Iyaluua Ferguson, 91 Years of Life, Love, and Struggle
The long-term activist and educator Iyaluua Ferguson, wife of former political prisoner Herman Ferguson, has finally reached her rest. Born Constance Josephine Swan on June 28, 1932, in Brooklyn, her father, Chieftain Swan, and mother Mary Koch gave her a brother Charles and her sisters Julia and Gloria.
When she graduated summa cum laude with an Education Degree from Hunter College in 1965, she began a long and distinguished career as a teacher at P.S. 40. She found a partner in Herman Ferguson as both opposed the racism they found in the public school system in New York.
In 1967, Herman Ferguson got arrested and she helped begin a defense committee for him and other members of the Black Brotherhood Improvement Association. In 1972, Herman went into exile in Guyana in South America, where she would join him. On June 29, 1972, the two were married, and she would take the name Iyaluua.
Iyaluua Ferguson would continue her passion for education by becoming Executive Editor of the Guyana National Service Publishing Office, where she edited, wrote, and published educational materials for Guyanese students and teachers.
When the couple returned to America, Iyaluua would fight again for Herman’s freedom. Herman would work with the late Safia Bukhari and Jalil Muntaqim to found the Jericho Movement, a group fighting for the freedom of Black political prisoners.
Iyaluua and Herman would begin the Annual Political Prisoners Tribute Dinner to bring together the families of such prisoners to demonstrate that they were not alone and isolated.
Iyaluua and Herman retired in July 2000 to go home to North Carolina. Iyaluua is survived by ten grandchildren and thirteen great grandchildren. After 91 winters, she returns to her ancestors.
—Prison Radio, March 6, 2024
https://www.prisonradio.org/commentary/iyaluua-ferguson-91-years-of-life-love-and-struggle/