Who was Fannie Lou Hamer?

Happy Birthday to Fannie Lou Hamer! Hamer was born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, Mississippi, the 20th and last child of sharecroppers Lou Ella and James Townsend. She joined her family in picking cotton when she was just six years old. She worked on a Mississippi plantation owned by B.D. Marlowe until 1962.

In 1964, Hamer co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The MFDP challenged the local Mississippi Democratic Party’s efforts to stop Black participation. That same year in 1964, Hamer and other MFDP members went to the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, NJ demanding to be recognized as the official delegation.

When Hamer spoke before the Credentials Committee with her powerful testimony while advocating for mandatory integrated state delegations, her testimony was cut short. President Lyndon Johnson was so afraid of her words resonating with Black people across the country he held a televised press conference so she would not get any television airtime. This backfired, and here are the powerful words that got replayed over the nightly news for days after and continue to live on in history.

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