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Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America
National Book Critics Circle 2021 Biography Finalist53rd NAACP Image Award Outstanding Literary Work - Biography/Autobiography“[A] riveting and timely exploration of Hamer’s life. . . . Brilliantly constructed to be both forward and backward looking, Blain’s book functions simultaneously as a much needed history lesson and an indispensable guide for modern activists.”—New York Times Book ReviewMs. Magazine “Most Anticipated Reads for the Rest of Us – 2021” · KIRKUS STARRED REVIEW · BOOKLIST STARRED REVIEW · Publishers Weekly Big Indie Books of Fall 2021 Explores the Black activist’s ideas and political strategies, highlighting their relevance for tackling modern social issues including voter suppression, police violence, and economic inequality.“We have a long fight and this fight is not mine alone, but you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free.”—Fannie Lou HamerA blend of social commentary, biography, and intellectual history, Until I Am Free is a manifesto for anyone committed to social justice. The book challenges us to listen to a working-poor and disabled Black woman activist and intellectual of the civil rights movement as we grapple with contemporary concerns around race, inequality, and social justice.Award-winning historian and New York Times best-selling author Keisha N. Blain situates Fannie Lou Hamer as a key political thinker alongside leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Rosa Parks and demonstrates how her ideas remain salient for a new generation of activists committed to dismantling systems of oppression in the United States and across the globe.Despite her limited material resources and the myriad challenges she endured as a Black woman living in poverty in Mississippi, Hamer committed herself to making a difference in the lives of others. She refused to be sidelined in the movement and refused to be intimidated by those of higher social status and with better jobs and education. In these pages, Hamer’s words and ideas take center stage, allowing us all to hear the activist’s voice and deeply engage her words, as though we had the privilege to sit right beside her.More than 40 years since Hamer’s death in 1977, her words still speak truth to power, laying bare the faults in American society and offering valuable insights on how we might yet continue the fight to help the nation live up to its core ideals of “equality and justice for all.”Includes a photo insert featuring Hamer at civil rights marches, participating in the Democratic National Convention, testifying before Congress, and more.
209 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 5, 2021
80 people are currently reading
3061 people want to read
About the author
Keisha N. Blain
10 books212 followersKeisha N. Blain is professor of Africana studies and history at Brown University. She is a columnist for MSNBC, a Guggenheim Fellow, and author—most recently of the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Until I Am Free. She lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews
November 10, 2021
genuinely bummed that this otherwise very enjoyable book finished up with a kamala harris epilogue lol
January 30, 2022
The way Mrs. Hamer spoke about history so straight forward would shut some ignorant people up today. The book shows how passionate she was about human rights and dignity.
April 23, 2022
During the summer of 1964, at the Democratic National Convention in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Fannie Lou Hamer brought her voice of discontent about political injustice within the Democratic Party. She was asking for mandatory integrated state delegations, and spoke passionately and eloquently about voter suppression, discrimination and violence leveled at those who were fighting for their civil rights. In co-founding the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party Hamer was challenging local Democratic Party methods to block Black participation and representation in state and national politics. She captured national attention.
Fannie Lou Hammer was born into a world of poverty, deprivation, discrimination and what amounted to de facto slavery. She, her parents and siblings worked as sharecroppers, picking cotton on a plantation where they could never financially escape a financial sytem that indentured them to the owner of the land. As a married woman her pregnancies failed and when she went for a simple medical procedure, she was sterilized without her knowledge or consent. It was a procedure known as a “Mississippi appendectomy”, which was one factor that led to her fight for justice. The other major event came after attending a meeting organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that encouraged those in attendance to work at registering voters. Word got back to W. D. Marlowe, who owned the plantation where she worked, and he demanded that she not register. Upon her refusal, Marlowe ordered Hamer off the land. Because she challenged the local requirements, a literacy test, in order to register to vote, and her loss of work because she would not obey W. D. Marlowe, she became known to local SNCC organizers who saw her potential as a leader and organizer. At one of the protests, she and others were arrested, jailed, and Hamer was severely beaten, which caused permanent damage to her eyes, legs and kidneys. But that did not stop her fight for justice, both political and social. For the rest of her relatively short life (59-years-old) Fannie Lou Hamer was a fighter for justice. She was an inspiring speaker and organizer.
