ELDRIDGE CLEAVER

'Eldridge Cleaver' (August 31, 1935 – May 1, 1998) was an author and a prominent American civil rights leader who began as a dominant 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 was 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 now widely considered a classic. In the book, Cleaver infamously acknowledges the rape of 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 felonious acts 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, serving as Minister of Information (spokesperson).
He was a Presidential candidate in 1968 on the ticket of the Peace and Freedom Party. That very year, he was injured in a confrontation 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 Cuba and France.

Contents

''Soul on Fire

Return to America

Quotes about Eldridge Cleaver

References

Musical references

External links

''Soul on Fire

In his 1978 book Soul on Fire^[1] Cleaver revealed several aspects of his exile in Algeria:

★ Cleaver was supported by regular stipends from the Democratic Republic of Vietnam, which the United States was then bombing.

★ 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 increasingly difficult as their increasing numbers stretched his North Vietnamese allowance to the breaking point. Cleaver organized a stolen car ring to employ his revolutionary proteges, stealing cars in Europe to sell in Africa.

★ Cleaver eventually fled Algeria out of fear for his life. He could no longer control his proteges and the Algerian police were cracking down on them. He subsequently lived underground for a time 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. Legal wrangling ended in his being sentenced to probation for assault.
In the early 1980s, Cleaver became disillusioned with what he saw as the commercial nature of mainstream evangelical Christianity and flirted with alternatives, including Sun Myung Moon's campus ministry organization CARP, and Mormonism. Cleaver was baptized into The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and remained a member until his death in 1998.
By the 1980s, Cleaver had become a conservative Republican after witnessing the stark realities of Socialism and Communism regimes in North Korea, Cuba and Algeria. He appeared at various Republican events and spoke at a California Republican State Central Committee meeting regarding his political transformation. He endorsed Ronald Reagan for President in 1980 and in 1986 embarked on an unsuccessful campaign to win one of California's seats in the United States Senate, failing to win the Republican 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, he kicked his addiction.
Sometime after kicking his addiction in 1994 and before his death in California in 1998, Cleaver lived in Miami and hosted a weekly radio talk show on "AM 14, Florida's Talk Leader" WFTL 1400 AM, a Miami/Ft. Lauderdale, FL talk-radio station. The show was popular.
He became involved in fighting addictions with healthy nutrition.
Cleaver died of prostate cancer in Pomona, California, in 1998, at age 62. He is interred in the Mountain View Cemetery, Altadena, California. He is survived by his daughter, Joju Younghi Cleaver, and son, Macio Cleaver.

Quotes about Eldridge Cleaver

"I thought Eldridge was the reincarnation of Malcolm X. I'd never heard such power, such eloquence." David Hilliard

References

1. Soul on Fire, , Eldridge, Cleaver, Word Books, ,

Musical references

Larry Norman wrote the song, "Soul On Fire" in 1978 (a political song about the religious claims of an ex-Black Panther.)best version, is from the Phydeauz Album, rough mix found on the album, "The Story Of The Tune," by Larry Norman.
American punk band Dead To Me quotes Cleaver in the liner notes of their 2006 debut album "Cuban Ballerina."
American Rapper Ras Kass named his debut album after Cleaver's classic work of essays Soul on Ice (book).
Soca artist KMC released an album entitled Soul on Fire in October 2005.
James "J.Y." Young mentions him during the track "Half Penny Two Penny" in the "Paradise Theatre" album. The song "Half Penny Two Penny" was an attack on the financial problems the US had in the late 1970s. In the song was the lyric; "Yes Mrs. Cleaver your son's home to stay" which was referring to Eldridge Cleaver (this was confirmed by James Young on In the Studio with Redbeard).
"Where Y'All At" by Wynton Marsalis mentions Eldridge in the second verse.

External links

★ CNN Obituary

★ PBS Frontline Interview with Eldridge Cleaver

★ Reason Magazine Interview with Eldridge Cleaver