Biography
Isaac E. Ferguson was a Canadian-born, Chicago-based attorney and a founding leader of the Communist Party of America in 1919, serving on its Central Executive Committee, as alternate International Secretary, and as party legal counsel. During the First Red Scare he was indicted in New York and, in October 1920, tried jointly with party leader C.E. Ruthenberg in the Supreme Court of New York County under the state's 1902 Criminal Anarchy statute for their role in publishing the "Left Wing Manifesto"; both were convicted on October 29, 1920, sentenced to five years, and Ferguson was imprisoned at Sing Sing. He was released on bond in April 1922, and the New York Court of Appeals reversed both convictions in July 1922 — a companion decision to the landmark Gitlow case — for lack of evidence linking the men to the Manifesto's publication. After his release Ferguson withdrew from radical politics and built a long career as a prominent Chicago attorney; he died in Chicago in 1964. (Recorded as Isaac Edward "Ed" Ferguson)
International Secretary and alternate distinguished
The September 1919 report says Louis C. Fraina was chosen International Secretary and I. E. Ferguson as alternate. It also names Ferguson among international delegates, Central Executive Committee members, Executive Council members, and associate editors. The biography’s office wording is refined to distinguish the alternate from Fraina’s principal office. Nothing in this convention account establishes Ferguson’s later arrest, admission or release date; his 1920–1922 case remains unchanged.
