26 Facts About Maulana Karenga

Maulana Karenga was active in the Black Power movement of the 1960s, joining the Congress of Racial Equality and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee.

Maulana Karenga denied involvement and claimed the prosecution was political in nature.

Maulana Karenga was imprisoned in California Men's Colony until he received parole in 1975.

In 1966, Maulana Karenga notably created Kwanzaa, modeling the holiday after the African "first fruit" traditions.

However, Maulana Karenga later changed his opinion, stating that Kwanzaa was not meant to provide people with an alternative to "their own religion or religious holiday".

Maulana Karenga has been awarded two doctorates, one in Political Science in 1976 and one in Social Ethics in 1994.

Maulana Karenga was born in Parsonsburg, Maryland, the 14th child and seventh son in the family.

Maulana Karenga's father, Levi Everett, was a tenant farmer and Baptist minister who employed the family to work fields under an effective sharecropping arrangement.

Maulana Karenga moved to Los Angeles in 1959, joining his older brother who was a teacher there, and attended Los Angeles City College.

Maulana Karenga became active with civil rights organizations Congress of Racial Equality and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, took an interest in African studies, and was elected as LACC's first African-American student president.

The Watts riots broke out when Maulana Karenga was a year into his doctoral studies.

Maulana Karenga cited Malcolm X's Afro-American Unity program as an influence on US Organization's work:.

Maulana Karenga soon diverged from Malcolm X's ideas on Black nationalism and took US in a direction more focused on promoting African culture.

In 1966, Maulana Karenga founded the newspaper Harambee, which started as a newsletter for US and eventually became the newspaper for the Los Angeles Black Congress, an umbrella organization for several groups.

Maulana Karenga enjoyed a level of trust among figures in government, including LAPD Chief Thomas Reddin and California Governor Ronald Reagan.

Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 to be the first pan-African holiday.

In 1971, Maulana Karenga was sentenced to one to ten years in prison on counts of felony assault and false imprisonment.

Maulana Karenga testified that a hot soldering iron was placed in Miss Davis' mouth and placed against Miss Davis' face and that one of her own big toes was tightened in a vise.

Jones and Brenda Maulana Karenga testified that Maulana Karenga believed the women were conspiring to poison him, which Davis has attributed to a combination of ongoing police pressure and his own drug abuse.

Maulana Karenga denied any involvement in the torture, and argued that the prosecution was political in nature.

Maulana Karenga was imprisoned at the California Men's Colony, where he studied and wrote on feminism, Pan-Africanism, and other subjects.

Maulana Karenga has declined to discuss the convictions with reporters and does not mention them in biographical materials.

Maulana Karenga was awarded his first PhD in leadership and human behavior in 1976 from United States International University for a dissertation titled "Afro-American Nationalism: Social Strategy and Struggle for Community".

Maulana Karenga called on African-Americans to adopt his secular humanism and reject other practices as mythical.

Maulana Karenga is known for having co-hosted, in 1984, a conference that gave rise to the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations.

Maulana Karenga delivered a eulogy at the 2001 funeral service of New Black Panther Party leader Khalid Abdul Muhammad, praising him for his organizing activities and commitment to black empowerment.