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. Ericka Huggins joined the Los Angeles Chapter of the Blank Panther Party in 1967. She was involved in 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. 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.