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Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer in 1964
Born October 6, 1917
Sunflower County, Mississippi
Died March 14, 1977 ( age 59)
Mound Bayou, Mississippi
Other names Fannie Lou Hamer
Known for Civil Rights Activist; vice chair of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party

Fannie Lou Hamer (born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) was an American voting rights activist and civil rights leader. Events 105 BC - Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Sunflower County is a County located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Events 105 BC - Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Suffrage (from the Latin suffragium, meaning "voting tablet" and figuratively "right to vote" probably from suffrago "hough" and originally Activism, in a general sense can be described as intentional action to bring about social or political change The American Civil Rights Movement (1955–1968 refers to the reform movements in the United States aimed at abolishing racial discrimination against African

She was instrumental in organizing Mississippi Freedom Summer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and later became the Vice-Chair of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, attending the 1964 Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, in that capacity. Mississippi ( is a state located in the Deep South of the United States Freedom Summer (also known as the Mississippi Summer Project) was a campaign in the United States launched in June 1964 to attempt to register to vote as The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (or SNCC, pronounced "snick" was one of the principal organizations of the American Civil Rights Movement The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP was an American Political party created in the state of Mississippi in 1964, during the The 1964 National Convention of the Democratic Party of the United States took place at the Atlantic City Convention Center in Atlantic City New Jersey Her plain-spoken manner and fervent belief in the Biblical righteousness of her cause gained her a reputation as an electrifying speaker and constant champion of civil rights. Etymology According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, the word bible is from Latin biblia, traced from the same word through Medieval Latin and Late Latin

Contents

Biography

Early life

Fannie Lou Hamer was born in Ruleville, in Sunflower County, Mississippi, on October 6, 1917, the youngest of 20 children and the granddaughter of slaves. Ruleville is a small city in the fertile Mississippi Delta region in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. Sunflower County is a County located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U Events 105 BC - Battle of Arausio: The Cimbri inflict the heaviest defeat on the Roman army of Gnaeus Mallius Maximus Year 1917 ( MCMXVII) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common year Her parents, in common with most African Americans in the Mississippi Delta, were sharecroppers. The Mississippi Delta is the distinct northwest section of the state of Mississippi that lies between the Mississippi and Yazoo Rivers Technically Sharecropping is a system of agriculture or agricultural production in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crop produced on the land (e By the time she was twelve, Hamer was forced to drop out of school and work full time to help support her family.

She married Perry "Pap" Hamer in 1942 and adopted two children Dorothy Jean and Virgie Ree. Hamer went to work on the plantation where her husband drove a tractor, first as a field worker and then as the plantation's timekeeper - a job she was given after the plantation owners discovered she was literate.

Beginnings of activism

Hamer attended several annual conferences of the Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) in the all-black town of Mound Bayou, Mississippi. The Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL was a society founded by T Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. The RCNL was led by a wealthy black surgeon and businessman, Dr. T.R.M. Howard, and was a combination civil rights and self-help organization. Theodore Roosevelt Mason Howard (b March 4 1908, Murray Kentucky - d The annual RCNL conferences featured entertainers, such as Mahalia Jackson, speakers, such as Thurgood Marshall and Rep. Mahalia Jackson (October 26 1911 In 1929 Jackson met the composer Thomas A Thurgood Marshall ( July 2, 1908 – January 24, 1993) was an American Jurist and the first African American Charles Diggs of Michigan, and panels on voting rights and other civil rights issues. Charles Coles Diggs Jr ( December 2, 1922 &ndash August 24, 1998) was an African-American Politician from the U Without her knowledge or consent, she was sterilized in 1961 by a white doctor as a part of the state of Mississippi's plan to reduce the number of poor blacks in the state. [1]

On August 23, 1962, Rev. Events 79 - Mount Vesuvius begins stirring on the feast day of Vulcan the Roman god of fire Year 1962 ( MCMLXII) was a Common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1962 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. James Bevel, an organizer for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and an associate of Rev. James Bevel (b October 19, 1936) is a Civil rights activist who as the Director of Direct Action and Nonviolent Education of the Southern Christian Leadership Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a sermon in Ruleville, Mississippi and followed it with an appeal to those assembled to register to vote. Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader Voter registration is the requirement in some democracies for Citizens and residents to check in with some central registry specifically for the purpose of being allowed Black people who registered to vote in the South faced serious hardships at that time due to institutionalized racism, including harassment, the loss of their jobs, physical beatings, and lynchings; nonetheless, Hamer was the first volunteer. List of racism-related topics|Racism by country Racism, by its simplest definition is the belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that Lynching is an Extrajudicial punishment meted out by a mob Lynching an enumerated Felony in some states in the United States, is defined by some She later said, "I guess if I'd had any sense, I'd have been scared - but what was the point of being scared? The only thing they [white people] could do was kill me, and it seemed they'd been trying to do that a little at a time since I could remember. "

