Rough Draft of NHD

Lauren Wesley

Mrs. Thompson



Rough Draft for NHD



Fannie Lou Hamer was a civil rights activist. She wrote various articles and books about how she became a civil rights activist for the fight of women's right to vote. Fannie Lou Hamer became a SNCC Field Secretary and traveled around the country speaking and registering people to vote. Hamer and others were jailed and beaten by police when obligated to speak out and attempt their constitutional right to protest. Hamer never got discouraged and proceed to fight for women's rights. This dangerous decision became a change in history. African-Americans actually had a constitutional right to vote, and Fannie Lou Hamer wanted to exercise this right. 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 and spoke to them about how African-Americans in many states across the country were prevented from voting through illegal tests, taxes and intimidation. Hamer was an will always be an inspirational figure to many involved in the struggle for civil rights. Fannie Lou Hamer has given today's generation the opportunity to voice their opinion and exercise their constitutional rights as she intended to do.

Fannie Lou Hamer was born on a plantation in the Mississippi hill country in 1917, the last child in a family of twenty children. Her parents were sharecroppers. Due to the dire economic circumstances in which the family lived, Mrs. Hamer received only six years of formal education. Education at that time was considered secondary to work. Hamer joined the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee [SNCC] as a fieldworker in voter registration drives. Fannie lou Hamer became a leading figure in the organization of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. She made addresses in many major cities and colleges in the United States.

Fannie worked as a record keeper after the family she worked for discovered she was literate. Fannie Lou Hamer is well known fighter in the American Civil Rights Movement. Despite the prevailing literacy laws, she fought for the right to vote in 1962 as a member of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. Hamer believed that Black Americans needed to be educated on various aspects of economics and politics in order to be more successful. Fannie fought for the right to vote and fought against the pervasive poverty in the Black community.

One of her projects was Freedom Farms Corporation; she founded this land coop with the intention of having poor farmers eventually purchase a stake in this land. Fanniie lou Hamer was well- recognized for founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party. The Democratic Party of Mississippi did not allow Blacks. They challenged the all-white makeup of political candidates at the 1964 Democratic Convention. Fannie lou Hamer ran for congress but failed because the prevailing party of the day did not permit her name to be placed on the ballot. Surprisingly, she received more votes outside of the ballot than did her opponent.

Fannie lou Hammer worked for SNCC. In the summer of 1964 Fannie Lou Hamer did voter registration and having mass meetings trying to get more people involved and bringing more people out--adults, because at that time, there was no such thing as the eighteen-year-old vote. Hamer was also involved in the freedom school, they'd teach because there were lot of people that couldn't [read]. Most of the time Hamer wouldn't attend the school sessions because she was on the road most of the time.

There were organizationa taken place at community centers, and some of the white kids, and the blacks, was teaching in these Freedom Schools and holding citizenship education classes because in this Delta it's a high rate of illiteracy. People like Harry Belafonte was involved, who supported blacks in making it possible for eleven of the civil rights activist to go to Africa. Fannie states that the trip was the best experience of her life. She has viewed others lifestyles and admires the passion they have for life just like she did. During the last decade of her life, Fannie was recognized by various national organizations and colleges for her groundbreaking work on behalf of Black Americans.