Reddit mentions of China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema (Pop Culture and Politics Asia PA)

Black audiences in the early 70's loved Bruce Lee. He was popular among white moviegoers too, but he was especially well-loved by young black moviegoers. He was a non-white leading actor, and like blaxploitation films, his kung fu movies were revenge fantasies where an outsider challenged the establishment.

The high box office returns of Hong Kong movies like Five Fingers of Death in black neighborhood cinemas was noted at the time. Kung fu films were so popular that grindhouse cinemas in these areas would often show a kung fu movie and a blaxploitation movie together as a double feature. It did not take long for the makers of blaxploitation films to realize that adding kung fu sequences into their films would be popular with their audiences.

In 1973 Warner Bros financed Bruce Lee's last film Enter The Dragon. Jim Kelly was cast in a supporting part. Kelly was a martial arts instructor who had trained several celebrities. He was also black, good looking, and a decent actor---he'd played a few small roles in action films before. The movie was hugely popular and helped propel the the Black Fu movie trend throughout the 70's, with Jim Kelly starring in several of them.


My source on this:

China Forever: The Shaw Brothers and Diasporic Cinema by Poshek Fu. This book is fascinating if you are into classic kung fu films at all. It is a series of essays written by different people: the essay called Black Audiences, Blaxploitation and Kung Fu Films, and Challenges to White Celluloid Masculinity specifically addresses your question.