Huggins, Ericka, 1948-

Ericka Huggins (née Jenkins;[2] born January 5, 1948)[3][4][5] is an American activist, writer, and educator. She is a former leading member of the political organization, Black Panther Party (BPP).

Early life and education
Born Ericka Jenkins in Washington, D.C.,[6] Huggins was the middle child of three. After graduating high school in 1966, Huggins attended Cheyney State College (now Cheyney University of Pennsylvania). She then attended Lincoln University, an historically black school in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. There she studied education, and eventually met John Huggins, who she would later marry in 1968.[4] Although Lincoln University’s Black Student Congress was opposed to female leaders, Huggins engaged in the group despite the opposition.[4]

She holds a Master of Arts in Sociology from California State University, East Bay. Her thesis focused on an education model which proposed “student-centered, community-based tuition-free education for students to minimize the multigenerational race and gender trauma of American” [7] In 1972, she moved to California and became an elected member of the Berkeley Community Development Council.[8] Later, in 1976, she was elected onto the Alameda County Board of Education. She was both the first Black person, as well as the first Black woman to have a seat on the Board.[7] From 2008 to 2015, Huggins worked in the Peralta Community College District as a professor of sociology, African American studies, and women studies. She taught sociology at both Laney College and at Berkeley City College, as well as women’s studies at California State University.[7][9][10][11] In addition, for more than 30 years, she has lectured at Stanford University, Cornell University, and University of California, Los Angeles where she has spoke about education, spirituality, feminism, prison reform, and queer people of color homelessness.[7][10]

In relation to her work with spirituality, Huggins did work for 15 years at the Siddha Yoga Prison Project where she led hatha yoga and meditation to groups such as incarcerated people, public school children, and college students.[7] At the Mind/Body Medical Institute, which works with Harvard medical school, she continued sharing her spirituality and its practices for 5 years.[7] While at Lincoln University, Both Ericka and her husband were inspired to leave school, and join the Black Panther Party. Eventually, her husband John Huggins, became leader of the Los Angeles Chapter of the Black Panther Party.[3][13][5] While at home with her three week old daughter, her husband was assassinated on January 17, 1969, on the UCLA campus[14] due to a feud between the Black Panther Party and a Black Nationalist group, US Organization, that was fueled by the FBI's COINTELPRO program.[12][15] After his death, Ericka attended his burial in his birthplace of New Haven, Connecticut. Following his funeral, she decided to move there and open up a new Black Panther Party branch.[12] She led this new chapter along two other women, Kathleen Neal Cleaver and Elaine Brown.

While involved with the Black Panthers, Huggins held several positions: both an editor and writer for the Black Panther Intercommunal News Service, director of the party’s Oakland Community School from 1973 to 1981, and a member of the party’s Central Committee.[4] After spending two years in prison, Huggins decided to leave the Black Panthers, after being a member for 14 years, which is the longest membership for any woman involved with it.[7] While awaiting trial from 1969 to 1972, Huggins spent her time writing in the Prison Niantic State Farm for Women. Writing about the poor social conditions herself and her community endured, she viewed storytelling as a form of self-defense, personal agency, and educational activism. Her work is defined by themes such as love and hate, time and space, sexism and feminism, spirituality, racism, and nationalism. After being released from prison and all charges being requited, Insights and Poems, a book of poetry, co written by Huggins and Huey P. Newton, founder of the Black Panther Party, was released in 1975.[7]

Personal life
Ericka Huggins married John Huggins in 1968.[13] Ericka gave birth to their daughter, Mai Huggins, at the age of 20.[20][21] Within three months of their daughter's birth, Ericka became a widow when John Huggins was killed on the UCLA campus in January 1969.

Huggins has two sons. One of her sons is Rasa Sun Mott,[20] which she had with James Mott, lead singer of the Lumpen, the Black Panthers singing group.[22][23] Huggins has been with her now partner, Lisbet Tellefsen, who is an archivist, collector, and curator for 16 years.[24]

Ericka Jenkins was born in Washington, DC and attended Lincoln University, where she met her future husband John Huggins, a Vietnam veteran. She joined the Black Panther Party (BPP) in 1968 and she and John became leaders in the Los Angeles chapter. Three weeks after their daughter Mai was born, her husband was murdered in January 1969. Later Ericka, Kathleen Cleaver, and Elaine Brown led the New Haven (Connecticut) chapter of the Party.

That same year, BPP member Alex Rackley was tortured, interrogated, and killed by members of the New Haven Black Panthers because they believed he was an FBI informant. The police obtained an audio tape on which Huggins was heard interrogating Rackley, and Huggins and Bobby Seale were tried for murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy. In May 1971, the jury deadlocked 10 to 2 for Huggins’ acquittal, and Judge Harold M. Mulvey of the Connecticut Superior Court dismissed the charges against both defendants. A notable fact about Huggins’ trial is that her jury selection was the longest in Connecticut history.