On this day in 1971, Founder Huey P. Newton and chairwoman Elaine Brown of the Black Panther Party (BPP) embarked on a historic delegation to revolutionary China, invited by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Black revolutionaries saw Mao Zedong’s China as a beacon of socialism at a time when the Soviet Union was rolling out capitalist reforms.

The Black Panther leaders toured the country during the tumultuous Cultural Revolution. Their journey included a meeting with China’s first premier, Zhou Enlai, to discuss the CCP’s support for Black American revolutionaries. Newton later revealed that he had been offered political asylum because he had been politically persecuted, had been released from prison on bail, and was facing a third trial upon his return. “But,” he wrote, “I told them I had to return, that my struggle is in the United States of America.”

With Mao openly demanding the complete emancipation of Black people and China’s material support for African liberation struggles, Chinese Communists already had a rich history of support for Black revolutionaries worldwide. In this way, the BPP became one of the first and most important organizations to synthesize Mao’s ideas internationally. Huey Newton and Elaine Brown’s journey to China highlighted the power of solidarity among revolutionary forces.

Source: @redstreamnet YouTube channel