How did fannie lou hamer change the world

Fannie lou hamer fun facts
Fannie lou hamer husband
Fannie lou hamer accomplishments

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This post is part of our online roundtable on Keisha N. Blain’s Until I Am Free.

Prelude

I teach a course titled Biographies of Struggle. It’s a university seminar that examines identity, politics, and protest through social biography, testimonies, and oral life narratives. Students read about the lives of social justice changemakers, consider political coming-of-age stories, and grapple with the ways these social actors experienced and challenged oppression. The last time I taught the course, I focused explicitly on Black women. Fannie Lou Hamer was one of three Black women anchoring the course. The other two were Ella Baker and Patrisse Khan-Cullors.

As written in my syllabus, I wanted “to challenge the ‘great man’ theory of history and social movements by centering the (auto)biographical narratives of black women.” I wanted students to “have a better understanding of the lives, roles, and contributions of black women, as well as the impact of race and gender in society and social justice movements.” Both aims reflect the critically necessary work of recognizing

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Oct. 6, 1917: Fannie Lou Hamer Born

Fannie Lou Hamer singing during the 1966 “March Against Fear.” By Jim Peppler. Source: Alabama Dept. of Archives and History

Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer was born on this day in 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi.

As is described at the SNCC Digital Gateway,

Mrs. Hamer was the youngest of twenty children. After reaching the sixth grade at the age of 12, she dropped out of school to work on the cotton plantations of the Delta.

After her attempt to register to vote in 1962, [the plantation owner] demanded she retract her application or face eviction. Mrs. Hamer refused and was immediately kicked off his land. When she moved into town to stay with a family, white men pumped 16 shots into the house where she was staying, barely missing the occupants. Despite threats and violence, her spirit was unbowed, and her voice became more powerful and influential. Her ability to speak plainly and persuasively impacted most everyone who encountered her, especially SNCC workers, who paid careful attention to her arguments and were swayed by her

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Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer sitting on her porch, circa 1960s, Will D. Campbell Papers, USM

October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977
Raised in Sunflower County, Mississippi

It was the power of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer’s singing that first brought her to the attention of SNCC. In August of 1962, eighteen local people from Sunflower County, Mississippi, including Mrs. Hamer, traveled by bus from Ruleville to the courthouse in Indianola. Despite armed white men milling about the courthouse, the group entered the registrar’s office, intending to fill out the voter registration form as best they could. Mrs. Hamer was the first to enter.

When the group began heading home, the bus–an old school bus now used to transport cotton pickers to the fields–was pulled over by the Indianola police at the edge of town. The driver was arrested for driving a bus of “the wrong color.” Fear rose among the passengers. But in the midst of the fear and uncertainty, Mrs. Hamer began to sing, raising her powerful voice first in church songs, then movement songs. This helped calm the other