Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer (

Hamer was born as Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the last of the 20 children of Lou Ella and James Lee Townsend.^[3]

In 1919, the Townsends moved to

Hamer and her husband wanted very much to start a family but in 1961, a white doctor subjected Hamer to a

Hamer became interested in the civil rights movement in the 1950s.^[15] She heard leaders of the local movement speak at annual Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) conferences, held in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.^[15] The attendees of the yearly conferences discussed black voting rights and other civil rights issues black communities in the area faced.^[12] She became a good friend of RCNL founder and head T. R. M. Howard. ^[16]

Civil rights activism

Registering to vote

As an example of how black citizens were disenfranchised in Mississippi, Hamer said that she "had never heard, until 1962, that black people could register and vote."[1]

Hamer began to become more involved in the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee after these incidents.^[7] She attended many Southern Christian Leadership Conferences (SCLC), where she sometimes taught classes, and various SNCC (pronounced "Snick") workshops. She traveled to gather signatures for petitions to attempt to be granted federal resources for impoverished black families across the South. In early 1963, she became a SNCC field secretary for voter registration and welfare programs. Many of these first attempts to register more black voters in Mississippi were met with the same problems Hamer had found in trying to register herself.^[21]

We been waitin' all our lives, and still gettin' killed, still gettin' hung, still gettin' beat to death. Now we're tired waitin'!^[7]

— Fannie Lou Hamer

White racist attacks

After her attempt to vote, Hamer was fired by her boss, but her husband was required to stay on the land until the end of the harvest.

I guess if I'd had any sense, I'd have been a little scared—but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do was kill me, and it kinda seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time since I could remember.

— Fannie Lou Hamer[29]

Police brutality

On June 9, 1963, Hamer was returning from a voter registration workshop by the

External audio
Audio of Hamer's testimony

In 1964, Hamer helped co-found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), in an effort to prevent the regional all-white Democratic party's attempts to stifle African-American voices, and to ensure there was a party for all people that did not stand for any form of exploitation and discrimination (especially towards minorities).^[38][7] Following the founding of the MFDP, Hamer and other activists traveled to the 1964 Democratic National Convention to stand as the official delegation from the state of Mississippi.^[38] Hamer's televised testimony was interrupted because of a scheduled speech that President Lyndon B. Johnson gave to 30 governors in the White House East Room, but most major news networks broadcast her testimony later that evening to the nation, giving Hamer and the MFDP much exposure.^[39]

All of this is on account we want to register, to become first-class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America. Is this America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives are threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings in America?

— Fannie Lou Hamer^[3]

In 1968, the MFDP was finally seated after the Democratic Party adopted a clause that demanded equality of representation from their states' delegations.[42] In 1972, Hamer was elected as a national party delegate.^[40]

Rhetorical practices

Hamer traveled around the country speaking at various colleges, universities, and institutions.^[43] She was not rich, as confirmed by her clothing and vernacular.^[43] Moreover, Hamer was a short and stocky poor black woman with a deep southern accent, which gave rise to ridicule in the minds of many in her audiences.^[44] Although she often gave speeches, she was often patronized by both black and white people because she was not formally educated. For instance, activists such as Roy Wilkins said Hamer was "ignorant", and President Lyndon B. Johnson looked down on her. When Hamer was being considered to speak as a delegate at the 1964 Democratic National Convention, Hubert Humphrey said: "The President will not allow that illiterate woman to speak from the floor of the convention."^[43] In 1964, Hamer received an honorary degree from Tougaloo College, much to the dismay of a group of black intellectuals who thought she was undeserving of such an honor because she was "unlettered".^[43] On the other hand, Hamer had supporters including Ella Baker, Bob Moses, Charles McLaurin, and Malcolm X who believed in her story and in her ability to speak.^[43] These supporters and others like them believed that despite Hamer's illiteracy, "People who have struggled to support themselves and large families, people who have survived in Georgia and Alabama and Mississippi, have learned some things we need to know."^[43] Hamer was known to evoke strong emotions in listeners to her speeches indicative of her "telling it like it is" oratorical style.^[43]

