Katie Gill
Cataloging Librarian
This post originally broadcast on MLC Moments on Mississippi Public Broadcasting.
This October, take time out from your pumpkins, spooky movies, and pumpkin spice lattes to celebrate the birthday of a Mississippi civil rights leader.
Fannie Lou Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She grew up in poverty. At age 6, Hamer joined her family picking cotton and at age 12, she left school to work. In summer 1961, Hamer attended a meeting led by activists from SNCC, the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, and SCLC, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Inspired by the organizations and incensed by Black Mississippians’ routine disenfranchisement, Hamer became a SNCC organizer. On August 31, 1962, she led 17 volunteers to register to vote at the Indianola courthouse. The group was denied the right to vote due to an unfair literacy test and were harassed by police as they left the courthouse.
In June 1963, Hamer and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a whites-only bus station in Winona. In the jail, Hamer was brutally beaten, which left her with lifelong injuries, kidney damage, and leg damage. The next year, 1964, Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, MDFP. The party challenged the local Democratic party’s efforts to block Black participation. Hamer and other MDFP members went to the Democratic National Convention that year to stand as the official delegation from the state of Mississippi. In 1968, Hamer’s vision became reality, and she was a member of Mississippi’s first integrated delegation.
In 1964, Hamer unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S Senate. She continued to work on local programs, such as grassroots Head Start programs and Freedom Summer, a region-wide drive to help with Black voter registration in the American South. In 1969, Hamer started the Freedom Farm Collective, which bought up lands that Blacks could own and farm, provided housing development through services like financial counseling and a housing agency, and started a “pig bank,” providing free pigs for Black farmers to raise and breed.
Hamer was a notable orator. Though her deep accent often led others to judge her as “uneducated,” Hamer’s strong oratorial style and “tell it like it is” type of speaking drew crowds. One of her most famous speeches was at Williams Institutional Church in Harlem, New York, on December 20, 1964. In this speech, Hamer talks about her work in voter registration and the abuse she endured due to it. She attacks American life and culture, saying that change is needed in Mississippi, in Harlem, and in greater American society. Her work has been collected in a book by the University Press of Mississippi, titled The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell it Like It Is. She published her autobiography, “Praise Our Bridges,” in 1967, with help from Julius Lester and Mary Varela.
On March 14, 1977, Hamer died of complications from hypertension and breast cancer. She was buried in Ruleville, Mississippi and her tombstone is engraved with one of her most notable quotes: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Her primary memorial service was completely full. An overflow service, held at Ruleville Central High School, had over 1,500 people in attendance. All across America, schools, post offices, and libraries bear her name.
There have been plenty of books written about Fannie Lou Hamer. Some notable biographies written about her include Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Keisha N. Blain and Walk with Me: a Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Larson. Younger readers can learn more about Hamer with the picture book Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Ekua Holmes. These books, and others, can be found at your local Mississippi public library.
In June 1963, Hamer and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a whites-only bus station in Winona. In the jail, Hamer was brutally beaten, which left her with lifelong injuries, kidney damage, and leg damage. The next year, 1964, Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, MDFP. The party challenged the local Democratic party’s efforts to block Black participation. Hamer and other MDFP members went to the Democratic National Convention that year to stand as the official delegation from the state of Mississippi. In 1968, Hamer’s vision became reality, and she was a member of Mississippi’s first integrated delegation.
In 1964, Hamer unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S Senate. She continued to work on local programs, such as grassroots Head Start programs and Freedom Summer, a region-wide drive to help with Black voter registration in the American South. In 1969, Hamer started the Freedom Farm Collective, which bought up lands that Blacks could own and farm, provided housing development through services like financial counseling and a housing agency, and started a “pig bank,” providing free pigs for Black farmers to raise and breed.
Hamer was a notable orator. Though her deep accent often led others to judge her as “uneducated,” Hamer’s strong oratorial style and “tell it like it is” type of speaking drew crowds. One of her most famous speeches was at Williams Institutional Church in Harlem, New York, on December 20, 1964. In this speech, Hamer talks about her work in voter registration and the abuse she endured due to it. She attacks American life and culture, saying that change is needed in Mississippi, in Harlem, and in greater American society. Her work has been collected in a book by the University Press of Mississippi, titled The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell it Like It Is. She published her autobiography, “Praise Our Bridges,” in 1967, with help from Julius Lester and Mary Varela.
On March 14, 1977, Hamer died of complications from hypertension and breast cancer. She was buried in Ruleville, Mississippi and her tombstone is engraved with one of her most notable quotes: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” Her primary memorial service was completely full. An overflow service, held at Ruleville Central High School, had over 1,500 people in attendance. All across America, schools, post offices, and libraries bear her name.
There have been plenty of books written about Fannie Lou Hamer. Some notable biographies written about her include Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Keisha N. Blain and Walk with Me: a Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer by Kate Clifford Larson. Younger readers can learn more about Hamer with the picture book Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement written by Carole Boston Weatherford and illustrated by Ekua Holmes. These books, and others, can be found at your local Mississippi public library.
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