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Fannie Lou Hamer: America's Freedom Fighting Woman
In 1964, Fannie Lou Hamer delivered a heart-wrenching testimony before the Democratic National Convention’s (DNC) Credentials Committee. In this speech, Hamer represented both the concerns of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) and the limits of American democracy when she proclaimed: “I question America. Is this the land of the free and the home of the brave where we have to sleep with our telephones off the hooks because our lives be threatened daily? Because we want to live as decent human beings, in America?”
This is the speech that sent President Lyndon B. Johnson into a state of outright panic, as he diverted the media’s attention away from Hamer’s stinging indictment of the nation he led. This is the speech that left most Credentials Committee members in tears, forced Johnson to negotiate with the MFDP, and compelled the Democratic Party to vow they would never again seat a segregated delegation. And this is the speech that television networks, made wise to Johnson’s diversionary tactics, replayed during their evening programs, thereby bringing Fannie Lou Hamer into the living rooms of Americans across the nation.
As significant as the 1964 DNC speech is, this book will underscore that Hamer’s testimony was but one moment within a remarkable life that spanned fifty-nine tumultuous years in the history of American race relations. For the first forty-four years of her life, Hamer lived on sharecropping plantations, all the while learning life lessons from her family, the Black Baptist religious tradition, and from the oppressive white supremacist mores surrounding her. Once Hamer’s life path intersected with the mid-century Civil Rights Movement, she spent fifteen years (1962-1977) traveling from the South to the North—and even to the West Coast of Africa—advocating civil rights, economic justice, and interracial cooperation. Hamer shared the platform with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, who introduced her to an audience in Harlem as “the country’s number one freedom fighting woman.” This accessible biography will enrich public memory about Hamer by telling not only the significant story of her riveting testimony, but also by recounting a life filled with triumphs, tragedies, and accompanying lessons for contemporary audiences.
This is the speech that sent President Lyndon B. Johnson into a state of outright panic, as he diverted the media’s attention away from Hamer’s stinging indictment of the nation he led. This is the speech that left most Credentials Committee members in tears, forced Johnson to negotiate with the MFDP, and compelled the Democratic Party to vow they would never again seat a segregated delegation. And this is the speech that television networks, made wise to Johnson’s diversionary tactics, replayed during their evening programs, thereby bringing Fannie Lou Hamer into the living rooms of Americans across the nation.
As significant as the 1964 DNC speech is, this book will underscore that Hamer’s testimony was but one moment within a remarkable life that spanned fifty-nine tumultuous years in the history of American race relations. For the first forty-four years of her life, Hamer lived on sharecropping plantations, all the while learning life lessons from her family, the Black Baptist religious tradition, and from the oppressive white supremacist mores surrounding her. Once Hamer’s life path intersected with the mid-century Civil Rights Movement, she spent fifteen years (1962-1977) traveling from the South to the North—and even to the West Coast of Africa—advocating civil rights, economic justice, and interracial cooperation. Hamer shared the platform with Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, who introduced her to an audience in Harlem as “the country’s number one freedom fighting woman.” This accessible biography will enrich public memory about Hamer by telling not only the significant story of her riveting testimony, but also by recounting a life filled with triumphs, tragedies, and accompanying lessons for contemporary audiences.
222 pages, Hardcover
Published March 1, 2020
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About the author
Maegan Parker Brooks
5 books3 followersMaegan Parker Brooks is assistant professor of civic communication and media at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and is the author of The Speeches of Fannie Lou Hamer: To Tell It Like It Is, co-edited with Davis W. Houck, and A Voice that Could Stir an Army: Fannie Lou Hamer and the Rhetoric of the Black Freedom Movement, a Choice Outstanding Academic Title of 2015.
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
January 15, 2020
Nobody's free until everybody's free. ~ Fannie Lou Hamer
I first heard of Fannie Lou Hamer when I was struggling to find a focus for a quilt celebrating women's contributions to freedom. I contacted a professor of African American Studies at our son's school who referred me to Freedom's DaughtersThe Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 by Lynn Olson. It was just the inspiration I needed.
After completing my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet, which appeared in two national juried quilt shows, I continued reading biographies of leaders in the abolitionist movement and Civil Rights, which brings me to Brook's new biography of Hamer, subtitled America's Freedom Fighting Woman.
At the heart of Hamer's story is the fight to end voter discrimination, a battle that is ongoing to this very day. People in power are afraid of the power of the people and use every method possible to limit their voice.
For Hamer, seeking to vote in Mississippi in the 1960s, that fight included huge sacrifices. Arrested, beaten, and raped, the attack permanently destroyed her health.
Hamer could not be stopped. She knew first hand the suffering of the people. Her own daughter was a victim of malnutrition and the lack of affordable and available health care. Hamer saw her beloved community starving when the cotton jobs disappeared. White Supremacists literally blocked governmental assistance. Without a political voice, the poor--white and black--were powerless victims.
Hamer's crusade was born in her Christian faith and she raised her voice in hymns and speeches across the country, working with all the important leaders from Malcolm X and Stokley Carmichael to Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis.
Hamer was broadly a human rights activist. As a Black Feminist, she appeared with Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. Hamer was pro-life, distraught over a forced hysterectomy. She was an anti-war voice.
Hamer didn't only talk and sing, she ran for political office and created the Freedom Farm Collective to provide food to thousands in her starving county.
Give us food and it will be gone tomorrow. Give us land and the tools to work it and we'll feed ourselves forever.~ Fannie Lou Hamer
Hamer's life demonstrates the power of 'ordinary people.' As a nation, we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African American leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, especially the martyrs who gave their lives. It is important that we remember women like Hamer who rose up from the most powerless class in America and relentlessly stood up to power.
