James Ferguson, R.I.P.

He is a legend. Several of my partners/former partners were partners with him before joining my firm when Fergie’s firm was winding down. My long time partner who hired me 20 years ago to join the firm I’m with now was mentored by Fergie before going out to start his own firm.
 
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By way of Buncombe County Special Collections: “
We, along with many, are mourning the loss of a civil rights giant, James Ferguson II, who passed away Monday, July 21st, at 82. 💔
An Asheville native, James Ferguson was a pioneering attorney whose work profoundly shaped the nation's racial justice landscape.

From his early days in Asheville, he was always committed to the ideals of equity. He was born on October 10, 1942, and grew up in the Southside neighborhood on Grove Street and Blanton Street. Raised with seven siblings, his family made a living by selling coal and performing domestic labor for well-off white families in town. In 1958, as a sophomore at Stephens-Lee High School, he joined the Greater Asheville Intergroup Youth Association, frustrated by the school board's inaction on desegregation. After graduating in 1960, he co-created and was the first president of the Asheville Student Committee on Racial Equality (ASCORE), which organized demonstrations and peaceful protests that successfully desegregated city lunch counters, libraries, parks, and other public facilities in town.

Later, after attending NC Central University for his undergraduate degree and getting his law degree from Columbia, Ferguson returned to North Carolina and co-founded the state’s first interracial law firm. In 1970, he led a successful landmark lawsuit against the Asheville City Schools for failing to comply with federal desegregation mandates, 16 years after Brown v. Board of Education officially ended public school segregation. He also went on to play a pivotal role in landmark cases like Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education, which paved the way for busing to integrate schools.

His legacy of community, resistance, and optimism that we can work together to make things better will never be forgotten. Rest in power, James Ferguson II. Thank you for fighting for a more just world. 🙏
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Included are photos from Stephens-Lee's "The Bear" yearbook from Ferguson's freshman, sophomore, and junior years (we unfortunately don't have a copy of the 1960 yearbook), and a Nov 24, 1959, Asheville Citizen-Times article showing Ferguson meeting with the Greater Asheville Intergroup Youth Association.”
 
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