If they ever tell my story, let them say I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the times of Mrs. Ruby Dee Davis, the Rev. Dr. Joseph Bragg and Mr. Herman Ferguson.
When news reached me that Ferguson had joined the ancestors Thursday, Sept. 25, many memories flooded my mind. When I think of him, the first scene that comes to my mind is John F. Kennedy Airport. I remember around 1989, Sonny Carson called to inform me that Ferguson was coming home and would be arriving there. They were going out to meet him. He asked me if I wanted to join them. I readily answered in the affirmative. I was proud and honored to be a member of the delegation to welcome Ferguson back to the USA.
I could not help but remember when Nelson and Winnie Mandela and the African National Congress delegation came to New York City in 1991. Both occasions are forever etched in my memory. They are vivid as if they happened yesterday. On both occasions, we were all giddy. We were like children on Christmas Eve when we believed that there was a Santa Claus. We laughed. We talked. We conjured up old stories. We reflected on Ferguson and Malcolm X and the impact that they have made on our lives and the rest of the world.
When Ferguson arrived at the airport, U.S. government agents took custody of him. We were hoping he would be allowed to come with us and enjoy freedom until the government decided what they were going to do with him.
I don’t know what, if anything, Carson had to do with effectuating Ferguson’s return. Carson had connections in strategic places. He had a way of getting things done when he set his mind to it.
Eventually, Ferguson was sentenced to three years. As the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee stated, Ferguson was released by Judge Bruce Wright, which conjured up another dramatic memory.
Wright was being assailed by New York law enforcement leaders for allowing accused persons to be released with low bail or none at all. It was the judge’s contention that if a person was innocent until proven guilty, how could you then punish the person with bail, which in many cases, they could not afford? The leadership of the Police Benevolent Association labeled Wright “Cut-Him-Loose-Bruce.”
One Saturday before Easter, I called Wright and asked him if he wanted to deliver the Easter sermon at my church. He readily replied, “Yes.”
That Sunday, the church was packed. Wright delivered the sermon. Immediately after he was finished, I had tables set up in the sanctuary below the podium where he had just spoken for a press conference. The church was packed with people lined around the walls. I remember one of the newspersons tried to get Wright to say something controversial about the president of the PBA. Wright said, “My father always told me that we can have a pee-pee contest with a skunk.” The church seemed to shake from the thunderous applause and laughter.
During Ferguson ‘s incarceration, I was asked to provide assistance with reference letters, employment and whatever else he needed upon his release. When he came home, he immediately involved himself in community issues. In fact, while he was incarcerated, he was still organizing. He and his wife, Iyaluua Ferguson, were frequent visitors at my church, the House of the Lord Church, in Brooklyn, N.Y. We considered them honorary members.
Saturday, Oct. 4, in North Carolina, Herman Ferguson was memorialized. They came from near and far to pay homage to the gallant warrior who never left the battlefield.
When I remember the words of Marcus Garvey, to “look for me in the whirlwind,” I believe that Herman Ferguson is still on the battlefield. He’s still with us—not in physical form, but surely in spirit. Making his transition at 93 meant that he had many years to exert his influence upon the world. Having put his footprints on the sands of time, he left us saddened by his departure, but joyful at the contemplation of all that he had accomplished. We are grief-stricken but inspired by his memory.
So we shall look for him in the whirlwind of every liberation, every revolutionary movement. We shall hear his voice again in every song and words of freedom, “Free the land by any means necessary!” And we shall smile.