Herman Ferguson: THE PASSING OF THE PEOPLE’S WARRRIOR

Jericho flag

Herman Ferguson

THE PASSING OF THE PEOPLE’S WARRRIOR

d. September 25, 2014

Revolutionary Salute!

http://thejerichomovement.com/2014-09-25-herman-ferguson.html

Jericho honors Comrade Brother and co-founder of the Jericho Movement, Herman Ferguson, who passed Thursday, September 25th surrounded by his loving wife and comrades. We extend our prayers, thoughts and well-wishing to Sister Iyaluua Ferguson and the Ferguson family. Baba Herman was memorialized in North Carolina on Saturday, October 4, 2014. Read about memorial.

Friends, comrades and well-wishers are encouraged to share a memory or leave a comforting message for the family.
http://www.stevenlyonsfuneralhome.com/new_view.php?id=5343526&op=viewcond

Herman will also be memorialized in New York at a later date.

Survivors; beloved wife; Iyaluua Ferguson of the home; sons, Michael Ferguson (Laverne) and Mark Ferguson both of NY; daughters; Jackie and Constance Ferguson both of Los Angeles, CA; stepdaughters, Nilaja Verna Turner-Magbie (Paul) of Holly Springs and Deidre Hicks of Cary; 10 grandchildren, 14 great grandchildren, 2 great-great grandchildren and a host of other relatives and friends.

Herman and Iyaluua Ferguson
Herman, with wife, Comrade Sister Iyaluua

Brother Herman Ferguson represents all of us in so many ways – from working man, community organizer, educator, fugitive, husband, comrade, revolutionary, mentor, and leader. Herman played a decisive leadership role in the struggle for community control of NYC school systems of Ocean-Hill Brownsville, Harlem, and the Lower East Side in the late 60’s. Brother Herman was one of Malcolm X’s close associates, and a prominent member of Malcolm X’s Muslim Mosque Inc., and later one of the founding members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU); both organizations created by Malcolm 1964. He also helped to organize the Republic of new Afrika and was a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM).

As a member of RAM, Herman was arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and Whitney Young of the Urban League. Sentenced to 3 and a half – 7 years, he fled the country and surfaced in Guyana where he lived and worked as an educator and high government official for the next 19 years. In 1989 he returned to the United States where he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven years. After his release he, along with Sister Safiya Bukhari (deceased) and Political Prisoner, Jalil Abdul-Muntaqim, co-founded the National Jericho Amnesty Movement; as well as served as the chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee. Brother Herman had also had a long and active relationship with the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika (PG-RNA) and the New Afrika Independence Movement. He was Minister of Education in the first Cabinet in 1968, and in later years, among other things, served as a District Judge.


Mama Iyaluua Ferguson broke the news to the rest of the world via Facebook later, saying, “It is with great sorrow and sadness that I tell the Black Nation that my beloved husband and comrade of 47 years departed this earthly plane and joined the ancestors this afternoon Thursday, September 25. Herman is loved and will always be loved. Herman is missed and will always be missed.”
– Mama Iyaluua Ferguson


Baba Herman Ferguson joins the Ancestors. Baba Herman was a progressive and Black Nationalist educator in the New York City schools system. An associate of Malcolm X, he was a member of the Muslim Mosque, Inc. and the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) . Baba Herman was the organizer and director of the OAAU Liberation School. He formed the Black Brotherhood Inc. in Queen, NY, which joined the Revolutionary Action Movement in 1967. In response to white supremacist groups arming themselves, Baba Herman formed a rifle club for Blacks in Queens, NY. He also motivated his students like Mutulu Shakur and Abdul Majid to become active in the Black Power movement. Baba Herman also joined the Provisional Government of the Republic of New Afrika in 1968. He was targeted by the FBI Cointelpro program and forced into exile in Guyana. He returned to the U.S. and served time as a political prisoner and after his release fought for the release of other incarcerated freedom fighters. He and his wife and partner in love and struggle, Mama Iyaluua Ferguson initiated the Nationtime newspaper, the New Afrikan Liberation Front, Malcolm X Commermative Committee and the Jericho Movement for Amnesty for U.S. Political Prisoners. I am blessed and more enriched to learn and work with Baba Herman. His spirit will continue to guide and fight for us as an Ancestor!!! Free the Land!!! Ase!!!
– Akinyele Umoja

Malcolm x commemoration committee statement

THE DRUM HAS SOUNDED!
BABA HERMAN FERGUSON, OUR FOUNDING CHAIRMAN, HAS PASSED!

The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee sadly announces that our founding chairman and longtime leader, Baba Herman Ferguson passed away on Thursday, September 25, 2014.

He was 93.

He died quietly and comfortably in the company of his wife and first comrade, Mama Iyaluua Ferguson, his successor Dequi Sadiki, freedom fighter Pam Afrika and other family members.

“We have lost an enormous freedom fighter and a great man in Herman Ferguson, a pioneer of the New Afrikan nation, a man whose entire life has been devoted to the liberation of our people,” said Dequi Sadiki, his succeeding chair emphatically. “A man of commitment, great courage and principle, a man who had no price and no fear, who we could all emulate just like so many have emulated Malcolm himself and not go wrong.”

In 1992, when the late judge Bruce Wright ordered his release from prison, Baba Herman brought together surviving members of the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU) to do something about the efforts at that time to commercialize Malcolm’s legacy through academic distortion, a Hollywood film and the commercializing of his image.