This new biography is based on extensive research, in part, on Fannie Lou Hamer's speeches, writings and interviews. Professor Keisha N. Blain melds history, signal events and leaders important in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and current events with the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer. In comparing recent national events involving racial discrimination and violence, it is evident that the struggle for equality and justice is far from over. However, by reading about the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, it is possible to see that her political and social strategies are applicable to today's problems. Professor Blain states, “Hamer emphasized the need for more leaders to engage with the grassroots and common folk–empowering those individuals to emerge as leaders–in order to challenge all forms of social injustices. She knew from past experience that leaders could come from all backgrounds–even those who lacked financial resources and formal education or had a marginalized social status ... Far more than gaining visibility, she argued, the core aspect of effective leadership was to provide people with the necessary tools and resources to expand the fight for social justice."
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction
Fannie Lou Hammer was born into a world of poverty, deprivation, discrimination and what amounted to de facto slavery. She, her parents and siblings worked as sharecroppers, picking cotton on a plantation where they could never financially escape a financial sytem that indentured them to the owner of the land. As a married woman her pregnancies failed and when she went for a simple medical procedure, she was sterilized without her knowledge or consent. It was a procedure known as a “Mississippi appendectomy”, which was one factor that led to her fight for justice. The other major event came after attending a meeting organized by the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) that encouraged those in attendance to work at registering voters. Word got back to W. D. Marlowe, who owned the plantation where she worked, and he demanded that she not register. Upon her refusal, Marlowe ordered Hamer off the land. Because she challenged the local requirements, a literacy test, in order to register to vote, and her loss of work because she would not obey W. D. Marlowe, she became known to local SNCC organizers who saw her potential as a leader and organizer. At one of the protests, she and others were arrested, jailed, and Hamer was severely beaten, which caused permanent damage to her eyes, legs and kidneys. But that did not stop her fight for justice, both political and social. For the rest of her relatively short life (59-years-old) Fannie Lou Hamer was a fighter for justice. She was an inspiring speaker and organizer.
This new biography is based on extensive research, in part, on Fannie Lou Hamer's speeches, writings and interviews. Professor Keisha N. Blain melds history, signal events and leaders important in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s and 1970s, and current events with the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer. In comparing recent national events involving racial discrimination and violence, it is evident that the struggle for equality and justice is far from over. However, by reading about the life of Fannie Lou Hamer, it is possible to see that her political and social strategies are applicable to today's problems. Professor Blain states, “Hamer emphasized the need for more leaders to engage with the grassroots and common folk–empowering those individuals to emerge as leaders–in order to challenge all forms of social injustices. She knew from past experience that leaders could come from all backgrounds–even those who lacked financial resources and formal education or had a marginalized social status ... Far more than gaining visibility, she argued, the core aspect of effective leadership was to provide people with the necessary tools and resources to expand the fight for social justice."
Reviewed by Sheryn Morris, Librarian, Literature & Fiction
June 21, 2022
Serves as a great introduction to the life of Fannie Lou Hamer. She is one of the most fearless freedom fighters that ever struggled on behalf of her people. In many ways, the professional civil rights class let her down. She was non-compromising and took no tea for the fever.
She wasn’t interested in playing politics, she wanted no parts of the quid-pro-quo. She wanted freedom from oppression and was unwilling to continue waiting. She was often ahead of the “men” leaders who pepper the history books at the expense of a Fannie Lou Hamer.
For a glimpse at what people centered serious leadership looks like, read this slim volume and update your definition of leadership.
