December 21, 2022

Kwanzaa's brush with discontent

Atlantans in 1970s wrote off holiday as "hoax"

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By Hanna Raskin
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By Hanna Raskin

On December 21, 1978, the Louisville Defender ran a full-page story titled “The Feast of: Kwanzaa!,” outlining how celebrants could put together a New Year’s Eve Karamu feast, complete with fruit displays, poetry recitations, and pledges for the year ahead.

But Charles A. Dugger’s story wasn’t a mere how-to guide. His column also appeared in the New Pittsburgh Courier, the Chicago Defender, the Michigan Chronicle, and the Afro-American in Baltimore, among other Black newspapers.

 
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