SEIZING FREEDOM
In the early 1970s, the firm won three landmark Supreme Court rulings – in Swann and in the employment discrimination cases Griggs v. Duke Power and Moody v. Albermarle Paper. But the public outcry provoked by the Swann ruling, along with court cases such as that of the Charlotte Three underscored how hard it would be to overcome the deep-seated fears, beliefs and interests that had animated centuries of racial inequality. In 1972, James Ferguson served as the lead defense lawyer in three major criminal cases against Black activists: the Charlotte Three, the Wilmington Ten and the Raleigh Two. Despite a stunning lack of physical evidence, the activists in all three cases were sentenced to significant jail time. The Charlotte Three would remain in jail until 1979, the year an international outcry prompted governor Jim Hunt to commute their sentences.23 “Sometimes the system works to bring about some measure of justice,” Ferguson later surmised. “And sometimes it doesn’t work at all.”24
105
