Biography
Lester Carter names John Ferguson among the white train witnesses confined in Scottsboro during the initial 1931 prosecution of nine Black youths. He describes Ferguson as short and black-haired; authorities questioned the witnesses, placed them in the run-around and then locked them in a steel cage overnight, keeping them there the following day. No individual statutory charge, conviction, exact release or complete duration is given. The qualified name distinguishes this witness from unrelated Ferguson prisoners. Source: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/labordefender/1933/v09n11-dec-1933-lab-def.pdf#page=19
