What did Fannie Lou Hamer do?
Fannie Lou Hamer. Fannie Lou Hamer (1917-1977) was a civil rights activist whose passionate depiction of her own suffering in a racist society helped focus attention on the plight of African-Americans throughout the South.
What is the Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on citizenship and Democracy?
Additionally, The Fannie Lou Hamer National Institute on Citizenship and Democracy was founded in 1997 as a summer seminar and K–12 workshop program.
What did Fannie Hamer believe in Freedom Summer?
She was known to the volunteers of Freedom Summer as a motherly figure who believed that the civil rights effort should be multi-racial in nature. In addition to her "Northern" guests, Hamer played host to Tuskegee University student activists Sammy Younge Jr. and Wendell Paris.
What did Hamer Hamer do for women's rights?
In 1971, Hamer co-founded the National Women's Political Caucus. She emphasized the power women could hold by acting as a voting majority in the country regardless of race or ethnicity, saying "A white mother is no different from a black mother.
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What was Fannie Lou Hamer message?
The author argues that Hamer's core message is captured in a 1971 speech in which she declared that “until I am free, you are not either.” Thus, the freedom of poor Black people in Mississippi was in the interest of everyone else, and the reverse was also true.
What was Fannie Lou Hamer an activist for?
In 1964 Hamer helped organize Freedom Summer, which brought hundreds of college students, Black and white, to help with African American voter registration in the segregated South. In 1964, she announced her candidacy for the Mississippi House of Representatives but was barred from the ballot.
What was Fannie Lou Hamer testimony about?
When Fannie Lou Hamer testified before the credentials committee of the 1964 Democratic National Convention, she told the world about the torture and abuse she experienced in her attempt to register to vote.
Which best describes Fannie Lou Hamer's family responsibilities as sharecroppers?
Which best describes Fannie Lou Hamer's family responsibilities as share croppers? Her family worked land they owned and shared the crops with neighboring families.
Who fought for Black voting rights?
Black women began to work for political rights in the 1830s in New York and Philadelphia. Throughout the 19th century, black women like Harriet Forten Purvis, Mary Ann Shadd Cary, and Frances Ellen Watkins Harper worked on black civil rights, like the right to vote.
What did President Johnson do to try and stop Fannie Lou Hamer?
President Johnson would apply political pressure to the credentials committee to drop support for Hamer's Freedom Party. Johnson sent advisers to Atlantic City and told Hubert Humphrey, who was trying to win the vice presidential nomination, to fix “the Mississippi problem.”
Who first said I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired?
Fannie Lou Hamer – voting rights activist, civil rights leader, and humanitarian, captured the nation's attention during the 1964 Democratic National Convention, when she described the injustices she and others in her community had endured in their fight for the right to vote.
What happened to Fannie Lou Hamer when she tried to register to vote?
On August 31, 1962, Hamer and 17 others attempted to vote but failed a literacy test, which meant she was denied this right. She was fired by her boss, but her husband was required to stay on the land until the end of the harvest.
Where was Fannie Lou Hamer born?
Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer rose from humble beginnings in the Mississippi Delta to become one of the most important, passionate, and powerful voices of the civil and voting rights movements and a leader in the efforts for greater economic opportunities for African Americans. Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi, ...
Where did the Hamers move to?
The Hamers moved to Ruleville, Mississippi in Sunflower County with very little. In June 1963, after successfully completing a voter registration program in Charleston, South Carolina, Hamer and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a “whites-only” bus station restaurant in Winona, Mississippi.
Why was Marlow fired?
That night, Marlow fired Hamer for her attempt to vote; her husband was required to stay until the harvest.
What happened to the women in the Winona jailhouse?
At the Winona jailhouse, she and several of the women were brutally beaten, leaving Hamer with lifelong injuries from a blood clot in her eye, kidney damage, and leg damage.
When did the Black woman have a hysterectomy?
In 1961, Hamer received a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor. Such forced sterilization of Black women, as a way to reduce the Black population, was so widespread it was dubbed a “Mississippi appendectomy.”.
Who was the only plantation worker who could read and write?
In 1944, she married Perry Hamer and the couple toiled on the Mississippi plantation owned by B.D. Marlowe until 1962. Because Hamer was the only worker who could read and write, she also served as plantation timekeeper.
Who were the first black women to be elected to the Mississippi House of Representatives?
In 1964, she announced her candidacy for the Mississippi House of Representatives but was barred from the ballot. A year later, Hamer, Victoria Gray, and Annie Devine became the first Black women to stand in the U.S. Congress when they unsuccessfully protested the Mississippi House election of 1964.
What was Fannie Lou Hamer's role in the student non violent committee?
She became involved with the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee in 1962, through which she led voting drives and relief efforts.
When did Fannie Hamer die?
Diagnosed with breast cancer in 1976, Fannie Hamer continued to fight for civil rights. She died on March 14, 1977, in a hospital in Mound Bayou, Mississippi. Hundreds crowded into a Ruleville church to say goodbye to this tireless champion for racial equality.
Where is Fannie Lou Hamer buried?
The activist is buried in the peaceful Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden in Ruleville, beneath a tombstone engraved with one of her most famous quotes: "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.".
What happened to Lou Gehrig?
Hall of Fame first baseman Lou Gehrig played for the New York Yankees in the 1920s and 1930s, setting the mark for consecutive games played. He died of ALS in 1941.
Who was Amelia Boynton Robinson?
Amelia Boynton Robinson was a civil rights pioneer who championed voting rights for African Americans. She was brutally beaten for helping to lead a 1965 civil rights march, which became known as Bloody Sunday.
What was the purpose of the SNCC meeting in 1962?
In the summer of 1962, Hamer made a life-changing decision to attend a local meeting held by the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), who encouraged African Americans to register to vote. On August 31, 1962, she traveled with 17 others to the county courthouse in Indianola to accomplish this goal. They encountered opposition from local and state law enforcement along the way; only Hamer and one other person were allowed to fill out an application.
Where did Fannie Lou Hamer work?
A sign honoring Fannie Lou Hamer for her work in Ruleville, Mississippi. Hamer received many awards both in her lifetime and posthumously. She received a Doctor of Law from Shaw University, and honorary degrees from Columbia College Chicago in 1970 and Howard University in 1972.
Where is Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School?
Fannie Lou Hamer Freedom High School was formed in the Bronx, New York, with a focus on humanities and social justice. In 2017 the Fannie Lou Hamer Black Resource Center opened at the University of California at Berkeley.
Is Fannie Lou Hamer in 4th grade?
Then she got run over by a car and her leg was broken. So she's only in fourth grade now. — Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer and her husband wanted very much to start a family but in 1961, Hamer received a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent while undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor.
Registering to Vote
Joining The Civil Rights Movement
- Hamer became a community organizer for the SNCC in 1962 and dedicated her life to the fight for civil rights. She spearheaded voter registration drives and relief efforts, but her involvement in the civil rights movementoften left her in harm's way; during the course of her activist career, Hamer was threatened, arrested, beaten and shot at. In 196...
Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party
- In 1964, Hamer helped found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), established in opposition to her state's all-white delegation to that year's Democratic Convention and announced her bid for Congress. Although she lost the Democratic primary, she brought the civil rights struggle in Mississippi to the attention of the entire nation during a televised session at the conv…