A Celebration of the Life of Baba Herman Ferguson
Saturday, May 16, 2015
3-6 p.m.
415 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, NY
(between Bond and Nevins Streets)
“A Revolutionary Change in Our Life Time”
Herman Ferguson was born in Fayetteville, North Carolina on December 31, 1920. He was an educator and leading figure in the Ocean Hill-Brownsville struggle for community control of NYC public schools, and Assistant Principal at P.S. 40 in Queens and P.S. 21 in Brooklyn.
Herman was a long distance runner in the battle for national liberation. He served as a judge and District Representative of the Republic of New Afrika, was a member and Chairman of the Education Committee of brother Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU), and was present on that fateful February 21, 1965 day at the Audubon Ballroom when Malcolm was assassinated. He vowed to carry on Malcolm’s teachings as best he could, organizing the Black Brotherhood Improvement Association in Jamaica, Queens, holding street corner rallies, political education classes, martial arts classes and forming the Jamaica Rifle and Pistol Club, Inc.—all of which made him a target of the u.s. government’s Counterintelligence Program (Cointelpro).
In 1967, Herman chose exile rather than go to prison on the false charges he was convicted of. He, along with his life partner Iyaluua Ferguson, spent nineteen years in Guyana, South America, where he participated in Guyana’s nation-building, rising to the rank of Assistant Director General in it National Service, joined the Guyana Defense Force (GDF), and retired with the rank of Lt. Colonel.
In 1989, Herman voluntarily returned to the united states and was immediately sent to prison. Upon his release, he immediately stepped back into work in the nationalist community, co-founding the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee (now Chairman Emeritus), the National Jericho Movement for Amnesty & Recognition of u.s. held P/POWs, publishing NATION TIME, serving as Administrator of the New Afrikan Liberation Front and co-chairing the Queens chapter of NCOBRA (National Coalition of Blacks for Reparations in America).
In 2009, Herman and Iyaluua relocated to North Carolina, where they collaborated on his bio/memoir, “Herman Ferguson: An Unlikely Warrior, Evolution of a Black Revolutionary Nationalist.”
On September 25, 2014, Herman Ferguson made his Transition. He leaves to cherish his life and legacy his wife, Iyaluua and a long line of family, friends and comrades in the struggle.