Fannie Lou Hamer

Background

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer was a civil rights activist and so much more. Her passion for African-American rights earned her recognition. She was a Libra, born on October 5, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. Hamer was the last child of her parents, Ella and James Lee Townsend. In 1919, her family moved to Sunflower County, Mississippi, to work as sharecroppers on W.D. Marlow’s plantation. There, she went to school and picked cotton.

In the ‘50s, Hamer became interested in the civil rights movement. In January 1963, she passed the voter’s literacy test after failing twice. Thus, she became a registered voter in the State of Mississippi. However, her voting efforts were truncated by her county’s voting prerequisite of two poll tax receipts. In 1963, she became a field secretary for the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. That year, she was a victim of horrendous police brutality. The beatings she received left her with permanent damage to one kidney. In 1964, she co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and unsuccessfully ran for a seat in the U.S. Senate. In 1971, Hamer co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus; in 1972, she was elected as a national party delegate.

Hamer’s life was filled with little yet significant wins for the black community and persecution from the whites. She married Perry Hamer, a former tractor driver on Marlow’s plantation, in 1945. Due to her forced sterilization, Hamer couldn’t bear children, so she and her husband adopted two girls. Hamer suffered complications of hypertension and breast cancer. She died on March 14, 1977, and was buried in her hometown, Ruleville, Mississippi.