American Heroine Born on this Day October 6, 1917- Fannie Lou Hamer

[buzzsaw_23]

Fannie Lou Hamer, known as the lady who was "sick and tired of being sick and tired," was born October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the granddaughter of slaves. Her family were sharecroppers - a position not that different from slavery. Hamer had 19 brothers and sisters. She was the youngest of the children.

In 1962, when Hamer was 44 years old, SNCC volunteers came to town and held a voter registration meeting. She was surprised to learn that African-Americans actually had a constitutional right to vote. When the SNCC members asked for volunteers to go to the courthouse to register to vote, Hamer was the first to raise her hand. This was a dangerous decision. She later reflected, "The only thing they could do to me was to kill me, and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember."

When Hamer and others went to the courthouse, they were jailed and beaten by the police. Hamer's courageous act got her thrown off the plantation where she was a sharecropper. She also began to receive constant death threats and was even shot at. Still, Hamer would not be discouraged. She became a SNCC Field Secretary and traveled around the country speaking and registering people to vote.

Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). In 1964, the MDFP challenged the all-white Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer spoke in front of the Credentials Committee in a televised proceeding that reached millions of viewers. She told the committee how African-Americans in many states across the country were prevented from voting through illegal tests, taxes and intimidation. As a result of her speech, two delegates of the MFDP were given speaking rights at the convention and the other members were seated as honorable guests.

Hamer was an inspirational figure to many involved in the struggle for civil rights. She died on March 14, 1977, at the age of 59.

http://www.ibiblio.org/sncc/hamer.html

[Pithy Cherub]

1. This Little Light of Mine, I'm gonna Let it shine

Let it Shine, Let it shine, Let it Shine!

:loveya: Fannie Lou Hamer, I appreciate you so much now and evermore!

[faithnotgreed]

2. you KNOW i am going to kick for ms hamer

we love you and owe you so much

beautiful
thank you for posting this

[DanCa]

3. Lol I thought you said mary lou henner forgive me my eyes are bad

Great post nicely researched.

[jobycom]

4. Thank you. Recommended, with passion.

[cwydro]

5. Hey! Thanks

for that post. How awesome. Just when one really feels discouraged....one is reminded just what courage is. Thank you....you gave me something to go to bed - instead of feeling crappy about everything...I feel inspired...:applause:

[buzzsaw_23]

8. A Few Inspirational Quotes

“Nobody's free until everybody's free.”

“What was the point of being scared? The only thing they could do to me was kill me and it seemed like they'd been trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember.”

“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.”

http://www.peacemakersguide.org/peace/Peacemakers/Fannie-Lou-Hamer.htm



The portrait by Robert Shetterly is part of his exhibit Americans Who Tell the Truth. Used with permission.

[cwydro]

11. 5 feet 4 inches for freedom...

damn, I may use her quote for my sig...been looking for one that seems right. Awesome. Thanks for that.

[IndyOp]

12. I love Shetterly's work. Ms. Hamer looks wise, formidable,

and at peace with herself in that portrait.

Wow!

:patriot:

[TacticalPeek]

6. More courage in her little finger than Shrub has seen in his sorry life.

I, too, am sick and tired of being sick and tired.

[cwydro]

9. oh, you are so right

I'm gonna keep this in my heart and mind to help keep that feeling at bay.

[cwydro]

7. I hit this for greatest

because it seems the least I can do for a great woman...

[buzzsaw_23]

13. A Great Woman- A catalyst in the development of various programs

For more than half of Fannie Lou Hamer's life, she was a rural agricultural worker who saw no end to the cycle of poverty and humiliation that was the plight of most southern African Americans. Fannie Lou, born October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, was the last of twenty children born to Jim and Ella Townsend. When she was two years old the family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, where Fannie resided for the rest of her life. At age six she joined the other family members working as a sharecropper picking cotton. By the time she was 13 she could pick between two and three hundred pounds of cotton a day.

In spite of intensive labor the Townsends were always in need because sharecroppers had to give a portion of their crop, as well as repayment for seeds and supplies they had purchased on credit, to the owner of the land on which they toiled. One year, when their crop was especially bountiful, Jim Townsend, hoping that his family's economic status would permanently improve, rented a parcel of land with a house and purchased some animals and farm implements to boost the farm's productivity. The family's hopes for prosperity were dashed, however, when a jealous white neighbor poisoned the Townsend's animals.

<snip>

"If the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated now, I question America," she said. "Is this America? The land of the free and the home of the brave? Where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hook, because our lives be threatened daily." Hamer discussed the abuse she had suffered in retaliation for attending a civil rights meeting. "They beat me and they beat me with the long, flat black-jack. I screamed to God in pain...." As a compromise measure the Democratic Party leadership offered the MFDP delegation two seats, which they refused. Hamer said, "We didn't come for no two seats when all of us is tired." And no MFDP member was seated.

<snip>

Hamer was also a catalyst in the development of various programs to aid the poor in her community, including the Delta Ministry, an extensive community development program, and the Freedom Farms Corporation in 1969, a non-profit operation designed to help needy families raise food and livestock, provide social services, encourage minority business opportunities, and offer educational assistance. In 1970 Hamer became chair of the board of Fannie Lou Hamer Day Care Center, an organization established by the National Council of Negro Women. She also served as a member of the boards of the Sunflower County Day Care and Family Services Center and Garment Manufacturing Plant. She became a member of the policy council of the National Women's Political Caucus in 1971, and from 1974 to 1977 was a member of the board of trustees of the Martin Luther King Center for Nonviolent Social Change.

http://www.africanamericans.com/FannieLouHamer.htm

[TacticalPeek]

10. And God bless the MFDP.

[cwydro]

14. Bill Bennett, tell us

what you would say to this woman.....

[Fly by night]

15. As an eighth generation (white) Mississippian, Ms. Hamer freed us all.

I was born and raised in Possum Town (Columbus) by strong Black women. Always thankful of Ms. Hamer's modeling what real American courage looks like -- the courage to make America what it has always said it was.

Thanks for this remembrance thread.

[Tom Joad]

16. Yes, a great hero, who worked to bring democracy to the Democrats

I would say that until at least 1964, the United States could not call itself even a nominal democracy. I think given the fact that the corporations have now completely taken over both Parties, it is hard to describe as such now.

It is the people like Hamer and thousands of others (to Cindy Sheehan) who keep up the struggle. The "leaders" finally do something and get all the credit.

More courage than Shrub? Yes. But also a hundred times more courage, moral insight than just about any member of Congress, or the corporate clowns than run either Party.

[buzzsaw_23]

17. Absolutely On Target

with your comment.