Background
Huggins was born in Selma, Alabama, but moved to Washington D.C with his family when he was still young.
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Willis Huggins
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He was one of the earliest proponents of teaching African and African-American history in American schools. After university, he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked as a high school teacher. During the Chicago Race Riot of 1919, Huggins became involved in the New Negro Movement, writing for a number of pro African-American journals.
He also became involved in the "Garvey movement" to popularise African-American history, along with Arthur Schomburg and John Edward Bruce.
In 1924, Huggins moved to New York City to continue his teaching. Black teachers were quite still unusual in the New York public school system, and Huggins" attempts to include African and African-American history within the curriculum were met with strong opposition.
Instead, Huggins and other black teachers taught out-of-school classes on African-American history to students. In 1932 he became the first black student to receive a Doctor of Philosophy from Fordham University.
Huggins went missing on December 23, 1940.
Seven months later, on July 19, 1941, his body was recovered from the Hudson River by police. His death was ruled a suicide by the police, his family, and his lawyer Despite this, some of his students at the Blyden Society and Harlem community centre voiced concerns that he may have been murdered by gangsters over unpaid business loans.