Hamer's style of speaking and connecting to audiences can be traced back to her upbringing and the black Baptist Church to which her family belonged, which many see as the source of her ability to compel audiences with words.^[43] Woven into her speeches was a deep level of confidence, biblical knowledge, and even comedy in a way that many did not think possible for someone without a formal education or access to "institutionalized power".^[43] Hamer witnessed her mother be brave enough to walk around with a concealed pistol to protect her children from white land owners who were known to beat sharecroppers' children.^[43] Moreover, Hamer's mother instilled a sense of pride in being black when Hamer did not see it as a benefit as a child.^[43] In addition, Hamer's father was a Baptist preacher who often entertained the family with jokes at the end of the day.^[43] Although Hamer only made it to the sixth grade because she had to help the family work the fields, she excelled greatly at reading, spelling, and poetry, and even won spelling bees. Her family encouraged her to recite her poetry to the family and their guests.^[43]

Hamer became a plantation timekeeper, a position that made her the point person who had to communicate with both the white land owners and the black sharecroppers, which helped her practice communicating to different kinds of people. After she got involved in the Civil Rights Movement in the early 1960s, Hamer's oratorical skills quickly became apparent; leading activists were amazed at how she did not write her speeches but delivered them from memory.^[43] The Reverend Edwin King said of Hamer, "She was an extraordinarily good cook of down-home foods...she liked to mix, to make whatever she was feeding people at midnight after they would come home from jail or somewhere else, to fix the perfect spices or recipe for her guest,...after she became the orator, she began picking and choosing the spicy parts she'd put in her speeches. She was always doing the best she had with whatever she had. The food, or words, or voice or song—choosing among it what was needed to persuade or to comfort or to please."^[43] When traveling to different speaking engagements, Hamer not only made speeches, but also sang, often with the Freedom Singers.^[43] Charles Neblitt, one of its members, said of Hamer, "We'd let her sing all the songs we did that she knew. She put her whole self into her singing, adding a power to the group...When somebody puts their inner self into a song, it moves people. Her singing showed the kind of dedication that she had—the struggle and the pain, the frustration and the hope... Her life would be in that song."^[44]

Hamer's "southern black vernacular", indicative of the denial of blacks', particularly black Southerners', access to standard American English captures the feelings and experiences of black Southerners despite of that lack of access.^[43] According to Davis Houck and Maegan Parker Brooks in The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer, "the designation 'black' acknowledges aspects of Hamer's racialized experience that influenced her speech. When describing Hamer's discourse, moreover, we find the term 'vernacular' more precise than either 'dialect' or 'language' because the etymology of 'vernacular'—taken from the Latin vernaculus and verna—evokes a sense of being both 'native to a region' and 'subservient to something else.' In this respect, 'vernacular' echoes the particularity indicated by the regional distinction, as it simultaneously represents the relationship of power and domination that Hamer challenged through her words."

One of Hamer's most famous speeches was at Williams Institutional Church in Harlem on December 20, 1964, along with Malcolm X. In the speech, "Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired",^[45] Hamer chronicled the violence and injustices she experienced while trying to register to vote. While highlighting the various acts of brutality she experienced in the South, she was careful to also tie in the fact that blacks in the North and all over the country were suffering the same oppression. The audience was one-third white and gave Hamer a warm reception.^[44]

Freedom Farm Cooperative and later activism

In 1964, Hamer unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the

Hamer was a staunch opponent of abortion, calling it "legalized murder" in a 1969 speech at the White House and describing her position in terms of her Christian faith.^[50] In Until I Am Free, historian Keisha N. Blain writes, "Hamer viewed birth control and abortion as social justice issues. She feared that both were simply white supremacist tools to regulate the lives of impoverished Black people and even prevent the growth of the Black population."^[51]

James Eastland, a white senator, was among the groups of people who sought to keep African Americans disenfranchised and segregated from society.^[52] His influence on the overarching agricultural industry often suppressed minority groups to keep whites as the only power force in America.^[49] Hamer objected to this, and consequently pioneered the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC) in 1969, an attempt to redistribute economic power across groups and to solidify an economic standing among African Americans.^[47] In the same vein as the Freedom Farm Collective, Hamer partnered with the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) to establish an interracial and interregional support program called The Pig Project to provide protein for people who previously could not afford meat.^[53]

Hamer made it her mission to make land more accessible to African Americans.

