Fannie Lou Hamer
Title
Fannie Lou Hamer
Subject
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Description
Fought for voting rights for African Americans and led change through the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and her Congressional testimony
Creator
Amy French
Source
Image: Wiki Commons
Birth Date
1917
Birthplace
Montgomery County, Mississippi, USA
Death Date
1977
Occupation
Vice-Chair of Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
Biographical Text
Hamer was an civil rights activist in Mississippi. After growing up in poverty and often going hungry as a child, she spent her life in service to issues of segregation and injustice in the south. Much of her work took place within the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, which was comprised mostly of African-American students engaging in acts of civil disobedience. In 1964, Hamer helped found the Mississippi Freedom of Democratic Party. A famous quote from Fannie Lou, made into her epitaph, is “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Bibliography
Asch, Chris Myers. The Senator and the Sharecropper: the Freedom Struggles of James O. Eastland and Fannie Lou Hamer. (The New Press, 2008).
Nash, Jere and Andy Taggart. Mississippi Politics: the Struggle for Power, 1976-2008.(University of Mississippi Press, 2007).
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