Norwich — While some children first learn African-American history in school, LaShawn Cunningham wants her kids to first learn about it at home.

So on Saturday, Cunningham, 32, brought her three sons — Zahir, 5, Rusean, 7 and Jasiyah, 12 — to the United Congregational Church, where a small gathering marked the sixth night of the weeklong celebration of Kwanzaa.

This year is the 50th anniversary of the holiday, which was created in 1966 by Maulana Karenga, professor of Africana studies at California State University, Long Beach, to foster unity among African-Americans.

At Saturday's event, put on by Universalist Church of Norwich, the focus was on creativity, the sixth of Kwanzaa's seven principles. Revelers took in poetry, drumming and dancing, performed by Cunningham to music by a South African choir. It was her first time attending a Kwanzaa celebration, and she said she hoped next year's event will draw a bigger crowd.

Dianne Daniels, the new president of the Norwich NAACP branch, her husband, Aaron Daniels, and Lottie Scott led Saturday's celebration, reciting blessings and lighting six of the seven candles on the kinara.

Roberta Vincent, a longtime Norwich resident who now lives in New London, doesn't celebrate Kwanzaa at home but tries to support "all the different ways people celebrate the holidays."

Kwanzaa, with its seven principles, is a good way to teach children what the holidays are all about, Vincent said.

Former longtime Norwich NAACP President Jacqueline Owens said the week is a time for reflection, during which she thinks about what she could do better and the ways she could enrich the lives of others.

Rosetta Jones gave a presentation on a 10-day trip to the South, inspired by the civil rights activists known as the Freedom Riders. She spoke about a stop at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., where Dylann Roof, now a 22-year-old white male, killed nine black worshippers in June 2015.

In giving the final blessing, Daniels, the NAACP president, noted Kwanzaa's celebration of the past and present, and of looking forward to the future.

j.bergman@theday.com