People:Fannie Lou Hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer
 | |
| Caption | Fannie Lou Hamer |
|---|---|
| Birth Date | 1917-10-06 |
| Birth Place | Montgomery County, USA |
| Death Date | 1977-03-03 |
| Death Place | Mound Bayou, Mississippi, USA |
| Occupation | Activist, Community Organizer, Founder |
| Industry | Civil Rights |
| Organizations | SNCC, National Women's Political Caucus ,Freedom Summer |
| |
| Caption | Fannie Lou Hamer |
|---|---|
| Birth Date | 1917-10-06 |
| Birth Place | Montgomery County, USA |
| Death Date | 1977-03-03 |
| Death Place | Mound Bayou, Mississippi, USA |
| Occupation | Activist, Community Organizer, Founder |
| Industry | Civil Rights |
| Organizations | SNCC, National Women's Political Caucus ,Freedom Summer |
Summary
Fannie Lou Hamer was an American voting and women's rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement. She was the vice-chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Hamer also organized Mississippi's Freedom Summer along with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). She was also a co-founder of the National Women's Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who wish to seek election to government office.
Early Life
Hamer was born as Fannie Lou Townsend on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the last of the 20 children of Lou Ella and James Lee Townsend.
Career
Hamer became interested in the civil rights movement in the 1950s.[15] She heard leaders of the local movement speak at annual Regional Council of Negro Leadership (RCNL) conferences, held in Mound Bayou, Mississippi.[15] The attendees of the yearly conferences discussed black voting rights and other civil rights issues black communities in the area faced.[12] She became a good friend of RCNL founder and head T. R. M. Howard.[16]
Impact
Hamer and her husband wanted very much to start a family but in 1961, a white doctor subjected Hamer to a hysterectomy without her consent while she was undergoing surgery to remove a uterine tumor.[13] Forced sterilization was a common method of population control in Mississippi that targeted poor, African-American women. Members of the Black community called the procedure a "Mississippi appendectomy".[13] The Hamers later raised two girls they adopted, eventually adopting two more.[3][14] One, Dorothy Jean, died at age 22 of internal hemorrhaging after she was denied admission to the local hospital because of her mother's activism.
Critiques
Hamer continued to develop her reading and interpretation skills in Bible study at her church;[5] in later years Lawrence Guyot admired her ability to connect "the biblical exhortations for liberation and [the struggle for civil rights] any time that she wanted to and move in and out to any frames of reference".[11] In 1944, after the plantation owner discovered her literacy, she was selected as its time and record keeper.[12] The following year she married Perry "Pap" Hamer, a tractor driver on the Marlow plantation, and they remained there for the next 18 years.[4]
We had a little money so we took care of her and raised her. She was sickly too when I got her; suffered from malnutrition. Then she got run over by a car and her leg was broken. So she's only in fourth grade now.
Bibliography
In 1919, the Townsends moved to Ruleville, Mississippi, to work as sharecroppers on W. D. Marlow's plantation.[4] From age six, Hamer picked cotton with her family. During the winters of 1924 through 1930, she attended the one-room school provided for the sharecroppers' children, open between picking seasons. Hamer loved reading and excelled in spelling bees and reciting poetry, but at age 12 she had to leave school to help support her aging parents.[5][6][7] By age 13, she would pick 200–300 pounds (90 to 140 kg) of cotton daily while living with polio.