Section, while also being a fugitive from the US criminal justice system.
Eldridge Cleaver spent seven years in exile in Cuba, Algeria, and France before returning to the US in 1975, where he became involved in various religious and political groups.
After returning to the US, Eldridge Cleaver joined the Unification Church, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and became a conservative Republican, appearing at Republican events.
Eldridge Cleaver and Huey P. Newton, co-founders of the Black Panther Party, eventually fell out with each other, resulting in a split that weakened the party.
14 Quotes by Eldridge Cleaver
- 1.
I have taken an oath in my heart to oppose communism until the day I die.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 2.
Too much agreement kills a chat.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 3.
The Twist was a guided missile launched from the ghetto into the heart of suburbia. The Twist succeeded, as politics, religion and law could never do, in writing in the heart and soul what the Supreme Court could only write on the books.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 4.
What America demands in her black champions is a brilliant, powerful body and a dull, bestial mind.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 5.
The price of hating other human beings is loving oneself less.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 6.
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.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 7.
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.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 8.
History could pass for a scarlet text, its jot and title graven red in human blood.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 9.
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.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 10.
Respect commands itself and can neither be given nor withheld when it is due.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 11.
You don’t have to teach people how to be human. You have to teach them how to stop being inhuman.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 12.
All the gods are dead except the god of war.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 13.
You’re either part of the solution or you’re part of the problem.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)
- 14.
In prison, those things withheld from and denied to the prisoner become precisely what he wants most of all.
Eldridge CleaverAmerican activist (1935-1998)