She wasn’t interested in playing politics, she wanted no parts of the quid-pro-quo. She wanted freedom from oppression and was unwilling to continue waiting. She was often ahead of the “men” leaders who pepper the history books at the expense of a Fannie Lou Hamer.
For a glimpse at what people centered serious leadership looks like, read this slim volume and update your definition of leadership.
October 23, 2021
Fannie Lou Hamer is one of my top 5 great American heroes. I’m also a big fan of Dr Blain, so I’ve been eagerly anticipating this book’s release. I was not disappointed!!
This was the perfect balance of biography with a sprinkling of social commentary. Even though I love reading history and nonfiction, I do not love reading clunky biographies. This was NOT one of those. I flew through this thing. I also loved that Blain ended with a reflection on Hamer’s legacy and her influence on 2021. Beautifully done. 100% recommend.
This was the perfect balance of biography with a sprinkling of social commentary. Even though I love reading history and nonfiction, I do not love reading clunky biographies. This was NOT one of those. I flew through this thing. I also loved that Blain ended with a reflection on Hamer’s legacy and her influence on 2021. Beautifully done. 100% recommend.
June 8, 2022
This book is important. I found it to be an introduction and a starting place for me to learn more about female activists in the civil rights movement. I am disappointed that I had not learned about Fannie Lou Hamer’s story until picking up this book. Though I wish the book would have further detailed parts of her story, there were profound themes that encouraged me - the importance of truly partnering faith with action, group centered leadership in political involvement, intersectionality and advocacy for all marginalized populations, global involvement, and holistic liberation. Though I did not agree with everything, I was challenged and encouraged by this book that fueled my passion for justice and advocacy.
December 8, 2021
Fannie Lou Hamer was a remarkable woman. This book is not a true biography of her, it is a book inspired by her. While I wish that the author, Keisha Blain would have explored Hamer's life, the outline is here. She was born poor, the youngest of twenty children of two Mississippi sharecroppers who, no matter how hard they worked, could not escape poverty due to the oppressive economic structure of sharecropping. Ms Hamer ended her schooling at age 12 so that she could pick cotton full time. Her life changed in 1962 when at age 44 she attended a voter's rights meeting put on by the Student Non Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) Ms Hamer because a tireless champion of voting rights. Her advocacy for voting rights resulted in beatings, one of which left her with injuries that stayed with her for the rest of her life. When she tried to register to vote herself she was forced off the land where she worked and lived. Her advocacy also led to fame, she became the key player in the 1964 Democratic convention's credential fight over the seating of Black delegates. She rejected compromises urged upon her by "leaders" and made an impassioned speech on the floor which still reverberates.
A theme of the book is the difference of Hamer's life as a sharecropper from many of the other civil rights leaders, many of whom were college educated. Hamer preferred direct action from local groups along the SNCC model as opposed to top town leadership as seen in the NAACP and Dr King's SCLC. Her perspective is shown by this statement by her quoted in the book
"SNCC worked with the people. NAACP didn't work with the people. You know, I used to write membership for the NAACP and they don't care....You see I'm not particular about working with nobody that don't say "yes, sir" to everything to Mr. Charlie and that's all the NAACP does."
As I discussed earlier, this is a book inspired by Fannie Lou Hamer not simply about her. It includes many commentaries about current events that of course Ms Hamer would not know about. But there is welcome recognition for a remarkable women who inspired so many and continues to inspire
A theme of the book is the difference of Hamer's life as a sharecropper from many of the other civil rights leaders, many of whom were college educated. Hamer preferred direct action from local groups along the SNCC model as opposed to top town leadership as seen in the NAACP and Dr King's SCLC. Her perspective is shown by this statement by her quoted in the book
"SNCC worked with the people. NAACP didn't work with the people. You know, I used to write membership for the NAACP and they don't care....You see I'm not particular about working with nobody that don't say "yes, sir" to everything to Mr. Charlie and that's all the NAACP does."
