In what was ultimately a foolish gambit, during the madness of the '60s, the FBI encouraged the most extreme black nationalist organizations in order to discredit and split the left. The more preposterous the group, the better. By that criterion, Karenga's United Slaves was perfect.

Despite modern perceptions that blend all the black activists of the '60s, the Black Panthers did not hate whites. Although some of their most high-profile leaders were drug dealers and murderers, they did not seek armed revolution.

Those were the precepts of Karenga's United Slaves. The United Slaves were proto-fascists, walking around in dashikis, gunning down Black Panthers and adopting invented "African" names.

And hasn't that been a huge help to the black community? The black man who assassinated two New York City cops last week went by the name "Ismaaiyl Abdullah-Muhammad," and the man who attempted to hatchet four NYPD officers to death in October had adopted the name "Zaim Farouq Abdul-Malik."

It's as if David Duke invented a holiday called "Anglika," which he based on the philosophy of "Mein Kampf"—and clueless public school teachers began celebrating the made-up, racist holiday.

Whether Karenga was a willing FBI dupe, or just a dupe, remains unclear.

In the category of the-gentleman-doth-protest-too-much, back in the '70s, Karenga was quick to criticize Nigerian newspapers that claimed that certain American black radicals were CIA operatives. Karenga publicly denounced the idea, saying, "Africans must stop generalizing about the loyalties and motives of Afro-Americans, including the widespread suspicion of black Americans being CIA agents."