October 6

Fannie Lou Hamer, born of humble beginnings in early 20th century Mississippi Delta, was an African American civil rights activist who worked for voting rights for Blacks, to desegregate the Mississippi Democratic Party, and to gain greater economic opportunities for African Americans.

Born on October 6, 1917 in Montgomery County, MS — the youngest of Lou Ella and James Townsend’s 20 children — Hames joined her family picking cotton at age six. Because of poverty and racial exploitation, her formal education ended at sixth grade. In the early 1940s, she married Perry (“Pap”) Hamer, and the couple share cropped on a Mississippi plantation until 1962.

Her civil rights activism began in August 1962, when Fannie Lou Hamer attended a meeting led by civil rights activists James Forman of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) and James Bevel of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Incensed hearing how Blacks were excluded from voting, on August 31, 1962 Hamer led 17 volunteers to register to vote at the Indianola, MS courthouse. Denied the right to vote by an unfair literacy test, the group returned home only to meet harassment on their way, when police stopped and fined them $100 for the trumped-up charge of riding in a bus that was “too yellow.”

The Hamers met further persecution. Fired and evicted from their plantation cabin for Fannie Lou’s attempt at voter registration (she failed a literacy test), they were forced to move to Poolesville, MS, where Fannie Lou became a field secretary for SNCC.

Hamer’s work with SNCC took her beyond Mississippi. In June 1963, she successfully completed a voter registration program in Charleston, SC. But back in Winona Mississippi Hamer and several other Black women were arrested for sitting in a “whites-only” bus station. At the Winona jailhouse, they were brutally beaten, leaving Hamer with lifelong injuries from a blood clot in her eye, kidney damage, and leg damage.

In June 1964, Hamer organized Freedom Summer, a campaign launched by American civil rights activists to register as many African-American voters as possible in the state of Mississippi.

Hamer’s political efforts took on a national stance when in 1964 she cofounded and became vice-chairperson of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP), established after unsuccessful attempts by African Americans to work with the all-white and pro-segregation Mississippi Democratic Party. That year Hamer testified before the credentials committee of the Democratic National Convention, demanding that the delegation of the Mississippi Democratic Party be replaced by that of the MFDP. Despite President Lyndon B. Johnson’s attempt to block the television broadcast of her testimony, by scheduling a news conference for the same time, nevertheless Hamer’s speech was carried on many evening news programs, where it was exposed to a much larger audience than it would otherwise have received. Hamer movingly described the violence and injustices suffered by civil rights activists, including her own experience of a jailhouse beating that had left her crippled. At the insistence of President Johnson, however, the committee refused to seat the MFDP delegation, offering only two at-large seats, provided that neither went to Hamer. She and the MFDP rejected the offer. In any case, the episode added to the growing public awareness of the injustices and violence Blacks endured in the America.

In 1967, Hamer published To Praise Our Bridges: An Autobiography. As a member of the Democratic National Committee for Mississippi (1968–71) and the Policy Council of the National Women’s Political Caucus (1971–77), she actively opposed the Vietnam War and worked to improve economic conditions in Mississippi. In 1971, Hamer co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus, an organization created to recruit, train, and support women of all races who sought election to government offices.

Hamer died of breast cancer in 1977 at age 59. Forty-eight years after her death, President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom — the Nation’s highest civilian honor — to Fannie Lou Hamer.

Footnotes:

• The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica. “Fannie Lou Hamer.” Encyclopedia Britannica, 11 Mar. 2025. Accessed 27 May 2025.
• Michals, Debra “Fannie Lou Hamer.”” National Women’s History Museum. 2017.