As I discussed earlier, this is a book inspired by Fannie Lou Hamer not simply about her. It includes many commentaries about current events that of course Ms Hamer would not know about. But there is welcome recognition for a remarkable women who inspired so many and continues to inspire
March 24, 2023
“You can pray until you faint, but if you don’t get up and try to do something, God is not going to put it in your lap.” - Fannie Lou Hamer. Hamer’s most famous quote is probably “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free”, but I like the first one too much not to include it too.
In Until I am Free, Dr. Keisha Blain takes a look at the life of Fannie Lou Hamer and how her legacy is visible today. Part biography, part exploration of her beliefs and passion around human rights, part examination about the way that we see the impact of her legacy in social justice movements today - I appreciated learning more about Hamer’s life and work. Over the past few years, I have seen Hamer referenced at various times, but I didn’t know much about her before picking this up. The youngest of 20 (yes 20) children, she left school at the age of 12 to join her family working in sharecropping. She didn’t become involved in the Civil Rights movement until the 1960’s , at the age of 44, when a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Meeting opened her eyes to the rights she wasn’t able to access, most specifically the right to vote. After attempting to register to vote, she was brutally beaten by police and fired from her work sharecropping. She became an advocate who worked tirelessly for human rights, always willing to speak her mind and stand up for her beliefs. My first inclination was to say that she was fearless about speaking out, but there is no way that there wasn’t fear with the threats and violence that she experienced. She was courageous. She was relentless. She was committed. She was focused. She was willing to do the hard work, every day, regardless of the cost. Hamer truly was an inspiration and I appreciated this opportunity to learn more about her life and see the impact that she has had on future generations.
In Until I am Free, Dr. Keisha Blain takes a look at the life of Fannie Lou Hamer and how her legacy is visible today. Part biography, part exploration of her beliefs and passion around human rights, part examination about the way that we see the impact of her legacy in social justice movements today - I appreciated learning more about Hamer’s life and work. Over the past few years, I have seen Hamer referenced at various times, but I didn’t know much about her before picking this up. The youngest of 20 (yes 20) children, she left school at the age of 12 to join her family working in sharecropping. She didn’t become involved in the Civil Rights movement until the 1960’s , at the age of 44, when a Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee Meeting opened her eyes to the rights she wasn’t able to access, most specifically the right to vote. After attempting to register to vote, she was brutally beaten by police and fired from her work sharecropping. She became an advocate who worked tirelessly for human rights, always willing to speak her mind and stand up for her beliefs. My first inclination was to say that she was fearless about speaking out, but there is no way that there wasn’t fear with the threats and violence that she experienced. She was courageous. She was relentless. She was committed. She was focused. She was willing to do the hard work, every day, regardless of the cost. Hamer truly was an inspiration and I appreciated this opportunity to learn more about her life and see the impact that she has had on future generations.
June 1, 2022
Fannie Lou Hamer is one of my heros and I devour everything I find on her.
This was a great overview of Ms. Hamer’s life and achievements. There were some repetition, but not annoyingly noticeable.
This was a great overview of Ms. Hamer’s life and achievements. There were some repetition, but not annoyingly noticeable.
February 11, 2022
In Until I Am Free, Keisha N. Blain tells the story of Civil Rights and human rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer, and also traces the connections between Hamer’s legacy and the social justice movements of today. Born into a hard life of sharecropping in Mississippi, Hamer was surprised to learn in 1962, at a local meeting of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee, that she actually had the right to vote. From that point on, Hamer spent the rest of her life working tirelessly to enfranchise and empower others like her, including not only Black people, but other poor people and people of color. Aware of the confluence of race, class, and gender as only a Black woman can be, Hamer embraced an intersectional kind of activism before intersectionalism was even a named concept. This stance was reflected in her constant mantra: “No one is free until everyone is free.” Hamer’s pursuit of social justice was similarly all-or-nothing and uncompromising. For instance, she and her Mississippi delegation famously refused to accept two symbolic, non-voting seats at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. Understandably, Hamer’s refusal to bend created friction with the white establishment. At times, it also put her at odds with the mainstream Civil Rights movement, whose leaders were more willing to make nice and progress by inches. In Hamer’s view, however, her people’s plight was too urgent to settle for half measures. Another thing that set Hamer apart, and that influenced generations to come, was her pioneering emphasis on a group-centered style of leadership, focused on empowering anyone, regardless of background or education, to step in and help lead the charge for change.
