Rev. Dr. Mazie Lee Ferguson, esquire, was born on May 25 ^th , 1944, in Sumter, SC to Pastor Norman Butler and Gardenia Butler.

Attorney Reverend Dr. Mazie Butler Ferguson was a civil rights activist, legal services attorney, Pastor, and social justice warrior.  She spent her entire life fighting the injustice that plagued our world.

As the daughter of a South Carolina Pastor, she heard the call of God to serve in his Social Justice militia in 1955 when Emmett Till was found at the bottom of the Mississippi River.

At age 11, she vowed that no child nor grandchild of hers would ever live in a world where that could be their lot!  She stepped forward and join the movement of which she was a lifetime member.  As a teenage Civil Rights activist, she was a voter registration worker, a member of the Congress of Racial Equality and led Social Justice initiatives that integrated bowling alleys in Georgetown, South Carolina, and later, workplaces in Spartanburg, South Carolina.

Dr. Mazie Butler Ferguson went on to graduate from South Carolina State University. There, she joined her beloved Sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Incorporated. As the great great grandniece of Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, education was important to her.  She would go on to also earned her J.D. from the University of South Carolina Law School and attend the Lutheran Theological Seminary of the Southeast and the Shaw University Divinity School-where she served as the Divinity School Student Body President.

Dr. Ferguson worked as a lawyer since 1978. In that capacity, she served as legal counsel for a number of organizations including the North Carolina Legislative Black Caucus, the chancellor and board of trustees of the North Carolina A & T State University, and the North Carolina General Baptist State Convention. She also served as the first African-American female executive director of Palmetto Legal Services.

Dr. Ferguson held a number of positions within the NAACP including the state housing chair of the South Carolina NAACP Conference of Branches (before moving to North Carolina) and the chair of the religious affairs committee of the North Carolina State Conference of the NAACP.

Outside of her legal experience, Dr. Ferguson worked as a professor of law and criminal justice at several colleges and universities in the Carolinas. She also became one of the first African American female Baptist pastors in NC when First Missionary Baptist Church of Siler City called her to pastor in 1995.  As a Pastor, she went on to found Liberation Missionary Baptist Church of Greensboro, NC-where she served as Pastor until she retired in 2007.  She be remembered, as well for her years as the first woman President of the Minister's Pulpit Forum of Greensboro, NC.

Ferguson is survived by her two children: Rev. Lei Ferguson-Washington (Rev. Daryl) and Daniel Ferguson; three grandchildren, Darius Washington, Nikolaus Knight, and Jaleah Knight; three siblings, Norman Butler Jr., Dr. Floydetta Baker-Young, and Commissioner Ella Scarborough; and a host of nieces, nephews, family, and friends. She was preceded in death by her parents and her youngest brother, the Rev. Melvin Lee Butler.

A homegoing celebration will be held on Saturday, September 11, 2021 at New Zion Missionary Baptist Church, 408 Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive, Greensboro.  Visitation with the family begins at 10:30 am followed by the service at 11:00 am.

Due to COVID 19 restrictions, New Zion has reached seating capacity.  You can still participate in the service by finding the livestream link below.

YouTube Channel

Greensboro – New Zion Missionary Baptist Church

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF3f-OeIwg641h9oG2lYMyQ

We apologize for the inconvenience.