- Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project
- Title:
- Ericka C. Huggins oral history interview conducted by David P. Cline in Oakland, California, 2016 June 30
- Contributor to Resource:
- Huggins, Ericka, interviewee
Cline, David P., 1969- interviewer
Bishop, John Melville, videographer
Civil Rights History Project (U.S.) - Date of Original:
- 2016
- Subject:
- Black Panther Party
Cointelpro
Lincoln University (Pa.)
US (Organization)
March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom (1963 : Washington, D.C.)
African American women civil rights workers--California--Interviews
Civil rights movements--California
Civil rights movements--United States
Clinics--California
Community health services--California
Community schools--California--Oakland
Trials (Murder)--Connecticut--New Haven - Location:
- United States, 39.76, -98.5
United States, California, 37.25022, -119.75126
United States, California, Alameda County, Oakland, 37.80437, -122.2708
United States, Connecticut, New Haven County, New Haven, 41.30815, -72.92816 - Medium:
- personal narratives
interviews
oral histories (literary genre)
video recordings (physical artifacts) - Type:
- MovingImage
- Description:
- Ericka Huggins discusses joining the Los Angeles Chapter of the Blank Panther Party in 1967. She shares her involvement with community survival programs such as the People's Free Medical Clinics and Breakfast Programs. Sharing how these programs were often undervalued and overlooked by the suspicions of the police and the FBI, she sheds considerable light on the turbulent experience of being a Panther woman. In spite of the assassination of her husband and being imprisoned multiple times on conspiracy charges, she emphasizes the importance of remaining resilient and committed to issues of racial injustice and remains active in civic organizations today.
Recorded in Oakland, California, on June 30, 2016.
Civil Rights History Project collection (AFC 2010/039: 0144), Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Copies of items are also held at the National Museum of African American History and Culture (U.S.).
Ericka Huggins was born Ericka Jenkins in 1948 in Washington, D.C. Huggins was the youngest of three. After graduating high school in 1966, she attended Cheyney State College and from there enrolled at Lincoln University, an HBCU in Philadelphia, where she met her husband, Vietnam veteran John Huggins. Both moved to California after reading about the Black Panther Party in Ramparts magazine, and joined the BPP in 1967. After her husband's assassination in 1969, she became a leader in the Los Angeles chapter and later led the Black Panther Party chapter in New Haven, CT. She was the Director of the Black Panther Party's Oakland Community School from 1973-1981. Huggins was a Professor of Sociology at Laney College in Oakland and at Berkeley City College. In addition, she has lectured at Stanford, Cornell, and UCLA. Huggins holds a master's degree in Sociology.
The Civil Rights History Project is a joint project of the American Folklife Center, Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of African American History and Culture to collect video and audio recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
In English.
Finding aid http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/eadafc.af013005 - Metadata URL:
- http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/afc2010039.afc2010039_crhp0144
- Language:
- eng
- Additional Rights Information:
- Collection is open for research. To request materials, please contact the Folklife Reading Room at http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.afc/folklife.contact
- Extent:
- 13 video files (Apple ProRes 422 HQ, QuickTime wrapper) (1:52:50) : digital, sound, color.
transcript 1 item (.pdf) : text files. - Original Collection:
- Civil Rights History Project collection AFC 2010/039: 0144
- Contributing Institution:
- American Folklife Center
- Rights:
-
