KWANZAA CELEBRATION UNDER WAY.Byline: Stacy Brown Daily News Staff Writer When Fred Jones This article is about the basketball player. For other people with the same name, see Fred Jones (disambiguation). Frederick (Fred) Terrell Jones (born March 11 1979) is an American professional basketball player who plays at the shooting guard position for learned about Kwanzaa for the first time in 1977, the idea of celebrating his African heritage filled him with a sense of pride. Jones was in Chicago attending a speech about the festival by its originator, Maulana Ron Karenga, a former professor at California State University Enrollment  , Long Beach. ``Kwanzaa meant that we had a heritage we could be proud of,'' Jones said. ``It meant black people could openly display a sense of pride about their culture.'' Jones was among hundreds of people who gathered at Leimert Park in Los Angeles on Thursday for the first day of Kwanzaa, a seven-day spiritual holiday in which African-Americans celebrate their ancestry. The ``Kwanzaa Gwaride Festival,'' which continues through Sunday, is sponsored by the Kwanzaa People of Color Noun 1. people of color - a race with skin pigmentation different from the white race (especially Blacks) people of colour, colour, color race - people who are believed to belong to the same genetic stock; "some biologists doubt that there are important and features entertainment, arts, crafts and such traditional foods as corn bread, black-eyed peas and collard greens Noun 1. collard greens - kale that has smooth leaves collards cole, kail, kale - coarse curly-leafed cabbage . Organizers expect one of the biggest turnouts ever during the celebration at Crenshaw cren·shaw also cran·shaw n. A variety of winter melon (Cucumis melo var. inodorus) having a greenish-yellow rind and sweet, usually salmon-pink flesh. [Origin unknown.] Boulevard and West Vernon Avenue. Kwanzaa, which does not represent or intend to take the place of to be substituted for. - Berkeley. See also: Place Christmas, was created by Karenga in 1966 following the Watts riots. The holiday is based on the theory that social revolutionary change for black America can be achieved by exposing African-Americans to their cultural heritage. Kwanzaa is centered around seven principles - unity, self-determination, collective work and responsibility, cooperative economics, purpose, creativity and faith - with particular emphasis on the unity of African-American families. The celebration features the lighting of red, black and green candles representing blood, black heritage and the motherland moth·er·land n. 1. One's native land. 2. The land of one's ancestors. 3. A country considered as the origin of something. . For Jones, a musician and loan service representative in Northridge, the occasion also means employment. His band, Abalaye African Dance Ensemble, will play in Leimert Park on Karamu Ya Imani, the last day of Kwanzaa, on Wednesday. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos Photo: (1) A group of drummers provides the beat for a dancing mascot at the start of Thursday's Kwanzaa festival in Los Angeles. (2) Kwanzaa king and queen Erwin Washington and his wife, Lula, prepare the candles. (3) Spectators cheer the king and queen during the Kwanzaa candle-lighting ceremony. Gus Ruelas/Daily News |
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