Fannie Lou Hamer was the youngest of twenty children and was raised in a family of sharecroppers, later becoming a sharecropper and plantation worker herself.
In 1962, she was beaten and arrested for attempting to register to vote. After this experience, she devoted her life to the struggle for voting rights and civil rights. Hamer toured the country speaking out in support of civil rights, and also founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party.
A vital force in the Civil Rights Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the most prominent black women to occupy a leading role in the movement. An organizer of the Freedom Summer in her native Mississippi, Hamer helped to found the National Women’s Political Caucus, and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, leading its delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in opposition to the segregationist state party delegation. Continuing in her activism despite her ailing health, Hamer would help found an agricultural cooperative called Freedom Farm in Sunflower County, Mississippi, and run for elected office a number of times before her death in 1977.
Doris Derby | Fannie Lou Hamer is seen after speaking at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago in 1968. From “A Civil Rights Journey” by Doris Derby (Mack, 2021).
The civil rights movement of the 20th century was led by a number of prominent figures such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks. While these leaders are well-known and celebrated for their contributions to the movement, there were also many less well-known or prominent leaders who played critical roles in the fight for racial equality.
One such leader is Fannie Lou Hamer. Born in Mississippi in 1917, Hamer was a civil rights activist and leader in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). She was a fierce advocate for voting rights, and her efforts led to the integration of the Mississippi Democratic Party in 1964.
Hamer was also known for her powerful speeches, including her testimony at the Democratic National Convention in 1964, where she spoke out against the exclusion of MFDP delegates and the continued discrimination against African Americans in the South.
Remarks of Fannie Lou Hamer at the Democratic National Convention
Walk with Me: A Biography of Civil Rights Leader Fannie Lou Hamer
“Sometimes it seems like to tell the truth today is to run the risk of being killed. But if I fall, I’ll fall five-feet four-inches forward in the fight for freedom.”
“I always said if I lived to get grown and had a chance, I was going to try to get something for my mother and I was going to do something for the Black man of the South if it would cost my life. I was determined to see that things were changed.”