Family plans celebration of life for late civil rights lawyer James Ferguson II
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Remembering James Ferguson
James Ferguson II, a Charlotte civil rights lawyer whose landmark cases desegregated schools nationwide died July 21, 2025 at 82. Ferguson, an Asheville native, was also a co-founder of North Carolina’s first interracial law firm.
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Prominent Charlotte civil rights attorney James Ferguson dies at age 82
Friends and family of the late Charlotte civil rights attorney James Ferguson II are organizing a celebration of his life on Aug. 7.
Ferguson, who worked on cases that desegregated schools across the country, died at age 82 last week.
The celebration will be livestreamed and open to the public, according to Ferguson’s eldest son, Jay Ferguson. Ferguson’s family will begin greeting visitors at 11 a.m., and the service will begin at noon.
It will take place at the Park Church, located at 6029 Beatties Ford Road.
“We look forward to celebrating him with the community,” Jay Ferguson said. “He really deserves it.”
Fergie’s legacy
Ferguson served as the “right-hand man” for late civil rights attorney Julius Chambers in the landmark Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case, according to Chambers’ son, Derrick. Chambers litigated that case with law partner Adam Stein.
Justices in the case required the board to create a busing plan that would desegregate the school district, spurring the use of buses to integrate schools nationwide.
Ferguson represented the Wilmington 10, a group of students, a minister and a social worker who were wrongfully convicted of arson and conspiracy in connection with the 1971 firebombing of a Wilmington grocery store. The group had their sentences commuted after nearly 10 years in prison and were pardoned in 2012.
He also defended Darryl Hunt, who was wrongfully convicted twice for the rape and murder of a white newspaper copy editor in Winston-Salem. Hunt was later exonerated and released from prison following DNA evidence and a confession from the man who had committed the crimes.
