January 2021 Historical Figure: Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer
"When I liberate myself, I liberate others. If you don't speak out ain't nobody going to speak out for you."
-Fannie Lou Hamer
The collective actions of Black women in the United States of America have always found a way to raise the quality of life for our community. For instance, in 1881, the Black women of Atlanta organized the Washerwomen Strike. This strike raised the wages from some women in labor, which was great sign of progress and hope in an era where this success seemed unconceivable. Their victory also showed the impact of Black labor on the quality of life for members of the White community.
Just like the Atlanta Washerwomen, the Black Sororities have impacted society in various ways. For example, the women of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. championed the Dyer Lynching Bill of 1922 (the sorority sites its push in 1921). Their efforts made Lynching a federally crime. The women of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. launched their National Library Project in 1937 to combat “the lack of library facilities afforded to minorities in the south”, and they double down on literacy in 1950, when they took their literacy efforts a step further with the launch of their “Mobile Libraries”, so that children in remote areas could access books (Parker & Hernandez, 2016). Although these are just a snippet of the service created by these magnificent organizations, which both celebrated their Founder’s Day in the month of January, their success is a product of the collective effort made by many dynamic women. In contrast with the collective spirit of the women in these organizations, this month’s historical figure, Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer, stood on her own merit.
Mrs. Hamer’s character, story, and reputation reached national attention when she testified before credentials committee at the Democratic National Convention in 1964 regarding her treatment during her efforts to vote in Mississippi. Prior to the convention, Mrs. Hamer created the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which directly challenged the ability for Blacks to participate in the democratic process. In order to limit the influence of her testimony, President Lyndon B. Johnson purposefully interrupted her speech with a “Bullshit” press conference to cut her off. However, this effort of suppression was futile by the president. Ms. Hamer’s speech, which brought attention to the prejudice driven and racially motivated violence of the south, was televised in full at a later time.
Although President Johnson tried to silence her, Mrs. Hamer’s story made her one of the most powerful members of the civil rights movement. Unfortunately, being a Black woman in America, her name is rarely mentioned with the men of the era, even thought she might have endured more pain and suffering over the course of her lifetime. Growing up in Mississippi, she born the cotton fields in 1917, she was fired as a share cropper for trying to vote, and her doctor preformed an unsanctioned hysterectomy during a routine surgery, making her sterile before she could ever have a child (this was a common practice called a “Mississippi appendectomy”, which happened to many Black women in Mississippi) Through all this suffering, disappointment, and inhumane action, Mrs. Hamer kept fighting for Black people to have an equitable fate in America.
Mrs. Hamer took the fight directly to “the man”. Almost all of her work to provide Blacks with the ability to vote was done in the state of Mississippi. After taking up the fight alone, Mrs. Hamer was identified by theStudent Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) as a valuable asset to the “movement’. She remained steadfast in her fight for equality and voter rights until she lost her personal battle with breast cancer in 1977. Mrs. Hamer was a liberator!
