8 Quotes & Sayings By Eldridge Cleaver

Eldridge Cleaver was an American writer, political activist, and convicted felon. He spent seven years in prison for robbery before becoming a member of the Black Panther Party. He also was a writer for Ramparts magazine. In 1967, he published Soul on Ice: Confessions of a Black Panther Read more

The book was later adapted into a documentary film and a television series about the Black Panther Party. Cleaver was born in 1945 and raised in Oakland, California. At age 19 he was expelled from high school for his involvement in a murder and received his GED while serving time in prison.

After receiving his GED, Cleaver went to Los Angeles to study at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He became involved with the Black Panthers and attended their weekly meeting where he joined the party's chapter at UCR. In particular, he participated in armed robberies of gas companies and other businesses to raise funds for the organization.

He was arrested in 1968 and sentenced to five years in prison; he served seven years, including four months at Pelican Bay State Prison and one month in Vacaville State Prison Medical Facility (Vacaville), where he received psychotherapy treatment for his homosexuality.

1
Too much agreement kills a chat. Eldridge Cleaver
2
Ah, what sights and sounds and pain lie beneath that mist. And we had thought that our hard climb out of that cruel valley led to some cool, green and peaceful, sunlit place---but it's all jungle here, a wild and savage wilderness that's overrun with ruins. But put on your crown, my Queen, and we will build a New City on these ruins. Eldridge Cleaver
3
Respect commands itself and can neither be given nor withheld when it is due. Eldridge Cleaver
4
All the gods are dead except the god of war. Eldridge Cleaver
5
You're either part of the solution or you're part of the problem. Eldridge Cleaver
6
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 Cleaver
7
History could pass for a scarlet text, its jot and title graven red in human blood. Eldridge Cleaver