SSU Hosts Former Black Panther Party Member
By Jade Foote
SALEM, Mass, Feb. 25, 2017 — Former member of the Black Panther Party (BPP) Ericka Huggins recently led Salem State University students in a discussion following a screening of The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution [Available here.] Huggins is featured in the documentary, which explores the rise of the Black Panther Party in the 1960s and its impact on civil rights and American culture.
Huggins joined the BPP in 1967 after reading an article in Ramparts, a protest magazine. Included was a photograph of Party co-founder Huey Newton, chained to a hospital gurney with a bullet wound in his stomach. Huggins felt compelled to join the movement.
“In the 1960s, everything that could possibly move was moving. The whole world was changing, and I wanted to be a part of it,” she said.
Before seeing the documentary, Erica French, 2019, thought that men were the sole leaders of the Party.
“I really liked learning about how the BPP was mostly comprised of women because before I knew more about it, it was always Huey Newton as the face of the Party,” said French.
In reality, women made up two thirds of the BPP and were instrumental in its success. However, despite their immeasurable efforts, this fact was seldom known.
“You didn’t hear the media talking about it because that wasn’t what the media wanted,” Huggins explained.
Being a Black Panther came at a price. In 1967, the FBI instructed its officers in the program COINTELPRO (counterintelligence program), to neutralize the Party. By 1969, the Black Panthers and their allies were major targets.
“COINTELPRO infiltrated the media, our homes, our offices, and our bedrooms,” said Huggins.
Part of the COINTELPRO actions were directed at creating and exploiting existing rivalries between black nationalist factions.
“It’s why my daughter has no living father,” Huggins affirmed.
Her husband, John Huggins, was killed by black nationalist U.S. Organization members in 1969. The FBI mailed a letter to the BPP office that was made to appear as if it had come from the U.S. Organization. It detailed false plans by the U.S. Organization to ambush Party members.
Despite the BPP’s reputation for being a violent organization, Ashley Perodin, 2017, walked away from the screening and discussion with a different message.
“I was touched by how they kept reiterating that the core of the Party was love for the people,” said Perodin. “Everything they did was out of love and necessity for basic human rights that everybody should have had regardless.”
Huggins acknowledged the possibility that some audience members had preconceived notions about the BPP.
“I know there are people in this room who are looking for me to say something unloving,” said Huggins. “Can’t help you.”
Huggins emphasized that, at its core, the Black Panther Party and the revolution were rooted in love.
“The thing that you’re born with that makes you look into the eyes of other human beings as a baby, and stay there,” she declared. “It’s profound connection.”
Huggins stated that humans have lost the connection to one another.
“This is why we have so much death and violence, and not just at the hands of law enforcement — because we are not loving one another,” she said.
Huggins ended her discussion with advice for students to carry forth as they face the issues of today: “It doesn’t matter what clothes you wear, what degrees you have, or what presence you walk with if you’re not doing the work necessary to tap into what your heart is saying.”
