ABSTRACT
In 1974, at the height of the Black Power movement and five years after Baraka’s announcement of the coming of Kwanzaa’s seven principles, a black cultural nationalist publication sent out a clarion call to African Americans around the country: “It’s time that we as Black People with Black families put down crazy cracker celebrations for something that is for us. Think about it: Easter, Thanksgiving, Passover, Chanukah, X-Mas, Columbus, George Washington, Independence Day, on and on … Zillions of white holidays and lily white
images-but nothing for us. Think about all of the negative effects of all these so-called holidays.”1
