Fannie Lou Hamer:  Indigenous Leader

Daughter of sharecroppers, one of 20 siblings, born Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917, in Ruleville, Mississippi, Fannie Lou became one of America’s indigenous leaders who fought for voting rights and a fighter of poverty.  Hamer was introduced to politics in 1962 after being invited to her 1st SNCC meeting whereby she 1st learned that black people could register to vote…and, with their vote, they could vote people out of office.  Her innate leadership was exhibited when upon a return trip fr/registering to vote, the bus that she was traveling on was stopped by a state highway patrolman for the absurd reason that the “school” bus was too “yellow”.  The passengers were frightened, for they feared what could happen.  Suddenly, the old spiritual, “this little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine”, began to belt fr/the throat of Mrs. Hamer, like velvety chocolate.  It was like salve to the ears of her comrades.

At that time, Hamer and her family worked on the Marlow Plantation as sharecroppers. Word got back to Hamer’s plantation owner, D. Marlow, that she registered to vote and he asked her to withdraw her registration.  She replied to him,  

“Mr. Marlow, I didn’t register for you, I registered for myself.”

He promptly, told her that she would have to leave his plantation.  Her family, immediately, decided that she would not be safe staying and that she would have to leave town. She left for Sumner, Mississippi.  She, later had to flee fr/Sumner due to an attempt on her life fr/white supremacists, shooting almost 15 rounds of ammunition in her friend’s home.  Luckily, her husband was able to get her before they did.

On another return trip fr/a registration conference, their bus had stopped at a rest-stop to get food and to use the washroom.  At the stop, Hamer and her comrades were arrested.  When Hamer was taken to jail, a white highway patrolman, took her fr/her cell, and put her in a cell w/2 black male inmates and had them take turns beating her until they were exhausted.  Hamer recounted this horrid account at the Democratic Credentials Committee meeting, whereby she testified to have integrated seating at the Democratic National Convention, to represent Mississippi as co-founder of the Freedom Democratic Party,

“All of this on account of we want to register, to become first class citizens, and if the Freedom Democratic Party is not seated, now, I question America.  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 being threatened daily, because we want to live as decent human beings in America?”

 As a result fr/that brutal assault, she suffered fr/a punctured artery in her left eye and a permanent kidney injury. Her political outreach expanded beyond racial lines.  In 1971, she, along w/a diverse group of feminine activists, founded the National Women’s Political Caucus. She believed in the power of the coalition of women and the power of their vote. 

“A white mother is no different from a black mother. The only thing is they haven’t had as many problems. But we cry the same tears.”

Fannie was even in the forefront of sustainability in farming.  She was an advocate for living off the land.

She bought land for farming and  partnered w/the National Council of Negro Women to establish a pig bank where a family could raise a piglet to produce more piglets and return the yield to the banks for other families in need.

“We just thought, you know, if we had land to grow some stuff on, then it would be a help to us because living on the farm on some plantation, they still give you a place to grow stuff, so we founded Freedom Farms in 1969 and we grow our own vegetables, you know, butter beans, peas, okra, potatoes, peanuts, and then a cash crop.  The plan of the thing is that it can grow to produce enough that people just won’t know what hunger is.”

Mrs. Hamer’s legacy is being honored by Jackson State University (in Mississippi) and California State University (Northridge) w/academic institutes in her name.  The Fannie Lou Hamer Memorial Garden (in Ruleville, MS) includes a statue and the burial site of Ms. Hamer and her husband, Perry Hamer.  In 1993, she was inducted into the National Women’s hall of Fame in Seneca Falls, New York.  In her hometown of Ruleville, Mississippi, there is a post office, community center, memorial park, youth activities center and the street on which she lived, named after her.

Let’s continue her legacy…and #VOTE 2020!