An Analysis of Eldridge Cleavers Soul on Ice

John Doe
B.A. American Studies (HF)
Email: s1134441@stud.uni-frankfurt.de
Matrikelnummer: 5421111

Amerikanische Geschichte und Gesellschaft I

WS 2013/14
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Simon Wendt

The primary source to be analyzed in this assignment is Eldridge Cleavers Soul on

Ice, a collection of autobiographical and fictional letters and essays that was first published in
1968. In this book, Cleaver reflects on his life as an African American man in America,
describes his experiences as an inmate in a Californian prison, and analyzes anti-black racism
in the United States. The source has to be analyzed against the backdrop of the civil rights
movementwhose nonviolent protests during the first half of the 1960s forced the U.S.
government to end legalized racial discriminationand the Black Power movement, which
argued that the black freedom struggle would have to go beyond civil rights legislation and
employ more militant tactics.
The author is Eldridge Cleaver, an African American who spent the late 1950s and
first half of the 1960s in a Californian prison for raping a white woman. After his release in
1966, he became an activist and joined the militant Black Panther Party, which was one of the
most visible Black Power organizations during the late 1960s and early 1970s (Rucker 70607; Rout 185-86). Cleaver describes many things that he himself had experienced, especially
his life as a prisoner and the racism that blacks were confronted with in twentieth-century
America. Other essays such as The Allegory of the Black Eunuchs (Cleaver 145-62) are
fictional, but they appear to reflect the authors real-life experiences. Having grown up in a
racist environment, his book is an angry indictment of American racism, especially of the
efforts of white men to emasculate black men. The scholarly literature on this
interrelationship between racism and male identy indicates that Cleaver observed historical
realities that many African American men struggled with in the 1950s and 1960s (Wendt 54364).
Cleavers point of view reflects the experiences of a black working-class man who
grew up in the black ghetto and had little chance for advancement. He grew up in a poor
neighborhood in Los Angeles and turned to crime as a teenager. During his time as a prisoner,
he converted to the teachings of the black nationalist Nation of Islam (NOI). Malcolm X, the
NOIs most famous spokesman, became his idol, and he adopted Malcolms particular
message of black militant pride and nationalism that rejected black middle-class activists
focus on nonviolent protest (Joseph 52; Rucker 706-07; Rout 185-86). For that reason, he
embraced the idea that violence could be a legitimate way for black men to reclaim their
manhood, as is revealed in his analysis of the Watts Riot of 1965 (Cleaver 124-25). The book
also reveals his very sexist attitude toward women. He regards white and black women as
passive objects to be used in the power struggle with white men. Consequently, he interprets
his sexual abuse of white women as an insurrectionary act (Cleaver 26) that was meant as a
revenge for white mens attempts to oppress African American men. Such ideas about black
masculinity and the cathartic effect of violence were common among Black Power activists in
the late 1960s. So was the dichotomous view on the role of whites in the black freedom
struggle (Cheney 47-48). Despite his anger at white racists, however, Cleaver indicates that a
younger generation of white Americans might assist black activists in achieving full equality
(84).
It is not entirely clear whether Cleaver had an audience in mind when writing Soul on
Ice. It frequently reads like a diary, but it appears that he also wanted people to understand the
complexities of black oppression and to read about his ideas on how to end it. It can therefore
be surmised that he had a black audience in mind when writing the essays that are included in
the book. Finally, given the fact that Cleaver frequently addresses his difficult relation to
black women and ended his book with a letter from all Black Men to All Black Women,
(188) it could also be argued that he wrote sections of the book for these women.
According to Cleaver, the most important purpose of Soul on Ice was to to save
himself (27), which means that he wrote it to better understand his existence as a black man in
America and to be able to ultimately escape his feeling of inferiority. Although many of the
essays and letters have a private character, it is likely that he wrote them to allow others to

understand his anguish. In addressing black women, for instance, Cleaver sheds light on his
deeply felt sense of inadequacy in the face of white mens attempts to deny him his manhood.
In the concluding essay, for example, he writes: I want you to know that I feared to look into
your eyes because I knew I would find reflected there a merciless indictment of my impotence
and a compelling challenge to redeem my conquered manhood (Cleaver 189). While such
ideas are subjective and based on Cleavers personal experience, scholars have demonstrated
that many black men harbored similar feelings in the 1950s and 1960s (Wendt 543-64).
The books tone and language reflect Cleavers deeply felt anger at white supremacy.
Throughout the book, he lambasts white men and white women for their efforts to oppress
black people. Since he sees black men as being involved in a power struggle with white men,
he uses gendered language to denigrate these men. For example, Cleaver ridicules them as
effeminate weaklings who are envious of black mens strong bodies (167). Cleavers strong
language differs considerably from the language that civil rights activists such as Martin
Luther King used in the 1960s in their demands for full equality. Unlike Cleaver, they used a
more subdued language and criticized white people much more carefully (Kirk 183).
Soul on Ice is an enormously significant source because it helps us to better understand
the gendered dynamics of the African American freedom struggle after World War II.
Cleavers frequent allusions to and explicit discussions of black mens feeling of inferiority
vis--vis white men and black women reveal much about the importance of masculinity in the
emergence of the Black Power movement, which rejected Martin Luther Kings nonviolent
strategy and sought to re-affirm strong black manhood. Soul on Ice is one of the few sources
that provide unfiltered insights into the thinking of a central figure in the Black Power
movement. Ultimately, Soul on Ice became an important inspiration for a generation of
militant Black Power activists but also taught white Americans and international audiences
much about racist oppression in America.
Works Cited
Cheney, Charise L. Brothers Gonna Work It Out: Sexual Politics in the Golden Age of Rap
Nationalism. New York: New York UP, 2005. Print.
Cleaver, Eldridge. Soul on Ice. 1968. New York: Dell, 1992. Print.
Joseph, Peniel E. Waiting Til the Midnight Hour: A Narrative History of Black Power in
America. New York: Holt, 2006. Print.
Kirk, John A. Martin Luther King, Jr: Profiles in Power. Harlow, England: Pearson, 2005.
Print.
Rucker, Walter C. Cleaver, Eldridge. Encyclopedia of African American History. Ed. Leslie
L. Alexander and Walter C. Rucker. Vol. 3. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2010. Print.
Rout, Kay Kinsella. Cleaver, Leroy Eldridge. Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives:
The 1960s. Ed. William L ONeill and Kenneth T. Jackson. Vol. 1. New York: Scribners,
2003. Print.
Wendt, Simon. They Finally Found Out that We Really Are Men: Violence, Non-Violence
and Black Manhood in the Civil Rights Era. Gender & History 19.3 (2007): 543-564.
Print.