[4 articles]
Plaques were long overdue
http://www.dailybruin.com/articles/2010/5/28/plaques-were-long-overdue/
UCLA should have acknowledged the deaths of two Black Panther Party
members long before now
By Frank Shyong
May 28, 2010
I've walked by Campbell Hall hundreds of times on the way to class,
but incredibly, I'd never heard the names of Alprentice "Bunchy"
Carter and John Jerome Huggins Jr. until a few weeks ago.
Carter and Huggins were UCLA students and leaders in the Black
Panther Party. On Jan. 17, 1969, they were shot to death in Campbell
Hall by an unknown assailant. It's not information they give out on
the official tour and the university has avoided any sort of official
recognition of their deaths for 41 years.
The students of Professor Mary Corey's seminar, the Memory Project,
have been trying to right this wrong this past quarter as a class
project. They funded the two plaques with money from their own
pockets, negotiated with university officials and organized the event.
On Tuesday, the plaques were presented in a ceremony on the steps of
Campbell Hall with the families and friends of the two murdered
students in the audience, which also included many former Black
Panthers. The plaques will eventually be hung in two locations on
Campbell Hall's facade, and the other outside of the room where
Huggins and Carter were shot.
I think I speak for a large part of this campus when I say this: finally.
The plaques represent the recognition of the historical significance
of Carter's and Huggins' deaths. We've given them shape and form in
the plaques, incorporated them into our built environment and, in
doing so, made them an integrated part of our university's history
and our collective social consciousness. This is not an endorsement
of their politics or methods, but of their significance in the larger
context of a long struggle for civil rights one of the most
significant social movements of the 20th century.
Carter and Huggins, though controversial, were vital beacons in that
movement. Whatever you think of their methods and politics, the Black
Panthers sparked social movements for Chicano rights and womens'
rights, and are a constitutive part of the academic study of race and
identity in universities all over the world today.
I attended the event alongside family members of the murdered
students and many former Black Panthers. The mood was celebratory and
decidedly uncontroversial. When the plaques were displayed, I saw
peaceful expressions on the faces of many in attendance. A line of
young black men and women stood clad in black fatigues with their
fists raised in the air, and there was a conspicuous lack of a
significant university presence.
I left with a lot of questions: Why did an event of this importance
take 41 years to occur? And why was there no significant university
presence beyond that of Charles J. Alexander, director of the
Academic Advancement Program?
An event of such historical significance on the campus demands the
presence of Chancellor Gene Block, or at the very least, a university
official directly beneath him.
I recognize that the Black Panthers had political ideas and methods
so controversial that the mere mention of their name was political
poison. But it's been 41 years, and controversy doesn't give us
license to deny history. Although the Vietnam War was arguably as
controversial and supported by less than half the nation at one
point, we erected the memorial five years after its end.
When image and politics become more important than recognition of
history and acknowledgment of tragedy, corporate rationality has
overcome intellectual responsibility. A university doesn't exist to
perpetuate itself, to rise in the U.S. News and World Report rankings
and get positive headlines in newspapers. It should be responsive to
our passions, our ideals and our history.
As students, we cannot just attend this university. We should not be
passive participants in the corporate vision that is UCLA. What we
feel, think and are should be reflected by the university.
Although there is a constant dialectic, a push and pull that
determines our university's identity, Bunchy Carter and John Jerome
Huggins were UCLA students and the university has a responsibility to
recognize that.
I want my university to be a place that can neutrally integrate
controversial ideologies such as those of the Black Panthers and
recognize their historical importance, just as the University of
California at Berkeley embraces its contentious past of activism.
This is but the first step.
Now, when the official tour for prospective students passes Campbell
Hall, the tour guides may not say anything about Carter and Huggins.
But at least one prospective student will see their names on the
plaque on the facade of the building, and when they do, I hope
they'll start asking some questions.
--
E-mail Shyong at [email protected].
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Memorials of 1969 campus killings unveiled and debated at UCLA
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2010/05/memorials-of-1969-campus-killings-unveiled-and-debated-ucla.html
May 25, 2010
Larry Gordon
While studying 1960s U.S. history, a UCLA class was stunned to learn
recently that a violent incident in the black power movement had
occurred on the Westwood campus and that there was no physical
reminder of it. So they and their teacher set about to memorialize
two UCLA students, both Black Panthers, who were shot to death in
Campbell Hall on Jan. 17,1969, in an alleged dispute over leadership
in a fledgling black studies program.
Two plaques, each honoring Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John J.
Huggins Jr., were unveiled Tuesday in a Campbell Hall ceremony
attended by relatives of the slain men and former Black Panther
activists, among others. The markers describe the men as killed "in
the ongoing struggle for student empowerment and social justice."
