Fannie Lou Hamer, known
as the lady who was "sick and tired of being sick and tired," was born
October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi. She was the granddaughter
of slaves. Her family were sharecroppers - a position not that different
from slavery. Hamer had 19 brothers and sisters. She was the youngest
of the children.
In 1962, when Hamer was
44 years old, SNCC volunteers came to town and held a voter registration
meeting. She was surprised to learn that African-Americans actually had
a constitutional right to vote. When the SNCC members asked for volunteers
to go to the courthouse to register to vote, Hamer was the first to raise
her hand. This was a dangerous decision. She later reflected, "The only
thing they could do to me was to kill me, and it seemed like they'd been
trying to do that a little bit at a time ever since I could remember."
When Hamer and others went
to the courthouse, they were jailed and beaten by the police. Hamer's
courageous act got her thrown off the plantation where she was a sharecropper.
She also began to receive constant death threats and was even shot at.
Still, Hamer would not be discouraged. She became a SNCC Field Secretary
and traveled around the country speaking and registering people to vote.
Hamer co-founded the Mississippi
Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP). In 1964, the MDFP challenged the all-white
Mississippi delegation to the Democratic National Convention. Hamer spoke
in front of the Credentials Committee in a televised proceeding that reached
millions of viewers. She told the committee how African-Americans in many
states across the country were prevented from voting through illegal tests,
taxes and intimidation. As a result of her speech, two delegates of the
MFDP were given speaking rights at the convention and the other members
were seated as honorable guests.
Hamer was an inspirational
figure to many involved in the struggle for civil rights. She died on
March 14, 1977, at the age of 59.
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