BLACK SOCIAL HISTORY :AFRICAN AMERICAN " JOHN HUGGINS " WAS A BLACK POWER ACTIVIST AND LEADER OF THE LOS ANGELES CHAPTER OF THE BLACK PANTHER PARTY : GOES INTO THE " HALL OF BLACK HEROES "

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John Huggins

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John Huggins

John J. Huggins, Jr.^[1] (February 11, 1945 – January 17, 1969) was an African American Black Power activist and leader in the Los Angeles chapter of the Black Panther Party.

Biography

John Huggins was born in New Haven, Connecticut where he attended Hopkins School, although ultimately left and graduated fromJames Hillhouse High School. He was briefly enlisted in the United States Navy before attending Lincoln University in Chester County, Pennsylvania, where he met his wife Ericka Huggins. They moved together to Los Angeles and both became deeply involved in the Black Panther Party. They had one child Mai Huggins.

Huggins and fellow Party leader Bunchy Carter were gunned down by members of the black nationalist US Organization during a 1969 meeting at UCLA. An FBI memo dated November 29, 1968 described a letter that the Los Angeles FBI office intended to mail to the Black Panther Party office. This letter, which was made to appear as if it had come from the US Organization, described fictitious plans by US to ambush BPP members. The FBI memo stated that "It is hoped this counterintelligence measure will result in an 'US' and BPP vendetta."^[2]