The deaths have generated much debate about motives and Black Panther
power struggles. The alleged gunman identified by witnesses, Claude
"Chuchessa" Hubert, has never been apprehended. Two brothers, George
and Larry Stiner, were convicted on a charge of conspiracy to commit
murder and two counts of second-degree murder for their involvement
in the case and both received life sentences. They escaped from
prison in 1974. Larry lived as a fugitive in Suriname for 20 years
and then surrendered in 1994; his brother remains a fugitive.
One plaque will be placed in a glass display case inside the
building; students want the other mounted on Campbell's exterior.
Devon McReynolds, a senior history major, said she and classmates
felt it was important that the campus know what happened there 41
years ago and learn "of the struggles of people who came before us at
the university."
Campus officials, however, say longstanding rules forbid exterior
mounting except on buildings named after donors. Scott Waugh, UCLA's
executive vice chancellor and provost, said the decision was not
influenced by the Black Panthers' controversial politics but by
concerns over visual clutter and the difficulties in choosing among
many people proposed for such honors.
History lecturer Mary Corey said she will appeal the decision about
the exterior mounting on behalf of her students. She said she was
proud of them for taking on the project and for pressing UCLA to
acknowledge its own history.
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UCLA students memorialize 1969 Black Panther slayings
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-ucla-panthers-20100526,0,2219024.story
The site of a fatal shooting of two UCLA students in 1969 has never
been marked. History students obtained plaques in the victims' honor,
one of which will be posted in the Campbell Hall classroom.
By Larry Gordon
May 26, 2010
A UCLA history class studying the 1960s was stunned to learn recently
that a violent incident in the black power movement had occurred on
the Westwood campus and that there was nothing to mark it.
So they and their instructor set out to memorialize two UCLA
students, both Black Panther Party members, who were shot to death in
Campbell Hall on Jan. 17, 1969, in an alleged dispute over leadership
in a fledgling black studies program.
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On Tuesday, two plaques honoring Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John
J. Huggins Jr. as social justice advocates were unveiled in a
Campbell Hall ceremony attended by relatives of the slain men, among others.
The deaths continue to generate debate about Black Panther power
struggles and the motives of those involved. The alleged gunman,
Claude "Chuchessa" Hubert, was never apprehended. Two brothers,
George and Larry Stiner, were convicted of conspiracy to commit
murder and second-degree murder for their involvement; both received
life sentences. They escaped from prison in 1974. Larry Stiner lived
as a fugitive in Suriname for 20 years and then surrendered. His
brother remains a fugitive.
One plaque will be displayed in a glass case inside the classroom and
office building; students have asked that the other be affixed to the
exterior of the building. Campus officials, however, said that
longstanding rules forbid exterior mounting except on buildings named
after donors and that the ban has nothing to do with the Black
Panthers' controversial politics.
History lecturer Mary Corey said she and others will appeal that decision.
--
[email protected]
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Another Side of the Sixties: Black Panthers at UCLA (Photos)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/devon-mcreynolds/another-side-of-the-sixti_b_589322.html
Devon McReynolds and Ariel Smith
Posted: May 25, 2010
On January 17, 1969, two UCLA students named Alprentice "Bunchy"
Carter and John J. Huggins, Jr. were shot and killed on campus.
UCLA has seen many battles between the students and the
administration that have played out over the years, including fee
increases, affirmative action and free speech, but never has a
struggle been kept so quiet and never has a struggle resulted in
death as it did on the UCLA campus over forty years ago. Knowing just
this - that college students literally bled and died on campus in a
malicious and horrifying act of violence - one would assume that
there would be some sort of historical marker commemorating the event.
Both of us are students in an undergraduate research seminar at UCLA
titled "Another Side of Sixties: Dissent and Counterculture." As one
may expect the Black Panthers were a topic of study in our class.
Many of us saw a documentary by Gregory Everett called 41st and
Central: The Untold Story of L.A.'s Black Panthers, a film about the
Panthers' role in Southern California as a whole, but a huge portion
of the film was dedicated to the stories of Alprentice "Bunchy"
Carter and John Huggins, Jr., and to explaining the UCLA murders
themselves. Coincidentally, a group of our classmates vividly
re-created a Black Panther meeting as part of an assignment. Someone
said that she'd stopped by Campbell 1201 to check out the scene of
the crime. Not only was it eerie to know that this was where
students, just like us, had been killed, but it felt wrong that there
was nothing there to recognize it. We discussed ways to commemorate
the students and the event, and the rest, as they say, is history.
What began as a research seminar quickly transformed into a forum for
planning an installation of a plaque, and just weeks later, we've
overcome the notoriously, well, bureaucratic bureaucracy and have the
administration's approval to install a plaque on the inside, and
hopefully we'll have permission to install it on the outside of the
building. We renamed ourselves The Memory Project, and the original
curriculum has fallen by the wayside; we've been wholly consumed by
this and it's been an experience unlike we've ever known.
