<html>
<body>
<font size=3>THE MALCOLM X COMMEMORATION COMMITTEE <br><br>
PO BOX 340084 <br>
JAMAICA STATION, JAMAICA NY 11434 <br>
718-949-5153 OR 212-928-5165 <br>
June 13, 2009 <br><br>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE <br><br>
<b>THE FERGUSONS ‘RETURN TO THE LAND’!</b> <br>
<b>MXCC, REVOLUTIONARY NY SEND OFF <br>
LEGENDARY REVOLUTIONARY COUPLE</b> <br><br>
On <b>Saturday, June 27th</b>, the House of the Lord Church will be
filled to the rafters to send off one of the city’s most revolutionary
couples, Baba Herman Ferguson and his Queen Iyaluua Ferguson as the two
prepare to leave New York after a life here of extraordinary commitment
in order to “return to the land,” using the bold language of the New
Afrikan Independence Movement. <br><br>
The sendoff will begin at 6pm. <br><br>
The House of the Lord Church is located at 415 Atlantic Avenue in
Brooklyn. <br><br>
The Fergusons are relocating to North Carolina in July. <br><br>
To the New Afrikan Independence Movement, of which the Fergusons are
pioneering founders, North Carolina is a part of the five state territory
where the majority of our ancestors worked to lay the wealth foundation
for the American nation as slaves. <br><br>
“If our people truly pursued separation instead of integration, that
would be part of our national territory,” explained Zayid Muhammad, who
was authored the oath of New Afrikan citizenship by Baba Ferguson and the
late Safiya Bukhari-Alston in 1996. <br><br>
The other four states are South Carolina, Mississippi, Georgia and
Alabama. <br><br>
In recent years, the Fergusons are best known for their role in directing
the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee, which was founded in 1993.
<br><br>
Their commitment is much more extensive. Baba Ferguson, an incredibly
robust 88 years old, of course, is a founding member of both the Muslim
Mosque Inc. (MMI) and the Organization of AfroAmerican Unity (OAAU),
under the immortal Malcolm X. <br><br>
After Malcolm’s assassination in 1965, Ferguson, a principal in the New
York City school system with a clear independent agenda, was one of the
few survivors of the organizations to actually try to pick up the work
standing squarely on several of Malcolm’s core principles. In his beloved
Jamaica Queens, he formed the Black Brotherhood Improvement Association
and the Jamaica Rifle And Pistol Club. The latter became a true training
ground for young Black revolutionaries around the city at the time. It
also made Ferguson a serious FBI COINTELPRO target. <br><br>
On March 31, 1968, in a bold assertion of national liberation, Ferguson,
along with many others who have since have gone in very different
directions, founded the Provisional Government of the Republic of New
Afrika. They came under armed fire at their ‘Declaration of Independence’
in Detroit for daring to do so. The Black Legionnaires, the armed wing of
the provisional government, under the leadership of another New Afrikan
legend, Imari Obadele, returned fire and fought the police to a
standstill! <br><br>
In 1969, Ferguson, among the core who remained true to charge of New
Afrikan independence, was insanely charged with conspiracy to assassinate
civil rights leaders Whitney Young and Roy Wilkins in a COINTELPRO frame
up and convicted. <br><br>
Defying that conviction, Ferguson fled the country and exiled himself for
20 years in Guyana. <br><br>
His young new wife, Iyaluua, also an educator in the New York City school
system in her prime years, left the country and joined her husband as
soon as she possibly could. <br><br>
“Everybody knows what Herman went through. But we should not forget what
Sis. Iyaluua went through and sacrificed also. A stately and elegant
Black woman in her prime years, she walked away from a good career and
everything to join her husband in circumstances over which they had no
control,” explained Dequi Sadiki, who now serves as co-chair of the
Committee with Mani Gilyard. <br><br>
“That is class suicide,” she emphasized, “and not too many sisters, or
brothers for that matter, would do that.” <br><br>
They were not idle exiles in Guyana. Herman, true to his military and
educational background, saw a real opportunity to commit to a nation
building process and seized the time. <br><br>
He played a leading in role in the development of Guyana’s national civil
defense, retiring as a full colonel in their armed forces. He also played
a leading role in the development of their national curriculum for their
schools. <br><br>
In 1989, Ferguson, wanting to clear his name and to be able reunite with
his family, returned to the United States. He was arrested on the plane
headed back to America and immediately sent to prison to serve the
sentence for the ’69 conviction. In the appeal process, the late
legendary judge, Bruce Wright, threw out the conviction in the interests
of justice and had him released. <br><br>
In 1993, Ferguson, along with other comrades from the OAAU, including the
revered Yuri Kochiyama, the brilliant warrior Earl Grant, the unflappable
Jean Reynolds and the late neckbreaker ‘Butch’ Gladstone Alexander, and
other seasoned activists in the nationalist tradition, formed the Malcolm
X Commemoration out of concern that the state and the media’s efforts to
co-opt Malcolm’s legacy would keep it from inspiring our youth to resist.
<br><br>
“I was working on a project of my own at the time out of the same concern
called the Malcolm X Ancestral Memory Project, where I had people like
former Malcolmites Dr. Clarke, Earl Grant and Alice Windom, and
revolutionary scholars who were truly upholding his legacy in new
scholarship like Zak Kondo, Guyanese giant Jan Carew, Rosemari Mealy and
Bill Sales, come into Newark and into Harlem. I had Mama Iyaluua come and
talk about Baba Herman, while he was still inside.” Recalled Bro. Zayid
fondly. who still serves as press officer in addition to now being a
national leader in the New Black Panther Party. <br><br>
“Then all of sudden, without me knowing about it, Herman got out. I
cussed out the nationalist elders who were around me at the time for not
telling me. Herman just grabbed me and said ‘Thank you, son,’ and within
weeks, I was his press officer for the newly founded Malcolm X
Commemoration Committee.” <br><br>
The Fergusons have made other underappreciated commitments during these
recent years that deserve attention as well. <br><br>
They were absolutely important in the survival and the maintenance of the
Jericho Movement, forged by the late Safiya Bukhari-Alston and others in
1997 to be a national support vehicle for political prisoners in the
United States. Even less appreciated was their contribution on the
propaganda front with their creation of the incredible newspaper
<i>Nation Time, </i>The Voice of The New Afrikan Liberation Front<i>.
</i>The paper, published by Herman and edited by Iyaluua, ran seasonally
for ten consistent years with no outside resource support whatsoever. It
provided the New Afrikan Independence Movement with a vehicle to get out
the word of their work. It is now archived at the Schomburg Library.
<br><br>
The tribute will be held from 6-9pm. For more information, please call
856-591-3623 or 917-627-9473. <br><br>
<br>
</font><x-sigsep><p></x-sigsep>
<font size=3 color="#FF0000">Freedom Archives<br>
522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#008000">415 863-9977<br><br>
</font><font size=3 color="#0000FF">
<a href="http://www.freedomarchives.org/" eudora="autourl">
www.Freedomarchives.org</a></font><font size=3> </font></body>
</html>