Brooks has given us a heroine whose example is much needed in these troubling times.
I was given access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
I first heard of Fannie Lou Hamer when I was struggling to find a focus for a quilt celebrating women's contributions to freedom. I contacted a professor of African American Studies at our son's school who referred me to Freedom's DaughtersThe Unsung Heroines of the Civil Rights Movement from 1830 to 1970 by Lynn Olson. It was just the inspiration I needed.
After completing my quilt I Will Lift My Voice Like a Trumpet, which appeared in two national juried quilt shows, I continued reading biographies of leaders in the abolitionist movement and Civil Rights, which brings me to Brook's new biography of Hamer, subtitled America's Freedom Fighting Woman.
At the heart of Hamer's story is the fight to end voter discrimination, a battle that is ongoing to this very day. People in power are afraid of the power of the people and use every method possible to limit their voice.
For Hamer, seeking to vote in Mississippi in the 1960s, that fight included huge sacrifices. Arrested, beaten, and raped, the attack permanently destroyed her health.
Hamer could not be stopped. She knew first hand the suffering of the people. Her own daughter was a victim of malnutrition and the lack of affordable and available health care. Hamer saw her beloved community starving when the cotton jobs disappeared. White Supremacists literally blocked governmental assistance. Without a political voice, the poor--white and black--were powerless victims.
Hamer's crusade was born in her Christian faith and she raised her voice in hymns and speeches across the country, working with all the important leaders from Malcolm X and Stokley Carmichael to Martin Luther King, Jr. and John Lewis.
Hamer was broadly a human rights activist. As a Black Feminist, she appeared with Gloria Steinem and Betty Friedan. Hamer was pro-life, distraught over a forced hysterectomy. She was an anti-war voice.
Hamer didn't only talk and sing, she ran for political office and created the Freedom Farm Collective to provide food to thousands in her starving county.
Give us food and it will be gone tomorrow. Give us land and the tools to work it and we'll feed ourselves forever.~ Fannie Lou Hamer
Hamer's life demonstrates the power of 'ordinary people.' As a nation, we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. and other African American leaders of the Civil Rights Movement, especially the martyrs who gave their lives. It is important that we remember women like Hamer who rose up from the most powerless class in America and relentlessly stood up to power.
Brooks has given us a heroine whose example is much needed in these troubling times.
I was given access to a free egalley by the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.
August 7, 2020
Fannie Lou Hamer was an amazingly courageous woman, starting her life as one of 20 children of sharecroppers, and rising to be one of the central figures in the civil rights movement. So much of this book is difficult to read—assaults beatings, and stories of cruelty abound. The author informs us that she “employed creative techniques such as omniscient narration, scene setting, and the re-creation of dialogue” what she calls “creative historical reconstruction.” I really resented the use of imagined conversations in a nonfiction book. Thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for this ARC.
September 18, 2020
Amazing woman!
I was born just across the river from Natchez MS in 1964. The description of Sunflower County is very similar to Concordia Parish. Today the poverty among African-Americas there is even greater, I believe. 2020 needs another Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman with morals, ethics and character who will NOT bend to others, and who understood that poverty and oppression crosses and equally affects all ethnicities. I'm so happy I read this book!!
I was born just across the river from Natchez MS in 1964. The description of Sunflower County is very similar to Concordia Parish. Today the poverty among African-Americas there is even greater, I believe. 2020 needs another Fannie Lou Hamer, a woman with morals, ethics and character who will NOT bend to others, and who understood that poverty and oppression crosses and equally affects all ethnicities. I'm so happy I read this book!!
March 6, 2021
Fanny Lou, one of many civil rights era names I wasn’t familiar with until the past couple of years, was an incredible woman who braved several attempts on her life to fight for voting rights, served the impoverished in the rural south who were shamefully neglected by both local and federal government, and paved the way for political involvement for the black community. What an incredible woman. Definitely worth studying.
June 11, 2021
This book was a bit dry as a read but an interesting story of a brave woman. Her grandmother as an enslaved woman birthed 23 children only three of which were conceived in a consensual relationship with a black partner. She was passed from master to master so 20 of her children were the result of being raped.
August 8, 2021
Fannie Lou Hamer is a goddamn American HERO and it’s shameful I have only recently learned of her life; as the author states on page 184:
“The principled stances Hamer took, her propensity to speak truth to power, and her embodied disruptions of systemic exclusion encourage contemporary readers to develop a healthy disrespect for respectability politics.”
“The principled stances Hamer took, her propensity to speak truth to power, and her embodied disruptions of systemic exclusion encourage contemporary readers to develop a healthy disrespect for respectability politics.”
March 4, 2022
Others have said it much better than I. But such an incredible woman with an incredible story that's simply eye opening and makes me want to do more, learn more, and be more. 1 star off because although I love a well researched book with lots of explanation and references, this author got lost in the weeds at times and deviated from Ms Hamer's story a bit too much for my liking.
May 27, 2020
Excellent biography and well-researched history of Mrs. Fannie Lou Hamer.
August 12, 2020
I wish everyone would read this book so we can begin to understand the experiences of those who fought for freedoms we take for granted today as white Americans.
October 18, 2021
An amazing woman who had strength, grace and faith. I am saddened that we still have yet so far to go.
April 10, 2023
I don't usually go for biographies, but this was excellent and provided a more complete picture of the civil rights movement. My book group had a great discussion, too.
March 21, 2020
looking forward to a soon to be released documentary about Mrs. Hamer: Fannie Lou Hamer's America
good luck
good luck
March 28, 2021
A Great Biography
This is a extremely well written and well documented biography of the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer. It is profoundly moving and informative. I highly recommend.
This is a extremely well written and well documented biography of the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer. It is profoundly moving and informative. I highly recommend.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews