Biography
Ericka Huggins was a leader of the New Haven, Connecticut chapter of the Black Panther Party. After the May 21, 1969 killing of Alex Rackley in a New Haven Panthers safe house — Rackley had been suspected internally of being a police informant — she was arrested with seven other Panthers. The Connecticut state prosecution charged Bobby Seale (who was not in New Haven at the time of the killing) and Huggins with the murder, kidnapping, and conspiracy. The trial of Seale and Huggins began in November 1970 and ran into May 1971. The jury deadlocked 10-2 for her acquittal and 11-1 for Seale s; Judge Harold Mulvey dismissed all charges with prejudice on May 25, 1971. She had been held in pretrial detention at the Niantic State Farm for Women in Connecticut for two years; her infant daughter Mai was raised in the Panther community during her detention.
After the trial she returned to Oakland and became the Director of the Oakland Community School from 1973 to 1981 — the BPP-founded K-6 school in East Oakland that won state and national education awards under her leadership. She has been a longtime educator and writer in the years since.
The February 13, 1971 Black Panther reported the continuing New Haven murder prosecution and a March 5 solidarity mobilization. It announced the Danish peace award to Bobby Seale. These trial and campaign dates do not establish a new custody episode. The Black Panther, February 13, 1971, original PDF page 5. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/black-panther/06%20no%203%201-20%20feb%2013%201971.pdf#page=5
The January 9, 1971 Black Panther reported federal hearings on the prisoners’ conditions suit filed October 9, 1970. Following December hearings before Judge Robert Zampano, Huggins was moved from segregation, where she had been held since May 1969, to the general population. Agreements addressed legal mail and materials, and thirty days of good-time credit were restored. Neither the move nor restored credit was an actual release from prison. The Black Panther, January 9, 1971, original PDF page 5. Source: https://washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1971-01-09-black-panther-vol-4-no-28.pdf#page=5
The paper’s daily reports describe jury selection from December 7 through December 10, 1970 in the New Haven prosecution. They discuss prospective jurors, peremptory challenges and the defense objection to exclusion of mothers. These proceedings concern the existing confinement and establish no new custody episode. The Black Panther, December19,1970 volV no25, original PDF page 9. Source: https://washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/1970-12-19-bpp-.pdf#page=9
The Black Panther, June 7, 1969: Printed page 8 individually names this defendant in the New Haven raid and prints captioned portraits of eight defendants. Theodore Spurlock reports the office and upstairs apartment entered at 1:05 Thursday morning, with breakfast-program money and other property taken, and initial murder/conspiracy accusations. Printed page 11 describes the eight as held without bail. These are contemporary Party reports and allegations; no final verdict or complete custody duration is established here. Printed variants include Erica Huggins, Rose Smith, Francis Carter and Peggy Hudgins; established profile identities are retained. Source: https://washingtonareaspark.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/1969-06-07-black-panther-vol-3-no-7.pdf#page=7
Writing from Marin County Jail in May 1971, Angela Davis recalled meeting Huggins after the killings of John Huggins and Bunchy Carter and waiting outside Sybil Brand jail in Los Angeles for her release. Davis described an earlier conspiracy-to-murder accusation that Huggins denied, preceding her later New Haven detention. The letter did not give the dates or length of this earlier confinement.
The March 27, 1971 Black Panther described testimony beginning on March 18 in the New Haven Rackley trial before Judge Harold Mulvey, with Arnold Markle prosecuting.
The Black Panther, March 27, 1971, PDF page 5; The Black Panther, March 27, 1971, PDF page 8.
The February 2, 1969 Black Panther reported that Los Angeles police arrested Huggins during a January 17 raid following her husband’s killing. It states that she was taken to the 77th Street station and released Saturday afternoon, January 18. This earlier confinement is separate from her later New Haven detention. The Black Panther, February 2, 1969, page 4.
