Paid The Cost To Be The B.O.S.S.
For some, trying to follow through on Malcolm's philosophy had unintended consequences for which they paid a heavy price. Take for example the case of Herman Ferguson.

He first became involved in the civil rights movement in 1963 when he joined in Queens CORE's demonstration at Rochdale Village against racism in the construction industry. He and several others from various CORE chapters invented a new protest tactic by climbing up and chaining themselves to the construction cranes. Although he did not consider himself a member of CORE, he was made the education chairman for South Jamaica CORE, a militant break off chapter from Queens CORE, in 1964.(69)

This activism also led to his creation of the Rochdale Movement which focused on a selective buying campaign in the Jamaica, Queens shopping district. It was this group that first brought him to the attention of Malcolm X who invited Ferguson to join his OAAU.(70)

Ferguson's involvement in the OAAU led to his case file being opened by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). His court papers also reveal that the FBI's investigation may have begun as early as the summer of 1963.(71) This would have been when he joined the demonstration at Rochdale Village and a few weeks before his crane climbing action which implies the investigation may have started just as he became involved with Queens CORE.

By 1967, Ferguson had become the head of the local chapter of the Revolutionary Action Movement (RAM), an organization which among other things was meant to be the underground armed faction of the OAAU. Taking to heart Malcolm's suggestion that Blacks should arm themselves in self defense, Ferguson helped create the Jamaica Rifle and Gun Club. He and fifteen from his club including former CORE members Arthur Harris, Mandola Mcpherson and Clarence Milton Ellis were arrested not long afterward. Along with RAM's field chairman Max Stanford* they were 'charged with conspiracy to commit arson and anarchy as part of an alleged "black revolutionary" plot'. Ferguson and Harris were separately charged with plotting to assassinate Roy Wilkins, head of the NAACP and Whitney Young, head of the Urban League. The plot had been concocted by undercover BOSS agent Edward Lee Howlette who had infiltrated their group just as Ray Wood had Bronx CORE years earlier. More than twenty years later it was discovered the plot was actually part of the FBI's counter intelligence program, COINTELPRO.(72)

While out on bail, Ferguson spoke at a memorial for Malcolm X at Harlem junior high school I.S. 201 where he had been hired as a consultant. During his presentation, he again advocated that Blacks arm themselves to resist any potential racist attacks.

In the audience was junior high school teacher and Brooklyn CORE member Les Campbell who brought with him forty students to attend the memorial. For this, Campbell was suspended from his job by the Board of Education.(73)

This was a key event in Campbell's eventual transformation to Jitu Weusi, founder of the EAST, a cultural nationalist organization that also included several members from Brooklyn CORE. At its core was Uhuru Sasa (Swahili for 'Freedom Now', CORE's rallying cry), the first independent Afrocentric school in the city. Among its staff were Ferguson and others who had been members of the OAAU. Malcolm's autobiography was a central text in the curriculum and his image was prominently displayed throughout the school. In describing Weusi and his work with Uhuru Sasa, Betty Shabazz proclaimed "... we have to use the words dedication, competence, truth, beauty and justice."(74)

Weusi and the EAST also functioned as 'keepers of the flame' celebrating his legacy with its annual Malcolm X memorial. When Ferguson eventually returned to the United States he also kept the memory alive as the founding chairman of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee with its various educational projects and support for political prisoners.

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