When was Kwanzaa created?

Dr. Maulana Karenga created Kwanzaa in 1966 as the first African American holiday. He was born Ronald McKinley Everett on a poultry farm in Parsonsburg, Maryland on July 14, 1941. He would eventually change his name many years later.

Karengo is a professor and Chair of the Department of African Studies at California State University, Long Beach.