Kwanzaa celebration includes KCK residents

by William Crum

Many Wyandotte County residents were volunteering at the Kwanzaa celebration tonight at the Gem Theater in Kansas City, Mo.

More than 250 people attended the annual event. Kwanzaa means “first fruits of the harvest.”

Kwanzaa was first started in Los Angeles in 1966; in Kansas City it was started 36 years ago by the National Black United Front.

One of the key figures in starting it was the late Rev. Nelson “Fuzzy” Thompson, from Kansas City, Kansas. Thompson was the director of the Martin Luther King Jr. Center in the 1970s. He also helped start the Martin Luther King Jr. celebration in Kansas City, Kansas.

Sunday night will be the finale of the Kwanzaa celebration in Kansas City, Mo., and will include the annual ball at the American Jazz Museum.