#TBT: The First Kwanzaa

 

     President Lyndon B. Johnson's administration was the most productive in terms of civil rights in U.S. history. He signed the Civil Rights Acts of 1964, 1965, and 1968, which banned discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and, later, age and disability status, in education, employment, transportation, housing, and voting. He appointed the first African-American cabinet member; Robert C. Weaver; the first African-American ambassador, Patricia Roberts Harris; and the first African-American Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia that bans on interracial marriage were illegal, a day celebrated for 54 years since as Loving Day. 

     Therefore, it comes as no surprise that the first Kwanzaa would also be celebrated during this time. The first celebration occurred in 1966, from December 26th of that year until January 1st, 1967, the span of a week it has been held every year since. Kwanzaa, few know, is not an African holiday, but a celebration of African-American culture. With the Pan-African colors of black, green, and red as an indicator, it celebrates the principles of unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity, and faith. Symbols of Kwanzaa include the seven-candle holder, called a kinara, and the mishumaa saba, or the candles themselves. 

     Approximately two percent of Americans, or nearly seven million people, celebrate Kwanzaa each year, and this year's Kwanzaa is certainly a special one!