3. Strain, Christopher Barry. “Civil Rights and ... - Freedom Archives

"anti-American diatribes of the rankest kind ." r
After three years, Williams left Cuba for China. He had had his differences with
the Communist Party in Cuba, which maintained that the race problem in the United
States was strictly a class issue, and that once the class problem had been solved through
a socialist administration, racism would be abolished . For these reasons, Cuban officials
could not fully embrace black nationalism, which centered race rather than class .
Believing racism encompassed "more than just a class struggle;' Williams left Cuba on
relatively sour terms with government officials therc .2s
He traveled extensively in the People's Republic of China in 1964. He met with
China's top-ranking officials (including Chairman Mao Tse-Tung), and studied Chinese
economic development. Though he claimed no political affiliation, his enemies in the
United States would associate him with communism in an attempt to tarnish his
reputation further. One article in the New York Times emphasized the "lessons of
discipline, commitment, and `true militancy' he had learned in China." According to the
article, he apparently "expressed much admiration for China's `cultural revolution'."~°
n "Moment of Truth for Williams?," The Charlotte Observer (February 2, 1%S) ;
"Articles Concerning Williams, 1%S" Folder, Box 4, Bentley Collection .
28Williams, "The Black Scholar Interviews : Robert F. Williams," The Black Scholar 1
(May L970) : 7, S.
See "Inside China : The Odyssey of Robert Williams," Muhammad Sp,~ (June S,
1964) : 11-15; see also William Worthy, "The Red Chinese American Negro,"
(October 1964) : 132 ff.
~I'homas A. Johnson, "Militant Hopeful On Racial Justice," New York Times
(September 1S, 1%9) : 67 .
213