[Congressional Record Volume 171, Number 126 (Wednesday, July 23, 2025)]
[House]
[Pages H3559-H3560]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   HONORING JAMES ``FERGIE'' FERGUSON

  (Ms. Adams of North Carolina was recognized to address the House for 
5 minutes.)
  Ms. ADAMS. Madam Speaker, I rise today with a heavy heart to honor a 
giant in our State's history, a giant in our profession, and a giant in 
the fight for civil rights, the late James Ferguson II, who passed away 
on Monday, July 21, at age 82.
  Mr. Ferguson was not just a brilliant legal mind. He was a 
trailblazer, truthteller, teacher, and proud HBCU graduate who believed 
deeply in the power of the law to right all wrongs. He spent his life 
doing just that, from lunch counter protests in segregated Asheville to 
courtroom battles that reshaped this Nation.
  Mr. Ferguson cofounded North Carolina's first interracial law firm. 
He stood before the Supreme Court in Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg and 
won, changing how schools across America desegregated. He defended the 
Wilmington Ten. He fought for Darryl Hunt. He trained Black lawyers 
during apartheid.
  Mr. Ferguson did it all with quiet grace, a velvet voice, and an iron 
resolve.

[[Page H3560]]

  Mr. Ferguson understood something that I often say about HBCUs: They 
were not built for comfort. They were built for purpose. So was he.
  Educated at North Carolina Central University and Columbia Law 
School, he returned home not to make headlines, Madam Speaker, but to 
make a difference.
  In my journey, I admired him long before I ever met him, but when I 
ran for Congress, he became a trusted friend, a supporter, and an 
adviser.
  Mr. Ferguson didn't just practice law. He lived it. He believed that 
justice must be pursued even when it is unpopular and even when the 
odds are long.
  That is the legacy of James Ferguson, not just the legal victories 
but the courage to take on cases that no one else would, the integrity 
to mentor the next generation, and the conviction that justice was not 
just a profession but, for him, a calling.
  Mr. Ferguson was a leader in the courtroom. He was a leader in the 
classroom. He was a leader in our community. He was a model for what 
public service looks like at its best. Madam Speaker, as a former 
educator myself, I know a good teacher when I see one. Fergie taught us 
all.
  Today, I honor his life. I honor his work. I offer my deepest 
condolences to his family, his children, his grandchildren, his great-
grandchildren, and his many friends across Charlotte and across this 
country.
  Let us remember him not only in words but in action by picking up the 
work that he left behind, by fighting the fights that he could not 
finish, and by standing tall in the truth that he lived.
  May he rest in power.

                          ____________________