Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was born in rural Mississippi and the youngest of 20 children. Her parents were sharecroppers, and by the time Fannie Lou was six years old, she was picking cotton. Although she was an intelligent child who enjoyed reading, memorizing poetry, reciting Bible verses, and singing gospel hymns, Fannie Lou was forced to leave school at the age of 12. When the owner of the farm where Hamer’s family worked discovered that Fannie Lou was literate, he promoted her to timekeeper for the farm. At 16, Fannie Lou was diagnosed with polio, which left her with a noticeable limp. But nothing stopped Fannie Lou’s persistence.

Her intelligence, work ethic, and awareness of the world around her led her to question America’s values. She turned her critical eyes on America’s treatment of its "Negro" citizens. Fannie Lou observed and experienced firsthand the differing treatment America practiced between Black and White citizens. Education and voting were two such examples of these stark disparities. Whites could attend well-funded schools with new textbooks and resources, and their parents did not risk their lives to cast a vote. However, for Fannie Lou and those who looked like her, education was lacking due to grossly unequal resources. Hamer knew that attempting to vote could be fatal.

Yet, registering and encouraging people to vote became one of Hamer’s callings. However, Mississippi led the country in lynchings. In 1955, Fannie Lou knew what fueled the lynchings of Rev. George W. Lee and Lamar D. Smith, a WWI Black veteran who was killed on the courthouse lawn. Their crimes? Encouraging “Negroes” to vote.  More than any of the lynchings, Fannie Lou was changed by the brutal murder of 14-year-old Emmett Till, a Chicago youth who had come to Mississippi to visit relatives. The killing of that child is said to have motivated her to act “…to avenge Till’s killing.”

To Fannie Lou Hamer, America needed to confront its hypocrisies and contradictions. She was tired of the KKK, who terrorized and assaulted Black people for sport, often with the connivance of local authorities.  Instead of America being the “Land of the free, and home of the brave,” Mississippi seemed more like the “Land of the tree, and home of the grave.” Unbowed, Hamer continued to travel throughout rural Mississippi for voter registration drives and workshops. With her powerful voice and unreserved confidence, Fannie Lou forged ahead and triumphantly encouraged countless Black citizens to register and vote.

Continued systemic voter suppression in Mississippi meant that Blacks would remain relegated to the bottom of America’s racial caste system. The right to vote safely was tied to other rights, such as lending one’s voice to combat unfair workers’ rights and the discriminatory treatment of Black sharecroppers and farmers. Hamer determined that the violent silencing of “Negro” citizens had to change- even if it meant risking her life, for “Negroes” to participate fully in the rights that other Americans presumed. Hamer put her life on the line to pressure America to do the right thing. At every turn, Jim Crow Mississippi stood poised to block Hamer’s bodacious challenge to its way of life. But challenge Mississippi she did.

Listen to Fannie Lou Hamer talk about the severe beating she survived while doing her voter registration work. You can also read a longer essay about Hamer, coming soon on our blog.