US Organization

US Organization, or Organization Us, is a Black nationalist group in the United States founded in 1965. It was established as a community organization by Hakim Jamal together with Maulana Karenga. It was a complementary organization of the Black Panther Party in California. One of the early slogans was, "Anywhere we are US is." "US" referred to "[us] black people" in opposition to their oppressors ("them").

Foundation (1965)

After the Watts Riots and the assassination of Malcolm X, Maulana Karenga and Hakim Jamal started a discussion group called the "circle of seven". Hakim Jamal, cousin of Malcolm X, created a magazine entitled "US". It was a pun on the phrase "us and them" and the standard abbreviation of "United States" and/or "United Slaves", referring to "Us Black People" as a nation.[1][2] This promoted the idea of black cultural unity as a distinct national identity.[3]

Jamal and Karenga founded the US Organization. They published a magazine Message to the Grassroot in 1966, in which Karenga was listed as chairman and Jamal as founder of the new group.[3]

Aims

Its aim was to promote African-American cultural unity. Haiba Karenga and Dorothy Jamal, the wives of the two founders, ran the organization's "US School of Afroamerican Culture", to educate children with the group's ideals. However, their husbands soon differed about how to achieve the group's aims. Jamal argued that the ideas of Malcolm X should be the main ideological model for the group, while Karenga wished to root black Americans in African culture.[3]

Karenga became the main active force in the group, organizing projects such as teaching Swahili and promoting traditional African rituals.[3] Jamal believed that these had no relevance to modern African-American life, so he left "US" to establish the rival Malcolm X Foundation, based in Compton, California. Karenga became the driving force behind "US."

Creation of Kwanzaa (1966)

Karenga's ideas culminated in the invention of the Kwanzaa festival in 1966, designed as the first specifically African-American holiday. It was to be celebrated over the Christmas/New Year period.[4] Karenga said his goal was to "give Blacks an alternative to the existing holiday and give Blacks an opportunity to celebrate themselves and history, rather than simply imitate the practice of the dominant society."[5]

The group's ideals are summed up in the seven principles: Unity (Umoja), Self-Determination (Kujichagulia), Collective Work and Responsibility (Ujima), Cooperative Economics (Ujamaa), Purpose (Nia), Creativity (Kuumba), and Faith (Imani).

For Karenga, a major figure in the Black Power movement of the 1960s and 1970s, the creation of the holiday also underscored an essential premise that "you must have a cultural revolution before the violent revolution. The cultural revolution gives identity, purpose and direction."[6][7]

Rivalry with the Black Panthers (1969)

The Black Panthers and US had different aims and tactics but often found themselves competing for potential recruits. The Federal Bureau of Investigation intensified this antipathy, sending forged letters to each group which purported to be from the other group, so that each would believe that the other was publicly humiliating them.[8] This rivalry came to a head in 1969, when the two groups supported different candidates to head the Afro-American Studies Center at the University of California, Los Angeles.[9]

Gun battle at UCLA

On January 17, 1969, a gun battle between the groups on the UCLA campus ended in the deaths of two Black Panthers: John Huggins and Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter. This led to a series of retaliatory shootings that lasted for months. Later in 1969, two other Black Panther members were killed and one other was wounded by US members.[9]

The Panthers referred to the US organization as the "United Slaves", a name never actually used by members of US but which is often mistaken for the group's official name.[10]

Conviction of Karenga (1971)

In 1971, Karenga, Louis Smith, and Luz Maria Tamayo were convicted of felony assault.

He was sentenced to 1-to-10 years in prison

Re-establishment (1971–present)

In 1971, the women of organization continued organizing while Karenga was imprisoned. After his release in 1975 Karenga re-established the organization under a new structure and operates it today.

References

  1. ↑ http://unitedblackamerica.com/black-history-maulana-karenga/
  2. ↑ Hayes, III, Floyd W.; Jeffries, Judson L., Black Power in the Belly of the Beast, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, pp. 74–75
  3. 1 2 3 4 Scott Brown, Fighting for US: Maulana Karenga, the US organization, and Black cultural nationalism, NYU Press, 2003, p. 38
  4. ↑ Alexander, Ron (1983-12-30). "The Evening Hours". New York Times". Retrieved 2006-12-15.
  5. ↑ Kwanzaa celebrates culture, principles Archived July 8, 2011, at the Wayback Machine.
  6. ↑ Mayes, Keith A. (2009). Kwanzaa: Black Power and the Making of the African-American Holiday Tradition. pp. 63–65. ISBN 978-0415998550. Retrieved December 27, 2015.
  7. ↑ "Kwanzaa – celebrates its 50th year anniversary". UnityFirst. Retrieved 31 December 2017.
  8. ↑ Gentry, Curt, J. Edgar Hoover: The Man and the Secrets. W. W. Norton & Company (2001) p. 622
  9. 1 2 Brown, Elaine. A Taste of Power: A Black Woman's Story. (New York: Doubleday, 1992) p. 184
  10. ↑ Floyd W. Hayes III and Judson L. Jeffries. "Us Does Not Stand for United Slaves!" in Black Power in the Belly of the Beast, edited by Judson L. Jeffries. (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2006) 74–75.
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