Wow, Hamer is definitely someone my history classes never covered. What a complicated yet remarkable person. I learned a lot from this short book, and I appreciated Blain’s thoughtful approach and personal connection to her subject. I felt like the balance of biography, memoir, and modern-day social criticism was just right.
Wow, Hamer is definitely someone my history classes never covered. What a complicated yet remarkable person. I learned a lot from this short book, and I appreciated Blain’s thoughtful approach and personal connection to her subject. I felt like the balance of biography, memoir, and modern-day social criticism was just right.
January 22, 2022
Dr. Keisha Blain is an amazing writer. She provides a clear and concise story of the great Fannie Lou Hamer's life. Throughout Until I am Free, the reader sees how much of what we are experiencing today are similar to the injustices Mrs. Hamer had to face. However, it does not leave the reader feeling hopeless. Dr. Blain gives countless examples of how Mrs. Hamer was dedicated to the mission of raising the quality of life for all people negatively impacted by the system.
My introduction to Fannie Lou Hamer was a portion of her famous quote, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." But after reading Until I am Free, I have a greater understanding of the lasting impact she had on our fight for freedom. Until her last day she gave so much of herself. I only hope we continue to cary on her legacy of community and action. I highly recommend this book!
My introduction to Fannie Lou Hamer was a portion of her famous quote, "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired." But after reading Until I am Free, I have a greater understanding of the lasting impact she had on our fight for freedom. Until her last day she gave so much of herself. I only hope we continue to cary on her legacy of community and action. I highly recommend this book!
July 5, 2023
4.5/5. Dr. Blain offers a compelling and incisive introduction to the life and work of Fannie Lou Hamer. Ms. Hamer’s work and words throughout the 1960’s and 70’s remains as timely and relevant today as then, and her steadfast commitment to human rights for all people is all the more impressive in light of the crushing poverty, privation, and racial violence she combatted for the entirety of her too-short life.
January 24, 2024
This woman was a heroine of remarkable strength and brilliance and moral power. The book is less a straightforward biography, though the basics of her life are certainly there, than an account of the values informing her activism and their relevance to contemporary issues of social justice and civil rights struggles.
November 5, 2021
Very readable overview of an important woman’s achievements.
November 30, 2021
3.5.
Fannie Lou Hamer is truly incredible and I was heavily inspired by her development of the Freedom Farm.
Overall this book was okay, a bit redundant at times and a little dry.
Fannie Lou Hamer is truly incredible and I was heavily inspired by her development of the Freedom Farm.
Overall this book was okay, a bit redundant at times and a little dry.
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November 5, 2025"We have a long fight and this fight is not mine alone. But you are not free whether you are white or black, until I am free. Because no man is an island to himself. And until I'm free in Mississippi, you are not free in Washington; you are not free in New York" (ix).
June 7, 2022
3.5 stars
More people need to know more about Hamer. Enjoyed this one.
More people need to know more about Hamer. Enjoyed this one.
December 23, 2021
My book club members and I finished our last of 2021--Until I Am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer's Enduring Message to America by Dr. Keisha Blaine.
To say that Fannie Lou Hamer was a game changer is an understatement. She was more like a stalwart crusader in the fight for racial justice and equity; human rights; voting rights; and women's rights.
Hamer had a profound effect on America of the sixties and seventies even though she, herself, faced medical apartheid, a sixth grade education, losing loved ones to malnutrition, and the despicable outcomes of sharecropping on land that did not belong to her. She persevered with a loving hushand who supported her front-and-center life.
