West Cook News

Illinois Senate President Don Harmon (D-Oak Park) and Illinois Speaker of the House Emanuel "Chris" Welch (D-Hillside) both this week marked “Kwanzaa,” which was created in 1966 by a man convicted of torturing two women.

"Warmest thoughts and wishes to all those celebrating #Kwanzaa," Harmon posted on Facebook. "In the spirit of the season, let us reflect on the blessings of the past year and commit to building a brighter future for all of our children."

"On this first day of Kwanzaa, let's reflect on Umoja, the principle of unity. Together, we are stronger. Happy #Kwanzaa!" posted Welch.

Kwanzaa was created in 1966 by Ronald McKinley Everett, also known as “Dr. Maulana 'Ron' Karenga,” who is currently a professor of Africana Studies at California State University, Long Beach.

Everett co-founded the organization US, which stood for “United Slaves,” in 1965.

In 1971, he was convicted of the assault and false imprisonment of two women who were members of the organization. 

Deborah Jones, one of the women, testified that “she and Gail Davis were whipped with an electrical cord and beaten with a karate baton after being ordered to remove their clothes and “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,” reported the Los Angeles Times.

Jones also said that Everett “put detergent and running hoses in their mouths” and hit them on the heads with toasters. 

Everett, who created Kwanzaa to begin the day after Christmas and run through New Year’s Day, wrote in his book, “The Quotable Karenga,” that “Christianity is a white religion.” 

“It has a white God, and any ‘Negro’ who believes in it is a sick ‘Negro,’” he wrote. “How can you pray to a white man? If you believe in him, no wonder you catch so much hell.”

The late Bruce A. Dixon, then-managing editor of Black Agenda Report, wrote in Jacobin magazine that, “Karenga’s US organization murdered two leading members of the Black Panther Party in Los Angeles, Alprentice 'Bunchy' Carter and John Huggins, and two more in San Diego, Sylvester Bell and John Savage.” 

In a Dec. 2019 syndicated column, Ann Coulter said “Karenga” was a “black radical/FBI stooge” and wrote that “during the madness of the ‘60s, the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left.” 

“But the left has forgotten the FBI’s tacit encouragement of this murderous black nationalist cult founded by the father of Kwanzaa,” wrote Coulter. 

The FBI released its 43-page file on Everett in response to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request from the website, governmentattic.org. 

The FBI said US was "a small but dangerous black nationalist extremist group under the direction of 26-year-old, highly educated American Negro, Ronald McKinley Everett," whom the FBI said was known as "The Blackest Panther" and "a dangerous man." 

Everett “is dangerous because he is a vocal part of a larger conspiracy striving through the deception of a fraternity of blackness to divide this house against itself," said the FBI report.