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Artist
Stephen Shames, born 1947
Sitter
Eldridge Cleaver, 1935 - 1998
Date
1968
Type
Photograph
Medium
Gelatin silver print
Dimensions
Image/Sheet: 13.8 × 12.3 cm (5 7/16 × 4 13/16")
Mat: 45.7 × 35.6cm (18 × 14")
Topic
Printed Material\Book
Exterior\Cityscape
Equipment\Sign
Costume\Dress Accessory\Eyeglasses\Sunglasses
Human Figures\Crowd
Costume\Outerwear\Coat\Jacket\Leather jacket
Eldridge Cleaver: Male
Eldridge Cleaver: Literature\Writer
Eldridge Cleaver: Education and Scholarship\Educator\Lecturer
Eldridge Cleaver: Society and Social Change\Reformer\Activist\Civil rights activist
Eldridge Cleaver: Religion and Spirituality\Founder\Church founder
Portrait
Credit Line
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution
Having grown up in poverty in the Watts section of Los Angeles, Eldridge Cleaver spent much of his early life serving time in jail for a number of offenses, including rape. By the mid-1960s, however, his gifts for articulating the grievances of African Americans had drawn him into the radical wing of the black civil rights movement. Soon he was a leading spokesperson for the militant Black Panthers, who advocated arming for self-defense against the white establishment.
His most significant contribution to the cause was a collection of fiery essays Soul on Ice, which became one of the most widely read statements of black anger in America after it was published in 1968. That same year, an armed confrontation with police drove Cleaver into exile, and after his return to the United States in 1975, his outlook grew increasingly more conservative.
Habiendo crecido en la pobreza, en el sector Watts de Los Ángeles, Eldridge Cleaver pasó buena parte de su juventud en la cárcel por diversidad de delitos, incluso violación sexual. Sin embargo, hacia mediados de los años sesenta ya se distinguía por sus dotes para articular los reclamos de los afroamericanos y se había incorporado al ala radical del movimiento de los derechos civiles. Pronto se convirtió en un destacado portavoz de los militantes Panteras Negras, quienes abogaban por la autode- fensa armada contra la clase dirigente blanca.
Su aportación más significativa a la causa fue un conjunto de fogosos ensayos publicado en 1968, Soul on Ice, que se convirtió en una de las más leídas expresiones de la indignación del pueblo negro en Estados Unidos. Ese mismo año, a raíz de una con- frontación armada con la policía, Cleaver tuvo que exiliarse, y al regresar al país en 1975 sus puntos de vista se fueron haciendo más conservadores.