The likes of Malcolm X, Lyndon B. Johnson, June Jordan, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Holmes Norton, Roy Wilkins, Hubert Humphrey, Shirley Chisholm, Jackie Robinson and so many others crossed paths with her and "spoke her name." However, history books haven't favored Hamer's contributions to the American landscape. No surprise there.
Dr. Blaine's research captures Hamer's vision for humanity, her family ife, her liberated wit, and how Hamer's shoulders raise up women of today who continue the fight to dismantle institutional racism and help create the America that exists on paper.
I highly recommend this biography for yourself and others. Pass on the knowledge about an incredible Black woman whom few of us know about.
To say that Fannie Lou Hamer was a game changer is an understatement. She was more like a stalwart crusader in the fight for racial justice and equity; human rights; voting rights; and women's rights.
Hamer had a profound effect on America of the sixties and seventies even though she, herself, faced medical apartheid, a sixth grade education, losing loved ones to malnutrition, and the despicable outcomes of sharecropping on land that did not belong to her. She persevered with a loving hushand who supported her front-and-center life.
The likes of Malcolm X, Lyndon B. Johnson, June Jordan, Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King, Jr., Eleanor Holmes Norton, Roy Wilkins, Hubert Humphrey, Shirley Chisholm, Jackie Robinson and so many others crossed paths with her and "spoke her name." However, history books haven't favored Hamer's contributions to the American landscape. No surprise there.
Dr. Blaine's research captures Hamer's vision for humanity, her family ife, her liberated wit, and how Hamer's shoulders raise up women of today who continue the fight to dismantle institutional racism and help create the America that exists on paper.
I highly recommend this biography for yourself and others. Pass on the knowledge about an incredible Black woman whom few of us know about.
May 25, 2023
If I could give this book ten stars I would. Author Keisha N. Blain gives readers an in-depth look into Mrs. Hamer’s life, work and legacy. She movingly cites Kamala Harris’ vice presidential nomination acceptance speech in twice referencing Fannie Lou Hamer.
Well narrated by Tyra Kennedy.
Well narrated by Tyra Kennedy.
February 5, 2022
Mrs. Hamer was an extraordinary person and left a magnificent legacy of wisdom, courage, and love.
August 5, 2022
If you have ever seen a protestor's sign that reads "I am sick and tired of being sick and tired!" or heard the activist rallying cry "No one is free until we are all free!" you have Fannie Lou Hamer to thank. Both are powerful truths that will almost surely remain relevant until humans become extinct on Earth.
This rather short, contemporary look at one of the most important and admirable political heroines of American history starts out sounding a bit like a college freshman's book report. Thankfully, after the introduction, Keisha Blain does a good job of highlighting Mrs. Hamer's legacy.
The only reasons I read this book rather than Hamer's autobiography is that this one was available as an audiobook at my library, and I wanted to see her work presented in the light (or shadow) of a post-2020 world. Unfortunately, the producers of this audiobook overlooked narrator Tyra Kennedy repeatedly mispronouncing the names of key figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Vice President Kamala Harris. She even pronounces Belgium as if the "i" makes an audible "ee" sound. Distracting mispronunciations aside, Kennedy does a satisfactory job, but Kamala Harris really doesn't deserve to be elevated so highly in the conclusion of this already hagiographical book.
The only point at which Blain deviates from holding Hamer on a pedestal is when she acknowledges that the civil rights champion was also strongly opposed to abortion and contraception access/rights. Blain maintains Hamer's insistence that she wasn't fighting *merely* for Black women or for "equality" but for all humans' rights. In this way, Fannie Lou Hamer warrants much more attention and praise in school textbooks and radical political movement strategies.
This rather short, contemporary look at one of the most important and admirable political heroines of American history starts out sounding a bit like a college freshman's book report. Thankfully, after the introduction, Keisha Blain does a good job of highlighting Mrs. Hamer's legacy.
