Historical Spotlight: Fannie Lou Hamer

The fight for justice has never been easy. From being chained up on plantations to being outright discriminated against, Black Americans have had to fight for every right we currently have. Our ancestors had to not only march peacefully for change, but they also had to turn up in the streets with molotov cocktails when needed. Join me as we shine a Historical Spotlight on Fannie Lou Hamer, an incredible civil and voting rights activist who inspired her community to fight for change. 

Fannie was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the youngest of 20 children and her parents, Lou Ella and James Townsend, were sharecroppers in the Mississippi Delta area. She joined the rest of her family and began picking cotton in the fields when she was only 6 years old. She dropped out of school around the age of 12 to work full time. 

In 1944, she married Perry Hamer and worked on a cotton plantation together. Since she was the only worker who could read and write, she also served as the plantation’s timekeeper. In 1961, Fannie received a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor. At the time, this forced sterilization of Black women was a common and widespread way to reduce the Black population. Unable to have kids of their own, the couple went on to adopt two daughters.

In the summer of 1962, Fannie attended a local meeting held by James Forman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and was outraged by the outlandish efforts from the dominant society to deny Black Americans the right to vote. She became an SNCC organizer, and led 17 volunteers to register to vote at the Indianola, Mississippi Courthouse on August 31, 1962. 

The group was denied to vote due to an unfair literacy test and was unfortunately harassed on their way home. Police pulled them over and fined them $100 for a petty charge that the bus was too yellow. Once she returned home, she was fired from her job and driven from the plantation she had called home for almost 20 years. After much of their property was confiscated by the plantation owner, the couple moved to Ruleville, Mississippi with very little to their name. 

Despite the negative backlash, Fannie’s resolve to fight for Black Americans’ voting rights was strengthened because she viewed leaving the plantation as a new chapter of her life where she could finally work for her people. In June 1963, she organized and completed a successful voter registration program in Charleston, South Carolina. Unfortunately, she and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a “white-only” bus station restaurant and were brutally beaten in a Winona, Mississippi jail. She received permanent injuries from a blood clot in her eye, kidney damage, and leg damage. No one was ever punished for these brutal attacks. 

The risks didn’t stop her from continuing to organize for the betterment of her community. In 1964, she helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to challenge the local Democratic Party’s efforts to block Black participation in elections. Fannie attended the Democratic National Convention, argued to be recognized as the official delegation for Mississippi, and advocated for mandatory integrated state delegations. By 1968, her vision had become a reality and she was a member of Mississippi’s first integrated delegation. 

In 1964, she also helped organize Freedom Summer, an initiative that brought hundreds of college students to help with Black American voter registration in the segregated South. She also announced her bid for the Mississippi House of Representatives but was removed from the ballet. Fannie, Victoria Gray, and Annie Devine became the first Black women to stand in the U.S. Congress in 1965 when they protested the Mississippi House election of 1964.

Fannie was a well-traveled orator and gave powerful speeches pertaining to civil rights. Some of the other civil rights activists at the time thought she was illiterate since she didn’t have a formal education, but other powerful voices like Malcolm X believed in her story and in her ability to speak. She worked tirelessly to set up organizations to provide business opportunities, childcare, and family services to those minorities in need. In 1968, she began a “pig bank” to provide free pigs for Black farmers to breed, raise, and slaughter. 

In 1969, she launched the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC) and bought land that Black people could own and farm collectively. With the assistance of donors, she purchased 640 acres and opened a coop store, boutique, and sewing enterprise. She single-handedly ensured that 200 units of low-income housing were built, many of which still exist in Ruleville today. The FFC lasted until the mid-1970’s and was one of the largest employers in the county. In 1971, she also helped establish the National Women’s Political Caucus. 

Unfortunately, Fannie was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1976 and continued fighting for civil rights until she died on March 14, 1977 in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Hundreds attended her funeral and she was laid to rest in the Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden in Ruleville. Her tombstone is engraved with one of her most famous quotes: “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” 

While Fannie had very humble beginnings, she rose to become one of the most important, passionate, and powerful voices of the civil and voting rights movements. She was a leader that inspired those around her to fight for the change they wished to see in society. 

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Signed, 

Jessica Marie