In 1971, Hamer co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus. She emphasized the power women could hold by acting as a voting majority in the country regardless of race or ethnicity, saying "A white mother is no different from a black mother. The only thing is they haven't had as many problems. But we cry the same tears."^[3]

Later life and death

While having

Hamer received many awards both in her lifetime and posthumously. She received a Doctor of Law from Shaw University,^[65] and honorary degrees from Columbia College Chicago in 1970^[66] and Howard University in 1972.^[67] She was inducted into the National Women's Hall of Fame in 1993.^[3]

Hamer also received the Paul Robeson Award from Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority,^[68] the Mary Church Terrell Award from Delta Sigma Theta sorority, the National Sojourner Truth Meritorious Service Award.^[69] She is an honorary member of Delta Sigma Theta. A remembrance for her life was given in the US House of Representatives on the 100th anniversary of her birth, October 6, 2017, by Texas Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee.^[15]

Tributes

In 1970,

In 1994, the Ruleville post office was named the Fannie Lou Hamer Post Office by an act of Congress.^[72] Additionally, The Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy was founded in 1997 as a summer seminar and K–12 workshop program.^[73] In 2014 it was merged with the Council of Federated Organizations (COFO) Civil Rights Education Complex on the campus of Jackson State University, Jackson, to create the Fannie Lou Hamer Institute @ COFO: A Human and Civil Rights Interdisciplinary Education Center. The Hamer Institute @ COFO provides a research library and outreach programs.^[73] There is also a Fannie Lou Hamer Public Library in Jackson.^[74]

A 2012 collection of suites by trumpeter and composer

Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School was formed in the Bronx, New York, with a focus on humanities and social justice.[79]

In 2017, the Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center opened at the University of California at Berkeley.^[80]

In 2018, the

The third annual Women's March, held in Atlantic City, New Jersey, on January 19, 2019, was dedicated to Hamer's life and legacy. Several hundred people attended, representing many organizations. Several students from Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School attended despite a state of emergency declared by New Jersey Governor Murphy due to an impending snowstorm.

The gardener and podcaster Colah B. Tawkin cites Hamer as inspiration.^[83]

Works

• Fannie Lou Hamer, Julius Lester, and Mary Varela, Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography, 1967^[46]
• Hamer,
  Smithsonian Folkways Recordings, Songs My Mother Taught Me (album), 2015^[84]
• Hamer (2011). The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is. University Press of Mississippi.
  ISBN 9781604738230
  . Cf.

• African Americans in Mississippi
• Black women in American politics
• List of civil rights leaders
• Melerson Guy Dunham (1904–1985) – friend, educator, civil and women's right activist, and historian

