BY JILLIAN AMES
Bruin contributor
james@media.ucla.edu
More than 40 years after the killing of Black Panther Party members Bunchy Carter and John Huggins inside Campbell Hall, students still honor and commemorate the men’s actions in the promotion of education for oppressed people.
Today, the Afrikan Student Union on campus is hosting its annual service dedicated to the lives of Carter and Huggins.
The service will consist of a series of workshops and an informal panel featuring Elaine Brown, former chairman to the Black Panther Party, and Ericka Huggins, widow of John Huggins and former activist in the Party. Brown also wrote the song “Until We Are Free,” which was later adopted as the Black Panthers’ National Anthem.
“The purpose of the service is to discuss the meaning behind the assassination of the boys and explain the significance of their work,” said Brown. “We want to discuss what students can learn from their lives and the assassination, and inspire activists to improve the lives of blacks and other oppressed people.”
The shooting occurred inside Campbell Hall while a meeting was being held between two rival activist groups on campus: the Black Panther Party and The Organization Us.
According to Masai Minters, media coordinator of the Academic Advancement Program, the two groups were in disagreement about the direction of the ethnic studies program.
Brown said that a member of the rival group shot Carter and Huggins after hearing them make derogatory comments about the founder of Us.
“The shootings were not spontaneous or the result of conflict between the two organizations,” said Brown. “The killer was not a student, and he had come with an agenda.”
Both Ericka Huggins and Brown said that many have speculated that members of the FBI, who were thought to have considered the Black Panther Party a threat to the nation’s security, had a hand in the shooting. Although those convicted of the shooting were known members of Us, many believe that the FBI had escalated the tension that existed between the two activist groups, Huggins and Brown said.
Much of John Huggins’ and Carter’s work in the Party was primarily concerned with education.
Besides discussing the repercussions of the shooting of the two men, Ericka Huggins said the service will focus on the quality of education in local communities.
“John and Bunchy were concerned with change in the community and on UCLA’s campus,” she said. “Oftentimes education is denied to those who don’t have all the necessary qualifications and financial means. … It was these types of things that prompted Huggins and Carter to voice their opinion.”
The Academic Advancement Program at UCLA seeks to accomplish what Huggins and Carter began, Minters said. The program provides counseling and academic support to more than 6,600 first-generation, low-income students. Although the AAP is not directly involved in the Carter-Huggins memorial service, it is hosting the event in Campbell Hall and has been working to advertise the service.
Minters said he was a part of a program similar to AAP when he was in high school: the High Potential Program. He intended to attend UCLA himself until the killing occurred and instead chose a state university.
“I was stunned when I heard about the killings. (Carter) had the reputation of being a dynamic leader and was very much a role model for people at the time,” Minters said.
Ericka Huggins said it was important that the service focus on education because the quality of education has changed in the past few years. She teaches on two university campuses: Cal State University, East Bay, and San Francisco State University. She said while tuition has increased, her income has been lowered.
Chiemela Okwandu, programming coordinator for the Afrikan Student Union who helped plan the event, said she thinks the event is relevant to current UCLA students because the shooting involved former UCLA students who made history by portraying the kind of activism students read about in textbooks every day.
“(John Huggins) had an undeniable commitment to the black people,” Brown said. “He inspired so many young blacks and brought them into a political consciousness. He closed the gap between the black professionals and the black masses, and committed himself to freeing the black masses.”
Ericka Huggins said she met her husband at UCLA when they were both students. Before his arrival at UCLA, he was in the Navy; however, after hearing about the bombings of Birmingham, he decided to quit and go back to school to try to change the circumstances of his community, Huggins said.
Despite their emotional attachment to these two men, Huggins and Brown managed to set aside their emotions and focus on the education of students at the service.
“The heart and the mind are always connected,” Huggins said. “My mind is carefully looking at what needs to be said, and my heart is open to how I feel.”
The shooting of John Huggins and Carter completely changed Ericka Huggins’ life. Had her husband not been killed, he would be turning 65 on February 11. Their daughter would have known her own father for longer than three weeks, and their family relations would have been extremely different.
“They were not just icons for the oppressed people but were loving and wonderful human beings,” Huggins said.