Fannie Lou Hamer: Remembered with Appreciation

Deeply Knowing, Never Victim, Never Slave: “We can no longer ignore the fact that America is not the … land of the free and the home of the brave.” An American Treasure born on the land, of humble means and circumstances, a great orator and activist with six years of formal schooling. 

The young need to know this brave and free — neither victim nor slave — Great American Woman!

 

BRIEFLY profiled

♦1964: She co-found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) “in an effort to prevent the regional Democratic party’s attempts to stifle African-American voices, and to ensure that there was a party for all people that did not stand for any form of exploitation and discrimination (especially towards minorities).” She and other activists then “traveled to the 1964 Democratic National Convention to stand as the official delegation from the state of Mississippi.” 

Obstructionists: Shameful Democrats, Black Men
NAACP leader Roy Wilkins (among others called her “ignorant”
U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson “looked down on her”
U.S. Vice President Hubert Humphrey declared
“the President will not allow that
illiterate woman to speak from the floor of
the (Democratic Party) convention.”

S

he marched on  

♦1968: MFDP was seated “after the Democratic Party adopted a clause that demanded equality of representation from their states’ delegations.”

♦1972: she was elected as a national party delegate.

 ♦Also Late 1960s: she pioneered the Freedom Farm Cooperative (FFC), an attempt to redistribute economic power across groups and to solidify an economic standing amongst African-Americans.

She partnered with the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) in establishing an interracial and inter-regional support program called ‘The Pig Project’ to provide protein for people who previously could not afford meat. She established “a small ‘pig bank’ with a start-up funding from the NCNW. Through the pig bank, a family could care for a pregnant female pig until it bore its offspring; the family the raised the piglets and used them for food and for financial gain. Over a five year period, “thousands of pigs were available for breeding.”

She used the success of the bank to begin fundraising for the main farming corporation and convinced the then-editor of the Harvard Crimson, James Fallows, to write an article that advocated for donations to the Freedom Farm Cooperative. Eventually, the FFC had raised around $8,000 which allowed Hamer to purchase 40 acres of land previously owned by a black farmer who could no longer afford to occupy the land.

That “Freedom Farm” established “an agricultural organization that could supplement the nutritional needs of America’s most disenfranchised people”; provided “acceptable housing development”; created “an entrepreneurial business incubator that would provide resources for new companies and re-training for those with limited education but manual labor experience.”

FFC over its tenure (ending in 1975 for lack of funding) “offered various other services such as financial counseling, a scholarship fund and a housing agency”; aided in securing 35 Federal Housing Administration (FHA) subsidized houses for struggling black families.” Her ability to “acquire a new home … served as inspiration for others to begin building themselves up.”

♦♦♦

 Remembered with Appreciation ♦♦♦

A woman born into a huge family in the Black Baptist Church tradition, who worked on plantation farms and achieved six grades of formal schooling; “excelled greatly at reading, spelling, and poetry, even won spelling bees”; and became a Sojourner Truth-reminiscent speaker known for a “‘telling it like it is’ oratorical style”; known for weaving “into her speeches sense of deep confidence, biblical knowledge, even comedy in a way that many did not think possible for someone without a formal education or access to ‘institutionalized power.’”

Recipient of the “Paul Robeson Award”; the “Mary Church Terrell Award”; and the National Sojourner Truth Meritorious Service Award”— this American Treasure Fannie Lou Hamer (October 6, 1917 – March 14, 1977) is remembered as a voting and women’s rights activist, community organizer, and a leader in the civil rights movement; co-founder and vice chair of the Freedom Democratic Party, which she represented at the 1964 Democratic National Convention; organizer with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) of Mississippi’s Freedom Summer; 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.”

“There is one thing you have got to learn about our movement. …
Three people are better than no people. …
People have got to get together and work together”—
Fannie Lou Hamer (/ˈheɪmər/; née Townsend).

Y

esterday was her birthday.

Sources
Fannie Lou Hamer Quotes Brainy Quotes https://www.brainyquote.com/authors/fannie-lou-hamer-quotes
“Fannie Lou Hamer 1917-1977” edited by Debra Michals, Ph.D. 2017
https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer
Fannie Lou Hamer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fannie_Lou_Hamer