Citations

General references

• Asch, Chris Myers (2008). The Senator and the Sharecropper: The Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer. New York and Chapel Hill:
  ISBN 978-1-59558-332-1
  .
• Badger, Anthony (2002). The Role of Ideas in the Civil Rights South.
  ISBN 978-1-60473-690-8
  .
• Beito, David T.; Beito, Linda Royster (2009). Black Maverick: T. R. M. Howard's Fight for Civil Rights and Economic Power. Urbana: University of Illinois Press.
  ISBN 978-0-252-03420-6
  .
• ISBN 978-1-4532-4520-0
  . Retrieved January 7, 2018.
• Chappell, David L. (2004). A Stone of Hope: Prophetic Religion and the Death of Jim Crow.
  ISBN 978-0-8078-2819-9
  . Retrieved January 28, 2018.
• Davis, David A. (2013). "Southern Modernists and Modernity". In Monteith, Sharon (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Literature of the American South. University of Cambridge Press.
  ISBN 978-1-107-03678-9
  .
• ISBN 978-0-89096-540-5
  .
• Donovan, Sandy (2003). Fannie Lou Hamer. Heinemann-Raintree Library.
  ISBN 978-1-107-61085-9
  .
• Hamer, Fannie Lou; Lester, Julius; Varela, Mary (1967). Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography.
• Hamer, Fannie Lou (2011). The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell it Like it is. University Press of Mississippi.
  ISBN 978-1-60473-823-0
  .
• Jones, Alethia; Eubanks, Virginia, eds. (2014). Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around: Forty Years of Movement Building with Barbara Smith. SUNY Press.
  ISBN 978-1-4384-5115-2
  .
• Lee, Chana Kai (1999). For Freedom's Sake: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. Athens: University of Georgia Press.
  ISBN 978-0-252-06936-9
  .
• Marsh, Charles (1997). God's Long Summer: Stories of Faith and Civil Rights. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
  ISBN 978-0-691-02134-8
  .
• Mills, Kay (1997). Barnwell, Marion (ed.).
  ISBN 978-1-61703-339-1
  .
• Nash, Jere; Taggart, Andy (2007). Mississippi Politics: The Struggle for Power, 1976–2008. University Press of Mississippi.
  ISBN 978-1-60473-357-0
  .
• Nelson, Jennifer (2003). Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: NYU Press.
  ISBN 978-0-8147-5827-4
  .
• United States Commission on Civil Rights (1965). Voting in Mississippi (PDF). Washington, D.C.: United States government.

Further reading

External videos
Booknotes interview with Kay Mills on This Little Light of Mine, February 28, 1993, C-SPAN

• Colman, Penny (1993). Fannie Lou Hamer and the Fight for the Vote. The Millbrook Press
• Kling, Susan (1979). Fannie Lou Hamer: A Biography. Chicago: Women for Racial and Economic Equality.
• Larson, Kate Clifford (2021). Walk with Me: A Biography of Fannie Lou Hamer. Oxford.
  OCLC 1237398180.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
  )
• Lee, Chana Kai,
  ISBN 9780252069369
• Mills, Kay (1993). This Little Light of Mine: The Life of Fannie Lou Hamer. New York: Dutton.
• Moye, J. Todd. Let the People Decide: Black Freedom and White Resistance Movements in Sunflower County, Mississippi, 1945–1986, University of North Carolina Press, 2004.
• O'Dell, Jack (1965). "Life in Mississippi: An Interview with Fannie Lou Hamer".
• ISBN 0-520-20706-8
  .
• Ware, Susan, and Stacy Lorraine Braukman. Notable American Women: A Biographical Dictionary - Completing the Twentieth Century. Belknap, 2005.
• Weatherford, Carole Boston, Voice of Freedom: Fannie Lou Hamer, Spirit of the Civil Rights Movement. Dreamscape Media, 2016.
  ISBN 9781520016740

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to Fannie Lou Hamer.

• "This Little Light of Mine: The Legacy of Fannie Lou Hamer" (documentary film).
• "Fannie Lou Hamer Interview," 1965-09-24, Pacifica Radio Archives, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed June 7, 2021.
• SNCC Digital Gateway: Fannie Lou Hamer, Documentary website created by the SNCC Legacy Project and Duke University, telling the story of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee and grassroots organizing from the inside-out.
• National Women's Hall of Fame and National Women's History Museum entries
• "Fannie Lou Hamer", Ron Schuler's Parlour Tricks, October 6, 2005.
• Fannie Lou Hamer Collection (MUM00215) owned by the University of Mississippi, Archives and Special Collections.
• FBI file on Fannie Lou Hamer.
• Jerry DeMuth, "Fannie Lou Hamer: Tired of Being Sick and Tired", The Nation, April 2, 2009.
• Transcripts of eight important speeches made in the 1960s, including her testimony before the DNC credentialing committee. Published by The Fannie Lou Hamer Institute@COFO, Jackson State University as an online educational supplement to A Voice That Could Stir an Army: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Movement (2014), by Hamer scholar Maegan Parker Brooks.