History could pass for a scarlet text, its jot and title graven red in human blood.

In 1967 Eldridge Cleaver along with Marvin X Ed Bullins and Ethna Wyatt formed the Black House political/cultural center in San Francisco. In the aftermath of the ambush Cleaver was wounded and seventeen-year-old Black Panther member Bobby Hutton was killed. Around this time Cleaver discovered his wife had a lover who was subsequently murdered.

His book Soul On Ice is a collection of essays praised by The New York Times Book Review at the time of its publication as "brilliant and revealing". Cleaver and Newton eventually fell out with each other resulting in a split that weakened the Party.