What emerged from that was the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, who included at that time OAAU members, Yuri Kochiyama, Jean Reynolds, Butch Gladstone, each of whom has since passed, Earl Grant and Selma Sparks. In addition, other Malcolm devotees, such as author-educator-activist Sam Anderson, who went onto to start the Malcolm X Museum, attorney Joan Gibbs, Bruce Ellis, retired educator Rosa Ellis and Zayid Muhammad, rounded out the group.

Under Baba Herman’s stewardship, they expanded the annual pilgrimage to Malcolm’s gravesite. They hosted what has now become an institutionalized event, the annual dinner tribute to the families of Black political prisoners.

They launched an in-class oral history project called Malcolm X In The Classroom, where members would go into New York City classrooms and talk about this incredible legacy. They helped forge the New Afrikan Liberation Front, which established the closing down of businesses along 125th Street on May 19th, as an act of community self-determination in honor of Malcolm’s birthday. They produced a short video bio-montage on Malcolm called Taking It On. During that period, Baba Herman and Mama Iyaluua would also institute Nation Time newspaper! Initially, Nation Time was to be the voice of the New Afrikan Liberation Front. It would become the most consistently running news vehicle that the New Afrikan Independence Movement has ever had, having run for ten years! Later, they would also develop a Malcolm X Essay Contest for the schools as well.

In 1997, along with the late Safiya Bukhari-Alston, he helped launch the Jericho Movement to free political prisoners.

“His was the only draft in my life that I ever answered,” recalled Zayid Muhammad, the organization’s press officer.

“Make no mistake about it, Baba Herman was our rock, our glue who held us together and shaped our direction, identity and character,” he finished. Mani Gilyard, who also served as his succeeding co-chair, echoed those sentiments.

“Herman unquestionably cut out the mold of our work and how it was to be done,” he said. “Once he retired, all we had to do was to follow the mold.” Herman Ferguson was born on December 31, 1920. After years in the military, he went into education and was a principal in the NYC school system when he would meet and later join Malcolm X.

He was on the OAAU’s Education Committee and was there on that fateful day in 1965 when Malcolm was assassinated.

Unlike many OAAU members who chose to tactically retreat after the assassination, Herman boldly moved forward. He launched the Big Brothers Improvement Association in Queens. He ran for the NY state senate as an independent. He dared to establish the Jamaica Rifle and Pistol Association, which would become a training ground for a number of young activists who would later go into the Black Panther Party and the New Afrikan independence movement. Of course, he was one of the original signatories to the Declaration of Independence of the Provisional Government of the Republic New Afrika, one of modern Black nationalism’s boldest and yet unsung historical moments!

It was during this robust period of organizing that Baba Herman, as did so many others, became a serious COINTELPRO target. He was ultimately framed for conspiring to murder civil rights figures Whitney Young and Roy Wilkins. He would exile himself to Guyana rather than serve a wrongful imprisonment.

In Guyana, his nation-building orientation would serve him well. He would distinguish himself by serving in their armed forces, helping them develop their civil defense and retiring a full colonel in the Guyanese military. He was also a key official in their ministry of education.

In 1989, he sought to return to the states in an effort to clear his name. He would ultimately be taken right into custody upon landing in New York and made to serve his sentence from the earlier COINTELPRO-orchestrated conviction. When his case came before Judge Bruce Wright, he was released.

Upon his retirement from public life, Baba Herman, penned his long awaited memoirs, An Unlikely Warrior, http://anunlikelywarrior.com/, with the assistance of his wife, Iyaluua, which is considered a must read for serious students of Black Nationalism and of the legendary Black Radical Tradition. Baba Herman will be memorialized in North Carolina on Saturday, October 4th. He will also be memorialized in New York at a later date.

Long Live Herman Ferguson!
Carry On The Tradition!
By Any Means Necessary!
Free The Land!

Zayid Muhammad, Press officer

Videos of Herman Ferguson Speaking

Baba Herman Ferguson Speaks at Sankofa Book store pn his book An Unlikely Warrior. August 21, 2011. Washington DC. Part 1.

Baba Herman Ferguson Speaks at Sankofa Book store pn his book An Unlikely Warrior. August 21, 2011. Washington DC. Part 2.

Interview with Herman Ferguson on his life. Must see!
Interviewer and Producer: Dr. Oba T’Shaka Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University. Author of Political Legacy of Malcolm X.
Cinematography by: Andrés García-Cruz. Post-Production by: H.J. Day.

AUDIO OF BABA HERMAN FERGUSON SPEAKING TO YOUNG PEOPLE (NOV. 7, 2010)

On November 7, 2010 following a two-day National meeting of the Jericho Movement, life long freedom fighter Herman Ferguson, 90, sat down to speak with Naji Mujahid and some of the Black Riders.

Herman Ferguson was one the founding members of Malcolm X’s Organization of Afro-American Unity. He also helped to organize the Republic of New Afrika and was a member of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM). As a member of RAM, Herman was arrested for conspiracy to assassinate Roy Wilkins of the NAACP and Whitney Young of the Urban League. Herman was sentenced to 3 and a half 7 years, but he fled the country and surfaced in Guyana where he lived and worked for the next 19 years. In 1989 he returned to the United States where he was promptly arrested and imprisoned for seven years. Since his release he has served as the co-chair of the Jericho Movement, and as the chair of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee.
This audio is part of the collection: Community Audio It also belongs to collection: Artist/Composer: Naji Mujahid