More than 100 students and community members gathered Thursday to commemorate the lives of Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins, two UCLA students who were shot and killed in Campbell Hall on Jan. 17, 1969.
The Afrikan Student Union organized a series of events, including a march to Campbell Hall, speeches and workshops, to honor the two men.
Carter and Huggins, who were members of the Black Panther Party, were murdered after a meeting centered on the selection of a chair for what was then the black studies department at UCLA.
Just before noon on Thursday, ASU Chair Christina Walter addressed the assembled crowd of about 50 in Bruin Plaza. She spoke briefly about how students do not often stop to think that others have paid something for them to be able to be on campus.
“I want us to treat today … like somebody died for us to be here. Because the truth is, somebody did,” Walter said.
After Mohammad Tajsar, the external affairs director of the Muslim Student Association, spoke about how he was inspired to become involved on campus after hearing the story of Carter and Huggins, the crowd began marching up Bruin Walk toward Campbell Hall.
The events of the day returned several times to the theme “Educate to liberate,” a slogan originally created by John Huggins, according to his widow, Ericka Huggins.
After the marchers arrived in front of Campbell, Huggins was introduced by ASU Programming Coordinator Kendra Arsenault. Huggins spoke about the importance of personal revolution and empowerment, as well as emphasized the need for collective action.
Ericka Huggins called the deaths of Carter and her husband the product of a “very powerful system in place that didn’t like the descendants of slaves … saying “˜no’ to capitalism.”
She said of the Panthers, “We never said, “˜All power to some people.’ We said, “˜All power to all people.'” A few minutes later, the growing crowd loudly chanted this phrase with her.
In her speech and in workshops later that day, Huggins repeatedly stressed that young people have the power to enact change and urged them to do so. Huggins said that at the time of their deaths, John Huggins and Carter were 26 and 23. She was 20 at the time, and the only reason she was not on campus on the day of the shooting, she said, was because she was at home with her three-week old infant.
“We didn’t stop for anything,” she said, explaining that the Panthers worked to help the impoverished and incarcerated and address the problems they saw in society in any way possible.
The crowd swelled to more than 100 by the time Elaine Brown, the only woman ever to have led the Black Panther Party, addressed the marchers and assorted passersby who had joined the audience.
Brown, along with Carter and John Huggins, was a student at UCLA during the pilot year of the High Potential Program, which sought to identify black students who could succeed on campus but had not met traditional enrollment requirements, such as minimum GPAs.
After thanking Arsenault for having taken up the cause of memorializing Carter and Huggins ““ Arsenault contacted Brown over the summer and also arranged for her to speak on campus last November ““ Brown described a history of oppression of black people in the United States, which she said has continued “from 1865, the so-called end of slavery in America.”
According to Brown, one of the main goals for the Panthers during the ’60s was to stop police brutality, “the first line of oppression.” She said the Panthers did not simply dress in leather and pose for photographs but were out on the streets trying to improve society.
“Actions are supreme,” Brown said. “Words are beautiful, but actions are supreme.”
Like Huggins, Brown also emphasized that the Black Panthers were interested in the liberation of all people, whatever their skin color.
“Our goal was to educate to liberate, not just ourselves, but everyone,” Brown said. She added that the blood of Carter and Huggins still stains Campbell Hall and that the only way to cleanse it is for the students to stand up and act.
The events following the speeches reinforced the goals of the speakers and the ASU. The Academic Advancement Program, an event cosponsor, had several tables of counselors available to speak to students during the lunch break.
Following the lunch was a speech by Husseyn Bey, the founder of Building Communities and Families, another cosponsor of the commemoration.
Bey discussed the importance of learning history; he said his own life was changed when he began studying history and turned away from participating in gangs.
“When I start learning my history, I’ll stop gangbanging,” Bey said. He said that the lack of leadership after Carter was assassinated could be seen as a direct link to the formation of the Bloods and Crips in Los Angeles.
Bey also stressed the importance of carrying on the work of Carter and Huggins.
“We must not allow those who have died for us to be forgotten,” Bey said. “But more importantly … we have to carry out their legacy.
“You guys have all the power and they don’t want you to know it.”
As Bey concluded, the ASU invited students to participate in workshops led by the speakers, student leaders and professors, to learn more about how to overcome obstacles to progress. The workshops were followed by a night program also featuring many of the speakers from the day.
The ASU hopes the commemoration will become an annual event and is also working on a petition to rename Campbell Hall in honor of Carter and Huggins.