Eldridge Cleaver

Eldridge Cleaver (1935-1998), writer and leader of the Black Panther Party (BPP) during the late 1960s and early 1970s. Cleaver was born in Arkansas, but his family moved to Los Angeles to find better opportunities and escape racism. Cleaver became a teenage delinquent, and during the 1950s he served prison terms for rape and for selling marijuana. During his imprisonment, Cleaver resolved to express his discontent through politics rather than crime. He also became interested in the writings of Malcolm X, a leader of the Black Muslims. He educated himself by reading about politics and history, and then wrote the essays that make up his memoir, Soul on Ice, which was published in 1968 and became a best-seller.

Shortly after being released from prison in 1966, Cleaver joined the Black Panther Party. He was arrested in the spring while accompanying Panthers protesting a gun-control law at the California state capitol in Sacramento. Cleaver became the party’s minister of information in October 1967, after Huey Newton, the cofounder of the Panthers, was arrested and charged with murdering a policeman. Cleaver gave numerous “Free Huey” speeches to attract support for Newton’s legal defense from other black militant groups and from white leftists. Cleaver also talked about an armed revolution by militant groups to overthrow the U.S. government. The “Free Huey” campaign succeeded in saving Newton from the death penalty but he was convicted of manslaughter.

In 1968 Cleaver fled the United States to avoid arrest by California authorities who wanted to return him to prison for various parole violations. He spent the next seven years exiled in Cuba, Algeria, and other countries. In 1971 Cleaver openly disagreed with Newton’s decision that the BPP should focus on community programs, such as free breakfasts for children and free medical clinics. Cleaver continued to call for a revolution to restructure society.

Cleaver returned to the United States in 1975 but did not resume militant political activity. He later announced that he had become a conservative and a born-again Christian, describing his political transformation in Soul on Fire (1978).