Today, Campbell Hall Room 1201 is packed with cubicles and tables
where students of the Academic Advancement Program (AAP) receive free
tutoring. It's always buzzing with activity and really, it's the
ultimate manifestation of what a college education should be;
students actively participate in the learning process, engage with
their peers, and take advantage of the tools that higher education
loves to tout.
Alprentice 'Bunchy' Carter, John Huggins Jr. and other young students
were recruited by the university in response to a lack of campus
diversity and were admitted to UCLA through the High Potential
Program, the predecessor to UCLA's current AAP. This program, along
with the ethnic studies center, was created in the late 1960's as a
response to the students' demands for greater inclusion and
representation of minorities at UCLA. In the last years of the
1960's, when cultural and ethnic diversity was just a dream on
college campuses across the country, UCLA was attempting to make
diversity a reality. The High Potential Program, which incorporated
an Afro-American Studies Program, was only the second such program in
the country, following San Francisco State. Equal education and equal
opportunity has always been problematic in this country and UCLA
should be credited for recruiting bright African-American students to
promote diversity and combat inequality.
Carter and Huggins were influential members of the Black Panther
Party's Southern California Chapter - Carter was, in fact, the
founder of this branch. As deeply committed Black Panthers, Carter
and Huggins applied the party's demands for self-determination to the
terms of their education.
Unfortunately, on a terrible day in mid January of 1969, after a
meeting to determine the leadership of UCLA's newly created
Afro-American Program, Alprentice "Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins
Jr., two UCLA students, were murdered on the UCLA campus, in Campbell
Hall room 1201, by a rival black nationalist group, the United Slaves
(US) Organization.
Even after forty years, when one enters the checkered black and white
flooring of Campbell Hall, the absence could not be more striking.
Nothing, nothing in Campbell hall is there to memorialize the history
of this horrible event and the individuals who died there. It should
be noted that this is not because no one cared. Since their deaths in
1969, attempts have been made to rectify this lack of a historical
record. Each year, the Afrikan Student Union holds a memorial in late
January and other students and groups have attempted to follow suit.
Many have attempted to rename the hall after the slain students, but
all of these endeavors to concretely memorialize the event have been
met with failure. This hidden history of UCLA deserves honor and recognition.
As students, we need to contextualize our experiences at the
university. We need to know our collective history. Where is our
connective link to the past? Symbolically, the blood of Alprentice
"Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins Jr. will forever stain the black and
white checkered floors of Campbell Hall. This university has a rich
and complex history and we need to know all of it. To ignore this
past is completely counterproductive to the history of UCLA, and the
university's genuine attempts to promote diversity. The point of the
High Potential Program and the AAP was to promote diversity; more
specifically to incorporate and educate more black students.
Currently black students make up less than 5% of the student
population and many of these students are recruited as athletes. One
would argue that an acknowledgment of this piece of UCLA's history
would be meaningful to young black scholars considering enrolling in
the university.
In fact, the official UCLA tour doesn't mention the murders as they
lead prospective students by the building. And this needs to be
changed. Yes, the murder of two students on campus isn't a good
selling point for prospective white students from the O.C., and yes
it was sad, and yes, the fact that they were Black Panthers is
controversial. But just because something is tragic and controversial
doesn't mean it should be ignored; in fact, the opposite is true.
One can certainly understand the administrations feeling that an
acknowledgment of this event would somehow tarnish the university's
public image. After all, it is only now, 40 years later, that the
murders at Kent State have been recognized by the administration of
Kent State. Nevertheless, what the UCLA administration fails to see
is that this historical event needs to be incorporated into the
collective story. The failure of the administration to fund a
memorial for these fallen students is a heartbreaking omission. What
will be left of UCLA's legacy and what will the future hold, if we
are allowed to ignore the past?
As our professor Mary Corey put it, historians needn't be limited to
the "traditional" realms of teaching and research, but we can be, and
should be, activists committed to the accuracy of our collective histories.
James Thurber believed that there are only two kinds of light in this
world: the glow that illuminates and the glare that obscures. The
historical needs a voice. On May 25, the voices of a group of
students at UCLA have gained enough strength to be heard at last.
Finally, over 40 years later, a memorial to the slain UCLA students
will occur -- and only through the convergence of activism and the
commitment to a cause. For too long the tragic deaths of Alprentice
"Bunchy" Carter and John Huggins Jr. have been obscured because of
fear. Hopefully, a recognition of this tragic event that illuminates
a commitment to the past at UCLA will shine a light on their lives
and their deaths.
.
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