Woman of the Month: Fannie Lou Hamer

Fannie Lou Hamer – “The voice of the Civil Rights Movement”

Fannie Lou Townsend Hamer (1917-77) was an African American civil rights activist in the USA. Born in Montgomery County, Mississippi as the 20^th (yes, 20^th!) child to Lou Ella and James Townsend who were sharecroppers. Sharecroppers (or those involved in Debt Slavery) were African American people who, after slavery had been abolished, ‘rented’ land from the previous slaveowners and shared a percentage of their harvest with the landowners. This was a corrupt system, with the sharecroppers becoming caught in continual debt by having to pay to borrow equipment, seeds and clothing as well as being unable to leave the landowners property by law, until their debt was paid.

Fannie began her life working on the land, picking cotton at age 6 and leaving school by 12. In 1944, Fannie married Perry Hamer and together they worked and lived on a plantation, where Fannie was a timekeeper – being the only worker who could read and write.

In 1961, Fannie became a victim of the increasingly common forced sterilisations of Black women. When she had a surgery to remove a tumour in her uterus, her white doctor removed her ovaries without her knowledge to prevent her from having children. Unfortunately, this was a common procedure for white doctors to carry out, without the consent of their Black patients. She later adopted two girls.

By the 1950’s, Fannie was sick of the treatment and racist attacks that Black people were suffering from in America and became involved in the Civil Rights Movement. In 1962, she learnt that Black people had a constitutional right to voting despite numerous hurdles and barriers placed in the way of African Americans at that time. So, she dedicated her life to breaking these barriers down; she began by helping her community to register to vote by speaking at Civil Rights organisations. Many people were arrested and attacked by white supremacists who wanted to prevent Black people from voting at any cost. Her first attempt to register to vote was on the 31^st August, where she travelled with other activists to take the ‘Literacy Test’ that all African Americans must pass before they earned their right to vote. Of course, this varied and was a corrupt system, with the difficulty of the test varying from person to person in an attempt to discourage Black people.

Despite being knowledgeable and literate, Hamer did not pass her first attempt at the test which resulted in her and her family being kicked off the plantation and leaving them vulnerable to murder attempts. Hamer turned up to register to vote every 30 days – as per the rules. On her third attempt, in January 1963 she passed and was a registered voter in Mississippi – however, due to a corrupt system she was still unable to vote. That same year, she became a victim of police brutality whilst on her way to a conference in South Carolina. She was arrested and severely beaten in jail which almost cost her life. After recovering, Fannie did not let this deter her from speaking out. She helped create the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party and ran for congress.

Fannie bought the deeply embedded racial issues in America to the eyes of many people. She ensured that the voting process for future generations would not be as difficult and encouraged African American communities to speak out and fight for their rights in the corruption of the world at the time. Whilst fighting for what seemed like the impossible to many, she is an incredible reminder of the power your voice can have.