On August 31, she traveled on a rented bus with other attendees of Rev. Events 1056 - Byzantine Empress Theodora becomes ill dying suddenly a few days later without children to succeed the Throne Bevel's sermon to Indianola, Mississippi to register. Indianola is a city in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. In what would become a signature trait of Hamer's activist career, she began singing Christian hymns, such as "Go Tell It on the Mountain" and "This Little Light of Mine," to the group in order to bolster their resolve. A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, a monotheistic Religion centered on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth A hymn is a type of Song, usually religious specifically written for the purpose of praise adoration or Prayer, and typically addressed to a deity/deities " Go Tell It on the Mountain " is an African-American spiritual dating back to at least 1865 that has been sung and recorded by many gospel and secular performers " This Little Light of Mine " is a gospel Children's song written by Harry Dixon Loes (1895-1965 in about 1920 The hymns also reflected Hamer's belief that the civil rights struggle was a deeply spiritual one. By the next day, she had been harassed by police, fired from her job, lost her dog, and received a death threat from the Ku Klux Klan. Ku Klux Klan ( KKK) is the name of several past and present secret domestic terrorist organizations in the United States, generally in the southern states that are

Hamer's courage and leadership in Indianola came to the attention of SNCC organizer Bob Moses, who dispatched Charles McLaurin from the organization with instructions to find "the lady who sings the hymns". McLaurin found and recruited Hamer, and though she remained based in Mississippi, she began traveling around the South doing activist work for the organization.

On June 9, 1963, Hamer was on her way back from Charleston, South Carolina with other activists from a literacy workshop. Events 53 - Roman Emperor Nero marries Claudia Octavia 62 - Claudia Octavia commits Year 1963 ( MCMLXIII) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Charleston is a city in Charleston county in the US state of South Carolina. Stopping in Winona, Mississippi, the group was arrested on a false charge and jailed by white policemen. Winona (previously known as Middleton is a city in Montgomery County, Mississippi, United States. Once in jail, Hamer and her colleagues were beaten savagely by the police, almost to the point of death.

Released on June 12, she needed more than a month to recover. Events 1381 - Peasants' Revolt: in England, rebels arrive at Blackheath. Though the incident had profound physical and psychological effects, Hamer returned to Mississippi to organize voter registration drives, including the "Freedom Ballot Campaign", a mock election, in 1963, and the "Freedom Summer" initiative in 1964. An election is a Decision-making process by which a population chooses an individual to hold formal office She was known to the volunteers of Freedom Summer - most of whom were young, white, and from northern states - as a motherly figure who believed that the civil rights effort should be multi-racial in nature.

Hamer at The Democratic National Convention

In the summer of 1964, the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, or "Freedom Democrats" for short, was organized with the purpose of challenging Mississippi's all-white and anti-civil rights delegation to the Democratic National Convention of that year as not representative of all Mississippians. Hamer was elected Vice-Chair.

The Freedom Democrats' efforts drew national attention to the plight of African-Americans in Mississippi, and represented a challenge to President Lyndon B. Johnson, who was seeking the Democratic Party's nomination for reelection; their success would mean that other Southern delegations, who were already leaning toward Republican challenger Barry Goldwater, would publicly break from the convention's decision to nominate Johnson — meaning in turn that he would almost certainly lose those states' electoral votes in the election. The President of the United States is the Head of state and Head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in United States by The Democratic Party is one of two major Political parties in the United States, the other being the Republican Party. The Electoral College consists of 538 popularly elected representatives who formally select the President and Vice President of the United States. Hamer, singing her signature hymns, drew a great deal of attention from the media, enraging Johnson, who referred to her in speaking to his advisors as "that illiterate woman".

Hamer was invited, along with the rest of the MFDP officers, to address the Convention's Credentials Committee. She recounted the problems she had encountered in registration, and the ordeal of the jail in Winona, and, near tears, concluded:

"All of this is on account we want to register [sic], 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 be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings - in America?"

In Washington, D.C., President Johnson called an emergency press conference in an effort to divert press coverage away from Hamer's testimony; but many television networks ran the speech unedited on their late news programs. " The Star-Spangled Banner " is the National anthem of the United States of America Washington DC ( formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, the District, or simply D A news conference or press conference is a Media event in which newsmakers invite journalists to hear them speak and most often ask questions A television network is a distribution network for Television content whereby a central operation provides programming for many Television stations The Credentials Committee received thousands of calls and letters in support of the Freedom Democrats.

