‘He Still Has the Fire’

People die, some too soon, some not soon enough, and a newspaper tries to do them a kind of deadline justice, crafting obituaries with an eye to history. It is no small art to write authoritatively about someone you never met.

But Eldridge Cleaver, the Black Panther gone gray, had sat across the table from me at a Thai restaurant a few weeks ago.

Since he died last Friday, the left and the right have both claimed him and stiff-armed him, depending on which Cleaver was in play. That he was subtler and smarter than his cartooned selves is why I wrote about him for this Sunday’s Times magazine. That he would die so soon, at 62, was beyond expectation.

I listen to the tape again, and I hear anew Cleaver and his young friend Roger--a shadow conversation that now sounds like an eternal exchange between a man’s young self and his old one.

*

Eldridge: “That’s why I say we need a coup d’etat . . . . [Black politicians] are just American politicians in blackface. They’re like all the other politicians, they’re just [as] corrupt. . . . The only thing I ever quote Jesse Jackson on -- “

Roger: “Oh, God.”

Eldridge: “ -- is that in America, we have one political party, but it has two names.”

Roger: “Malcolm [X] said that . . . there has to be a black on black revolution . . . [against] the black puppets who will basically go out and say exactly what white people want to hear. . . . Until black people put these people in check, kill ‘em.”

Eldridge: “Like the judge says to the jury, strike that. . . . I’m not talking about killing anybody, so when you transcribe the tape, make sure you distinguish our voices.”

*

Eldridge: “Some people say I’ve softened up. . . . That’s not part of my MO, to be scared to do something. Because if I thought it needs to be done, I’d do it.”

Roger: “What I’m saying, I think a lot of young people are really angry, and they saw that [Cleaver] got to express some of his anger through violence. . . . I’m not saying they’re gonna do it, but they want somebody to legitimize . . . “

Eldridge: “But I discourage that, because it’s vigilantism.”

Roger: “But it wasn’t for you?”

Eldridge: “It is for anybody, it always is, and --”

Roger: “Even Uncle Ho?”

Eldridge: “Uncle who?”

Roger: “Uncle Ho. Ho Chi Minh.”

Eldridge: “There’s a difference between when you systematically go about a revolutionary process, or getting mad at somebody and going out and getting them. . . . Most of the violence we hear is not people who have a political program, they’re just taking matters into their own hands. . . .”

*

Roger: “Why don’t young black people wear Martin Luther King T-shirts? Why do they wear Malcolm X T-shirts instead?”

Eldridge: “There’s lots of people wearing Martin Luther King shirts.”

Roger: “Oh, no. You don’t ever see no young black men with a baseball hat or anything.”

Eldridge: “Martin Luther King is an authentic hero. . . . “

*

Roger: “The only reason he acts the way he does is because of his financial situation. . . . The black segment of society, they can’t afford to pay him $500 for a speech. . . . The only people who are giving him money are like police departments and others who love to have him there, broken down. . . . But he still has the fire. . . . “

(Cleaver returns from the rest room.)

Roger: “I was just telling her that if you were a multi-billionaire, you would give me some money to get some guns to take care of these black sellouts parading around . . . the same way Kadafi wanted to give you a million dollars to help you with your cause.”

Eldridge: “I wouldn’t have to be a billionaire to get some guns, but I am against that, I’m not interested in that, and that’s not part of this conversation and --”

Roger: “I think black people are --”

Eldridge: “We don’t care what you think, you’re not being interviewed.”

Roger (to me): “I didn’t mean to spoil your interview, but he’s just pissed off because he inspired a whole bunch of people, and now he’s gonna leave us hanging.”

*

Eldridge: “I know I’m dealing with my legacy. I want to leave behind the truth of my experience. . . . It’s not about getting applauded by the crowds. Even if I get booed, and I sometimes do, I have to get my point across. I don’t water it down, I can’t be bought off and I can’t be scared off. . . . Young people, they want to be rubber-stamped, authenticated, justified. If I don’t feel that is best for them, I would be unworthy to do that. . . .

“If they get mad at me, wanna kill me? Get in line.”

Patt Morrison’s column appears on Wednesdays. Her e-mail address is patt.morrison@latimes.com