Black History Month Spotlight: Fannie Lou Hamer

It is the last day of the month this nation recognizes as Black History Month. Although, I believe we should celebrate it all year long, I did not want this time of the year to pass without honoring an African American Hero or Shero who has made great contributions to our society. This year I chose someone that I do not hear about often but who made a significant impact in the lives of African Americans and beyond.

This Black History month I am shining the spotlight on the great Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer. She is best known as a civil and voting rights activist. Hamer was born in 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi and was the last of 20 of her parent’s children. She was educated in school learning to read and write until the age of 12 when she left to go work full time in the cotton fields. She later married Perry Hamer and they continued to work in the fields together. In 1961, Mrs. Hamer underwent a surgery to remove a uterine tumor by a white doctor who also performed a hysterectomy without her permission, leaving Hamer unable to have children. This procedure was widely known as the Mississippi Appendectomy and was performed to decrease the poor black population. However, the Hamer’s went on to adopt two daughters.

Affected by the forced sterilization and a desire to see African Americans treated equally, Mrs. Hamer set on a path to get involved in the civil rights movement. Her fire was ignited after attending a Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee meeting about blacks being denied their right to vote. Motivated to obtain voting rights for blacks, Hamer went on to become a SNCC organizer. In this position, she led and traveled with 17 volunteers to register to vote at the Indianola, Mississippi Courthouse. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to vote due to failing an unfair literacy test. On their way back home, their bus was stopped by police, and the driver arrested on the claim that the bus was too yellow. (Really!?!) While held on the bus, Hamer sang spirituals which became one of the trademarks of her activism. Once she made it back home, she was fired by the plantation owner while her husband was forced to stay until harvest. Their slave master also confiscated the majority of their property, leaving them with little to call their own by the time they moved to Ruleville, Mississippi.

In 1963, Mrs. Hamer was finally able to register to vote. She and several other female activists traveled to a citizenship program training in Charleston, South Carolina. On their trip back home, they made a stop and in protest, sat in a whites only bus station restaurant. They were forced to leave by police and six of the ladies were arrested. While in custody, the activists were brutally beaten and were left with serious injuries. The injuries that Mrs. Hamer sustained to her legs, kidneys, and eyes remained with her for the rest of her life. As horrible as this and many other similar situations were, their efforts paid off when the Voting Rights Act was passed in 1965.

Mrs. Hamer began to gain national attention in 1964 when she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. MFDP’s goal was to stand up to the local Democratic Party’s efforts to keep the party segregated. Along with other MFDP members, Hamer traveled to the ’64 Democratic National Convention fighting to be acknowledged as members of the official delegation. She stood before the Credentials Committee urging them to appoint members of MFDP as Mississippi representatives. At the same time, President Lyndon B. Johnson held a last minute televised press conference. This was his way of not letting Hamer get air time so that he could win the support of southern Democrats for his upcoming re-election. However, she delivered a powerful speech that described her experiences with racial prejudices in the South. Her speech caught the attention of numerous news stations and they aired it, which granted her an even larger audience. Hamer’s true triumph materialized in 1968 when she became a member of Mississippi’s first integrated delegation and was elected to vice chair.

Back to 1964, a groundbreaking year for Mrs. Hamer. She along with the MFDP, helped to organize Freedom Summer that attracted a number of college students, both black and white, to Mississippi to help African Americans register to vote. She also ran for Congress that year as the MFDP candidate, but to no surprise, was not allowed on the ballot. The following year, Hamer, along with Victoria Gray and Annie Devine were the first black women to stand in the US Congress after unsuccessfully protesting the Mississippi House election of ’64.

After achieving success in politics, Mrs. Hamer shifted her focus to gaining economic equality for her people. In 1968, she started a pig bank to give free pigs to black farmers to breed, raise, and slaughter. In 1969, she began the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC) by purchasing land that blacks could own and farm together. In partnership with donors, she bought 640 acres of land that became home to a coop store, boutique, and a sewing business. On her own, Hamer oversaw the construction of 200 low-income housing units, many of which still stand in Ruleville today. The FFC continued to operate until the mid- ‘70s as one of the largest employers in Sunflower County.

I described only some of what Mrs. Hamer was able to accomplish while she was physically well. Her health began to decline but she continued to work for equality. In 1977, her purpose here on earth was complete and she passed away at 59 years old due to cancer. Her life was and still is an example of Sheroism and impact. Mrs. Hamer knocked down doors of inequality so that we could enjoy the freedoms that we have today. Thank you Queen for leaving a lasting legacy!

"Sometimes it seem 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'm not backing off." - Fannie Lou Hamer