Two years ago, more than a decade after college, I was commissioned to write about the history of Kwanzaa. That’s when I learned that Karenga had been convicted of heinous felonies. Though he denied the allegations, in 1970 he and three other members of the US Organization, a black nationalist group based in Los Angeles, imprisoned and assaulted two female members. Trial testimony revealed that the women had been whipped with cords, beaten with batons, and seared with irons — while naked — in an effort to elicit confessions that they were conspiring against him. Those confessions never materialized. Karenga served a few years in prison and later went on to get his doctorate and teach.
Source: latimes.com – Los Angeles Times