Civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer dedicated her life to securing equal voting rights for African Americans.
Born in 1917 in Ruleville, Mississippi, Hamer worked with her sharecropper parents as a child. Poverty and racial exploitation didn’t let her complete her studies, and she only received a sixth-grade education
In 1962, Hamer began her civil rights activism after answering a call by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) for volunteers to challenge voter registration procedures that excluded African Americans. Fired for her attempt to register to vote, Hamer became a field secretary for the SNCC, and then a registered voter in 1963.
“They kicked me off the plantation, they set me free. It’s the best thing that could happen. Now I can work for my people,” she said, according to The New York Times.
In 1963, after she and other activists were arrested, she was beaten so badly in a Winona, Mississippi, jail that she suffered permanent kidney damage.
A year after Hamer cofounded and became vice-chairperson of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). That year, she testified before the credentials committee of the Democratic National Convention, demanding that the delegation of the Mississippi Democratic Party be replaced by the MFDP delegation.
After Lyndon B. Johnson tried to block the television broadcast of her testimony by scheduling a news conference at the same time, her speech aired on many evening news programs, allowing a much larger audience to watch.
“My name is Fannie Lou Hamer and I exist at 626 East Lafayette Street in Ruleville, Mississippi. The reason I say ‘exist’ is because we’re excluded from everything in Mississippi but the tombs and the graves. That’s why it is called that instead of the “land of the free and the home of the brave.” It’s called in Mississippi, “the land of the tree and the home of the grave.” That’s how Hamer began her speech. Although she lost the Democratic primary, she brought the civil rights struggle in Mississippi to the attention of the entire nation during that televised session at the convention.
In 1967, Hamer published To Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography. Hamer went against the Vietnam War and worked to improve economic conditions in Mississippi. She set up organizations to increase business opportunities for minorities and provide childcare and other family services. She also helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971.
In 1976, Hamer was diagnosed with breast cancer, but that didn’t stop her from fighting for civil rights.
She passed away a year later in a hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.
Ask us! What questions do you have about content, strategy, pop culture, lifestyle, wellness, history or more? We may use your question in an upcoming article!
Like MediaFeed’s content? Be sure to follow us.
This article was syndicated by MediaFeed.co
