Eric Washington, a Grambling State alum and Alpha Phi Alpha member, is being mourned across the HBCU community after his death this week. He was a public servant known to friends as “E. Wash.” Washington was killed in a shooting in Compton early Saturday morning. He was one of two people who died at the New Wilmington Arms Apartments. Three others were injured in the same incident.
Washington spent his career in public service. Most recently, he worked as a field deputy for California Assemblymember Mike Gipson’s office. He was also an active member of the Watts Gang Task Force. There, he focused on community engagement and violence intervention. That work put him directly in the neighborhoods he was trying to protect, day after day.
Eric Washington’s Path to Grambling State
Washington’s academic journey ran through several schools before Grambling. He earned an associate’s degree in political science from El Camino Compton College. From there, he picked up a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Texas, focused on constitutional law. His path wound through multiple campuses before he landed at Grambling State. That arrival meant something specific, since he chose graduate school deliberately.
At Grambling, Washington completed a Master of Public Administration. That program sharpened the policy and leadership skills he later used in government roles. While there, he also crossed into Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. That brotherhood is built around scholarship and service, and it traces back over a century. His Instagram bio still listed all three schools alongside the Greek letters. It’s a small marker of how much that education shaped his identity…