Description:

Cleaver Eldridge 1935 - 1998 Black Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver autographed draft of "On Monogamy" speech

Three pages of draft notes scripted on two sheets, written in preparation for his speech title "On Monogamy,"Circa late 1970s / early 1980s, 5" x 7", boldly scripted in pen entirely in the hand of Eldridge Cleaver, first sheet manuscripted recto and verso, with page two manuscripted on recto leaving verso blank. Near fine with a small newspaper clip showing a title of 'Eldridge Cleaver Relates Personal Philosophies in speech to students" and accompanied by a near fine unused, envelope with the address label removed leaving residual adhesive , with the printed return address of "Cleaver for Congress ...", and embellished with a US flag, 9.5" x 4".


Scarce notes scripted entirely in the hand of Eldridge Cleaver. Cleaver is philosophizing on the significance of sexual relationships in the bigger scheme of social morals. His titled his draft "On Monogamy", is a somewhat ironic title for Cleaver considering both the issues surrounding his early life regarding his treatment of woman, and again equally odd considering he later became a member of the Mormon church. Although not formally "polygamous" Cleaver was certainly anything but "monogamous". But for whatever sexual orientation Cleaver may have personally grappled with, this issue certainly existed as a highly charged and underlying torrid river of emotion in his life. Eldridge even fashioned a men's clothing line of revival "virility pants" he called "the Cleavers", enthusing that they would give men "a chance to assert their masculinity". And by September 1978, he had incorporated Eldridge Cleaver Ltd, running a factory and West Hollywood shop exploiting his "Cleavers", which he claimed liberated men from "penis binding".

Below are his draft notes which he was preparing for a speech titled "On Monogamy":

"On Monogamy

At the bottom of the burning issue of our time is the question of the form of our sexual relationships. And this precisely a moral question. Monogamy, Polygamy, homosexuality / Lesbianism, birth control, abortion, genetic engineering, test tube babies.

When God touches upon your life you'll spend the rest of your life (illegible) that touch ...

On Monogamy / Circle of Brothers

We can solve all your problems . Bring your problems to us. There are no solvable problems which we can't solve. And we will help you petition God to solve the others."

One wants to take a step back and reflect how this comes from the same man who acknowledged committing acts of rape, stating that he initially raped black women in the ghetto "for practice" and then embarked on the serial rape of white women. He described these crimes as politically inspired, motivated by a genuine conviction that the rape of white women was "an insurrectionary act" and was quoted as saying:

"[W]hen I considered myself ready enough, I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey. I did this consciously, deliberately, willfully, methodically -- though looking back I see that I was in a frantic, wild and completely abandoned frame of mind. Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man's law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his women...I felt I was getting revenge. From the site of the act of rape, consternation spread outwardly in concentric circles. I wanted to send waves of consternation throughout the white race."

Eldridge Cleaver, 1968

No doubt one can certainly say that Eldridge Cleaver certainly took to heart his statement within this speech draft of "Many of the burning issues of our time is the question of the form of our sexual relationships" But for all the twists, turns, epiphanies and visions he had within his lifetime, the one thing Cleaver was NOT was philosophically stagnant. He was constantly questioning the status quo driven perhaps to the point of nervous breakdowns.

An incredible find for a collector of Eldridge Cleaver, and the Black Panther movement. While in prison, Cleaver writes a number of philosophical and political essays, including his infamous book "Soul on Ice" . Cleaver described his metamorphosis from rapist and drug-dealer to Malcolm X apostle to Marxist revolutionary, who became, virtually overnight, one of the leading exponents of "black liberation" in America, tracing his own development from a "supermasculine menial" to a radical black liberationist. His essays became highly influential in the black power movement and these draft notes in preparation of his speech later in his life show his incredible transition.

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