The US organization

Historical Context Essay

Rafael Torrubia (University of St Andrews)

Ed. by A Yemisi Jimoh, University of Massachusetts Amherst
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.5: African American Writing and Culture of the United States.
Vol. editors: Philathia Bolton (University of Akron), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), A Yemisi Jimoh (University of Massachusetts Amherst), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University)

Domains

Organisations and institutions (political)

Dates

Date of occurrence 1965-1971

Places

United States (Location)

Cultural Identities

African American

During the late sixties, militant protestors expressed the burgeoning black power ethos in a multitude of forms. In Autumn 1965, seven young African-Americans — Samuel Carr-Damu (Ngao Damu), Tommy Jacquette-Mfikiri (Halifu), Hakim Jamal, Brenda Haiba Karenga, Maulana Karenga, Karl Key-Hekima, Ken Seaton-Msemaji and Sanamu Nyeusi — founded a new organisation on the basis on nationalist cultural principles. Using the mass media access increasingly available to radical dissidents, the small West Coast group known as ‘US’ became a central force in an expanding, autonomous national movement, occupying a unique place amongst the umbrella organisations of black power politics.

According to Maulana Karenga, who rapidly became the …

Please log in to consult the article in its entirety. If you are a member (student of staff) of a subscribing institution (see List), you should be able to access the LE on campus directly (without the need to log in), and off-campus either via the institutional log in we offer, or via your institution's remote access facilities, or by creating a personal user account with your institutional email address. If you are not a member of a subscribing institution, you will need to purchase a personal subscription. For more information on how to subscribe as an individual user, please see under Individual Subcriptions.

1504 words

Citation: Torrubia, Rafael. "The US organization". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 February 2012 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=19316, accessed 21 November 2024.]

Save this article