Illustration:Liu Xiangya/GT
This year's Black History Month (BHM) in the US also officially marks nine months to the US presidential elections. While black Americans celebrate a legacy of triumph over institutional and racial inequalities, election cycles highlight the US political elite's apathy toward black Americans who often feel neglected in the interim period before politicians return to court them for their votes come election season.
Black American civil rights campaigners past and present have expressed in no uncertain terms that the US has failed its black citizens, among other racial minorities in the country. More and more black voters have grown disillusioned with the two-party top-heavy political system, as certain factions in the country stoke flames of racial hate and enact policies that would further disenfranchise an already marginalized group.
Fears of such an eventuality were what inspired late 19th and early 20th century black American civil rights campaigners to seek an alternative political remedy to a national-backed problem that had failed black Americans for centuries.
Many turned to Pan-Africanism, collaborating with freedom fighters in Africa, and Afro intellectuals from the Caribbean and Europe.
Even more were inspired by Marxism, and worked to implement communist principles as a solution to inequalities they believed were caused by Western capitalism.
Historian, writer, and sociologist W.E.B Du Bois condemned Western capitalism. He and his wife Shirley Graham Du Bois journeyed to China numerous times, extolling the virtues of Chinese Communism in nation-building.
"Communism - the effort to give all men what they need and to ask of each the best they can contribute - this is the only way of human life," Du Bois said.
Lesser talked about but equally celebrated is Graham Du Bois, who carried on with her husband's work after his passing.
A celebrated writer in her own right, she cemented herself as a prominent figure among China's revolutionaries. Graham Du Bois' work in Ghana, for instance, had a profound influence on US civil rights pioneer Malcolm X, who Graham Du Bois considered to be an adopted son.
Malcolm's view of "whites as devils," was reoriented by Graham Du Bois' efforts in Ghana, where Malcolm was able to see people of all races working together toward a common goal. The experience fundamentally transformed Malcolm's theory in the US, which continues to influence new generations of people around the world to date.
As the US tightly clung onto its legacy of oppression of black Americans amid increased organizing and civil rights campaigns, Graham Du Bois found China's approach to social parity and inclusion particularly inspiring. She was fond of spending time with regular people, as it is noted in the book
Race Women: The Lives of Shirley Graham Du Bois written by her official biographer Gerald Horne.
In 1968, she accepted an appointment on the Permanent Bureau of Afro-Asian Writers based in Beijing, an organization dedicated to disseminating information inspired by Mao Zedong Thought among people of color around the world engaged in civil rights and independence movements, including in the US and Africa.
Graham Du Bois' efforts in connecting the struggles of black liberation and an international proletariat were given special mention by the People's Daily. The newspaper also recognized her as a member of the World Peace Council and the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship.
In an article reprinted by the People's Daily, she earnestly wrote: "Today, I have seen the People's Republic. I would like to announce to all the black sisters in the United States, West Indies, and Africa, that there is a new phenomenon in the world now that could inspire your heart and fill it with hopes."
Graham Du Bois' efforts in connecting the revolutionary struggle in China to that of African Americans in the US was celebrated in China.
With the facilitation of Liu Liangmo, Graham Du Bois' works, comprising several biographies of prominent African American figures like George Washington Carver, were translated and published in China along with an official translation of her husband's book
The Soul of Black Folk.
Upon W.E.B De Bois' death, Chairman Mao Zedong sent a letter of condolence to Graham De Bois, in which Mao described Du Bois as "a great man of our time" who would "forever remain in the memory of the Chinese people."
On one of the couple's visits to China, Du Bois, upon seeing a young woman in Wuhan, Hubei Province operating a large crane to move tons of metal, said: "The women of China are becoming free. They wear pants so that they can walk, climb and dig; and climb and dig they do. They are not dressed simply for sex indulgence or beauty parades."
Such examples inspired Graham Du Bois who, upon her return to the US, helped found the Freedomways journal, which was instrumental in the civil rights movement in the US.
Graham Du Bois has also contributed to the alignment of China with Mao's philosophy by producing the movie
Women of the New China in 1974.
Graham Du Bois' contributions to world peace during and after the Cold War era, her promotion of West-East ties through drawing parallels between struggles faced by racial and gender minorities in the US, those under colonial rule in Africa, and revolutionaries in the East all earned her a place among heroes in the Babaoshan Cemetery for Revolutionary Heroes in Beijing after her death.
As this year's BHM draws to a close, aptly celebrating African Americans and the Arts, figures like Graham Du Bois offer hope to the current generation of Black Americans.
Revolutionaries like the Du Bois took the road less travelled and effected lasting change in the world.
The author is an editor with the Global Times.
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