CHARLOTTE, N.C. — James Ferguson II, a trailblazing civil rights lawyer and proud Traditionally Black Faculty and College (HBCU) graduate, has died at 82. His authorized victories reshaped training and justice in North Carolina and past.
Born in 1942 in segregated Asheville, North Carolina, Ferguson started his journey towards justice as a scholar activist. He helped desegregate public areas reminiscent of lunch counters and libraries by way of peaceable protest.
HBCU Schooling and Authorized Basis
After graduating from North Carolina Central College, an HBCU in Durham, NC, he earned his regulation diploma from Columbia College. He returned to North Carolina and opened his first regulation workplace in 1964. Simply three years later, he co-founded the state’s first racially built-in regulation agency with Julius Chambers and Adam Stein.
Landmark Supreme Court docket Case: Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg
In 1971, Ferguson co-argued the landmark Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Schooling case earlier than the U.S. Supreme Court docket. The court docket’s ruling allowed faculty busing as a device for desegregation, setting a nationwide precedent. Throughout the trial, Ferguson’s regulation workplace was set on fireplace by an arsonist, however he remained undeterred.
“You have a look at a scenario, you see what must be carried out, and then you definitely do it,” Ferguson stated in a later interview. “You by no means give a number of thought to the chance.”
Defender of Civil Rights and the Wrongfully Convicted
All through the Seventies and past, Ferguson took on lots of the state’s most important civil rights instances. He represented the Wilmington 10, a gaggle of activists falsely convicted of arson, and helped safe their pardons a long time later. He additionally defended the Charlotte 3 and Darryl Hunt, a Black man wrongly convicted of homicide and later exonerated by way of DNA proof.
Worldwide Civil Rights Work and Instructing Legacy
James Ferguson II’s dedication to justice reached past the U.S. Within the Nineteen Eighties, he traveled to South Africa to coach Black attorneys throughout apartheid.
His affect prolonged into the classroom. Ferguson lectured at Harvard Regulation Faculty and held appointments on the College of Pennsylvania and Santa Clara College. He additionally served as an adjunct professor at North Carolina Central College Faculty of Regulation, giving again to the HBCU neighborhood that helped form him.
Awards and Skilled Recognition
In 2017, the Mecklenburg County Bar awarded Ferguson its Ayscue Professionalism Award. The consideration acknowledged his integrity, authorized excellence, and lifelong dedication to equality.
“Fergie would tackle the unpopular trigger with a zeal that’s virtually unnatural,” stated lawyer Frank Emory, a former colleague. “I consider his braveness in each sense of the phrase.”
Ferguson was additionally a previous president of the North Carolina Affiliation of Black Attorneys and the North Carolina Affiliation of Trial Attorneys. He served greater than a decade as normal counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union. He was named to the Inside Circle of Advocates, an elite group of high U.S. plaintiff attorneys.
A Legacy Rooted in HBCU Values
“Training civil rights regulation is simply exhausting,” stated former colleague Mel Watt. “Fergie saved his dedication going regardless of the trials and tribulations.”
By way of all of it, Ferguson remained grounded within the values nurtured throughout his time at an HBCU.
“I simply wish to really feel that I’ve carried out all I can to result in equality for everyone,” he stated in 2016. “That’s what life is about – making an attempt to create the society we expect we would like.”