Johnson then dispatched several trusted Democratic Party operatives to attempt to negotiate with the Freedom Democrats, including Senator Hubert Humphrey (who was campaigning for the Vice-Presidential nomination), Walter Mondale, Walter Reuther, and J. Edgar Hoover. The United States Senate is the Upper house of the bicameral United States Congress, the Lower house being the House of Representatives Hubert Horatio Humphrey Jr ( May 27, 1911 &ndash January 13, 1978) was the thirty-eighth Vice President of the United States, serving The Vice President of the United States is the first person in the presidential line of succession, becoming the new President of the United States upon the death Walter Frederick "Fritz" Mondale (born January 5, 1928) is an American politician and member of the Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party For the Baseball player Walter Ruether see Dutch Ruether. Walter Philip Reuther ( September 1, 1907 – WikipediaManual of Style (biographies#Postnominal initials They suggested a compromise which would give the MFDP two seats in exchange for other concessions, and secured the endorsement of Martin Luther King, Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference for the plan. Martin Luther King Jr ( January 15, 1929 April 4, 1968) was an American clergyman, Activist and prominent leader The Southern Christian Leadership Conference ( SCLC) is an American Civil rights organization But when Humphrey outlined the compromise, saying that his position on the ticket was at stake, Hamer, invoking her Christian beliefs, sharply rebuked him:

"Do you mean to tell me that your position is more important than four hundred thousand black people's lives? Senator Humphrey, I know lots of people in Mississippi who have lost their jobs trying to register to vote. I had to leave the plantation where I worked in Sunflower County, Mississippi. Sunflower County is a County located in the Mississippi Delta region of the U Now if you lose this job of Vice-President because you do what is right, because you help the MFDP, everything will be all right. God will take care of you. God is the principal or sole Deity in Religions and other belief systems that worship one deity. But if you take [the nomination] this way, why, you will never be able to do any good for civil rights, for poor people, for peace, or any of those things you talk about. Senator Humphrey, I'm going to pray to Jesus for you. "

Future negotiations were conducted without Hamer, and the compromise was modified such that the Convention would select the two delegates to be seated, for fear the MFDP would appoint Hamer. In the end, the MFDP rejected the compromise, but had changed the debate to the point that the Democratic Party adopted a clause which demanded equality of representation from their states' delegations in 1968.

Later activism

Hamer continued to work in Mississippi for the Freedom Democrats and for local civil rights causes. She ran for Congress in 1964 and 1965, and was then seated as a member of Mississippi's legitimate delegation to the Democratic National Convention of 1968, where she was an outspoken critic of the Vietnam War. The United States Congress is the bicameral Legislature of the federal government of the United States of America, consisting of two houses Chicago Convention redirects here for the Convention on International Civil Aviation for the event also referred to by this name The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, or the Vietnam Conflict, occurred in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia

She continued to work on other projects, including grassroots-level Head Start programs, the Freedom Farm Cooperative in Sunflower County, and Martin Luther King, Jr. For the Australian television series see Head Start (TV series Head Start is a program of the United States Department of Health and Human 's Poor People's Campaign. In 1968 Martin Luther King Jr and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC organized the Poor People's Campaign to address issues of Economic justice

Hamer died of breast cancer on March 14, 1977, at the age of 59 at a hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi and is buried in her hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi. Breast cancer is a Cancer that starts in the cells of the Breast in women and men Events 1489 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. Also 1977 (album by Ash. Year 1977 ( MCMLXXVII) was a Common year starting on Saturday (link displays Mound Bayou is a city in Bolivar County, Mississippi, United States. Ruleville is a small city in the fertile Mississippi Delta region in Sunflower County, Mississippi, United States. Her tombstone reads, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

Quotes

"We didn't come all the way up here to compromise for no more than we’d gotten here. We didn't come all this way for no two seats, 'cause all of us is tired. "

"I am sick and tired of being sick and tired. " (This quote was later employed as her epitaph. An epitaph (in Greek, &mdash literally " on the gravestone " is a short text honoring a deceased person strictly speaking that inscribed on )

"Nobody's free until everybody's free"

"I have a dream"

"All of this is on account we want to register [sic], 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 be threatened daily because we want to live as decent human beings - in America?"

References

Fannie Lou Hamer is the topic of the Gil Scott-Heron song 95 South.

Notes

  1. ^ Nelson, Jennifer (2003). Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 0814758274.

External links

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