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Photo by Reed Hutchinson UCLA
Photgraphic Services
A visit to a bookstore changed Scot Brown’s life.
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roots of kwanzaa
He brings funk, black history to the hill
BY LETISIA MÁRQUEZ
UCLA Today
As a faculty-in-residence living on the hill, Scot Brown brings
the funky sounds of Cameo, Bootsy Collins and P. Funk to UCLA’s
on-campus community of students.
Brown, an assistant professor of history and African-American
studies since 2001, helped organize the Funk Jones Jam Session last
spring in the residence halls and is gearing up for the next one.
“It’s a nice way to interact with students outside
of the hierarchy of campus,” said Brown, a bass guitarist.
“When you’re a musician, you’re just a musician.
It takes away from the whole teacher/student dynamic.”
But Brown manages to tap into that as well because he also shares
his knowledge of African-American history, organizing such residence
hall events as a recent discussion on the Black Power Movement and
student protest. In fact, his recently released book, “Fighting
for US,” brings the story of the US Organization, a California-based
black nationalist group, and black cultural nationalism, alive to
younger generations. Still active, US runs the African American
Cultural Center in South Los Angeles.
In his own youth, Brown was more into music than academics. He
played in a funk band in high school and set his sights on a musical
career. Although late-night gigs hurt his grades, he went to the
University of Rochester and steadily improved his GPA.
Brown eventually graduated and received a one-year fellowship
to teach English at the Université D’Haute Bretagne
in Rennes, France. Returning to Rochester, he was teaching high
school when his life took another unexpected turn.
While he was browsing through the Kitabu Kingdom bookstore, Brown
met owner Gerald Chaka, an ex-member of the US Organization, which
played a leading role in Black Power politics and culture during
the late ’60s and early ’70s. Led by Maulana Karenga,
the group started Kwanzaa, an Afrocentric holiday, along with many
other alternative ritual and cultural practices. Today, Kwanzaa
is celebrated by millions around the world.
When Chaka encouraged Brown to attend graduate school, Brown knew
just what he would study. “Chaka was living history, and yet
many people had not heard of US,” Brown said. “That
encouraged me to learn more about the organization.”
His research led him to look into a feud that erupted in 1969
between a few US members and the Black Panthers over who would become
director of UCLA’s Black Studies program. The conflict led
to a shooting that left two Black Panthers dead and one US member
wounded.
“A rivalry between the two groups was fueled by personality
clashes, ideological differences and provocations by FBI counterintelligence
measures,” Brown said.
Yet despite the organization’s problems, the professor said,
“US continues to have a profound impact on African-American
culture, especially given the popularity of Kwanzaa and various
uses of the group’s Afrocentric philosophy by a range of black
organizations and institutions.”
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