Leroy Eldridge Cleaver was a member 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".
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 groups before joining the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, as well as becoming a conservative Republican, appearing at Republican events.
Head over to Ultrx Blxck's YouTube channel for more history videos like this one. You can also read transcripts right here.
"History is written by the winners," is a phrase that is often repeated. However, it's not true. More often than not the losers write history. What we're left with is a sterilized view of history that does a great disservice to us all. These retellings are often filled with outright lies such as a George Washington's wooden teeth or are told in a way that would make the average person view it as too complicated. I'm here because history doesn't need to complicated, but it needs to be told, and told truthfully.
The purpose of Ultra Black History is to look at history from a decolonized point of view and provide the world with that information.
You can Connect with Ultra Black History all across the web.
