The original version of this article contained multiple errors and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
A four-year-old stone bearing the names oftwo deceased Black Panthers and former student leaders stood amid the faint glow of candles Friday night.
During the vigil in front of Campbell Hall, students, friends and family of Alprentice “Bunchy” Carter and John Huggins gathered by the Carter-Huggins memorial stone to commemorate the 45th anniversary of their deaths.
On Jan. 17 1969, both men were fatally shot inside Campbell Hall during a meeting convened by the Black Student Union. During the meeting, an argument ensued between Black Panther members, including Carter and Huggins, and members of The Organization Us, another activist group on campus. Members of The Organization Us shot Carter and Huggins during their argument.
The vigil was part of a larger ceremony organized by the Afrikan Student Union and the Academic Advancement Program. Through the efforts of the students, the stone memorial was introduced in 2010.“It’s what they were fighting and dying for that we need to talk about this evening,” said Ericka Huggins, widow of John Huggins and a teacher at California State University-East Bay.
Before their deaths, Huggins and Carter worked as leaders in the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party. Formed in 1966, the organization focused on improving the conditions of African Americans in socially underserved areas and called for revolutionary social change, said Elaine Brown, a panelist at Friday’s vigil and former Black Panther party leader.
Friday’s ceremony included a panel discussion led by some of Carter and Huggins’ former colleagues, UCLA alumni and Ericka Huggins. An official commemoration has been held every year for the two men by the Afrikan Student Union since 1999,said Kamilah Moore, a fourth-year political science student and chair of the Afrikan Student Union.
Both Carter and Huggins first came to UCLA in the 1960s through the Black Student Union’s High Potential Program, which provided academic counseling services to students, Moore said. The program, which was run by both black and Latino students, was meant to give underserved and underrepresented students access to higher education, Moore said.
It gave Carter and Huggins access to higher education and a space to develop and act as student leaders and role models, Brown said.
Through the High Potential Program and Black Student Union, Carter and Huggins worked to promote empowerment and solidarity among students of color on campus, Brown said.
Isai Madrid, a third-year history student, said he came to the commemoration because of his interest in the High Potential Program’s history and the shooting of Carter and Huggins.
“I was fascinated by the history of men who came from the streets and were able to educate themselves,” Madrid said.
Lamar Lyons, a former UCLA student body president who attended UCLA through the High Potential Program at the same time as Carter and Huggins, said many of the students in the program had their roots in gangs, but the program helped them rise above the circumstances in which they were raised.
Brown emphasized to the crowd of students that her generation, including Huggins and Carter, underwent a large effort to develop the kinds of ethical values that made them strong leaders. She said the Black Panther Party acted as an educational space for increasing their sense of social justice.
“We proved that you could come here with a certain background and succeed. We were here for a purpose, to change the course of this campus,” Lyons said.
Throughout the evenings’ discussion, students reached out to the panelists for advice on how to address a multitude of issues currently affecting students who come from racial and socioeconomic minority backgrounds.
Chidera Izuchukwu, a fourth-year Afro-American studies student and transfer coordinator for the Afrikan Student Union, asked the panel for advice on how to address the lack of an Afro-American studies department.
At the time of Huggins’ and Carter’s death, they were arguing over the direction of the ethnic studies program.
Currently, UCLA has an Afro-American studies interdepartmental program, but some students and faculty have been pushing for it to become its own department.
At the end of last year, the UCLA Academic Senate was set to vote on the program’s status, but the vote was postponed and still has not happened.
Izuchukwu said she hopes to understand the root of the Afro-American studies department issueby examining the history of Carter and Huggins.
“I think students would feel motivated to do more about this issue if they learned the history behind the student struggles that gave (students of color) what we have today,” Izuchukwu said.
The discussion was interspersed with spoken word performances by second-year English student Semaj Earl and Too Black, spoken word artist from the Midwest.
Earl said she learned about the history of Carter and Huggins the first time she visited UCLA and took the People of Color Tour, conducted by the Academic Advancement Program for incoming freshman. During the tour, she saw the spot where both men were shot at Campbell Hall.
She attended the ceremony to educate students about the underrepresentation of black students at UCLA. About 4 percent of UCLA’s undergraduate student population is black.
“I want to ignite the fire in other people for this cause,” Earl said. “We have to have events like this to recognize the history of students of color and become passionate about it.”
As the discussion came to a close, each panelist paid their respects to Carter and Huggins in their closing remarks.
“They would be grateful that we continued what they did,” Ericka Huggins said to the crowd. “They would be grateful that you are here.”
Correction: Ericka Huggins’ name was misspelled. The Organization Us was an activist organization on campus.