The only reasons I read this book rather than Hamer's autobiography is that this one was available as an audiobook at my library, and I wanted to see her work presented in the light (or shadow) of a post-2020 world. Unfortunately, the producers of this audiobook overlooked narrator Tyra Kennedy repeatedly mispronouncing the names of key figures such as W.E.B. Du Bois and Vice President Kamala Harris. She even pronounces Belgium as if the "i" makes an audible "ee" sound. Distracting mispronunciations aside, Kennedy does a satisfactory job, but Kamala Harris really doesn't deserve to be elevated so highly in the conclusion of this already hagiographical book.
The only point at which Blain deviates from holding Hamer on a pedestal is when she acknowledges that the civil rights champion was also strongly opposed to abortion and contraception access/rights. Blain maintains Hamer's insistence that she wasn't fighting *merely* for Black women or for "equality" but for all humans' rights. In this way, Fannie Lou Hamer warrants much more attention and praise in school textbooks and radical political movement strategies.
June 25, 2025
3.75-- in the wake of mamdani's win in nyc, i get chills thinking about the power of grassroots organizing. hamer's criticism of the democratic party and even the naacp at the time goes to show that it's important to uphold your beliefs and not blindly follow the takes of an institution without any critical thinking. the book did feel a little repetitive and read like a school report at times when trying to connect modern events to happenings from hamer's life. overall, i couldn't agree more with the emphasis that we're all interconnected and no person is free until everyone is afforded equal rights.
January 27, 2025
This is a book inspired by Fannie Lou Hamer, not merely a biography. The author connects the events in her life to events going on today. Most people remember her (if they remember at all) for her speeches at the 1964 Democratic National Convention where she fought for an integrated Mississippi delegation. That was not her only fight. She ran for publice office, was beaten up by Klansmen resulting in permanent injuries, and was operated on for a specific complaint and then sterilized so she could not have children. An American hero.
"None of us are free until all of us are free."
"None of us are free until all of us are free."
January 23, 2023
The excerpts of Fannie Lou Hamer’s words and speeches are the best parts of this book. The word ‘remarkable’ doesn’t adequately describe Hamer’s life or the racism she endured in Mississippi as a sharecropper. She stayed committed to her belief that all people are equally valuable in God’s eyes with fierce tenacity. Her courage is astounding and I want to know more about her.
February 8, 2024
I think that this was a great introduction to the life of Fannie Lou Hamer. I do wish the author went more into her life, but I learned so much from this book and I enjoyed how the author wrapped it up with present day events and people.
January 1, 2023
I have admired Fannie Lou Hamer for so long and was very excited to read this. I liked the book but didn't love it. Hamer has a lot to teach us.
December 25, 2021
Actual rating - 3.75
A short biography of Fannie Lou Hamer and how her work is relevant today. Lots of speech excepts and information about her political and freedom work. There is also little known information about her personal and family life, of which I wanted to know more.
Overall, a interesting and informative book. Glad I read it!
A short biography of Fannie Lou Hamer and how her work is relevant today. Lots of speech excepts and information about her political and freedom work. There is also little known information about her personal and family life, of which I wanted to know more.
Overall, a interesting and informative book. Glad I read it!
February 6, 2023
Fannie Lou Hamer is a story that intrigues me. She’s a freedom fighter, resilient, and lived with purpose. Author Keisha N. Blain introduced interesting but conflicting information which causes me to question was Hamer a God-fearing wife, fighter for constitutional rights (the right to vote), fighter for human rights (food insecurity for people of color), fighter for a seat at the table for women of color, while seeking to be elected to office and a servant of her husband according to the gospel? If this is true, her life was truly complexed. As well, there are some inconsistencies, her husband had at least one affair bearing a child, the author painted him as supportive, loyal, and in love. As well, the author indicated Hamer’s dislike of NAACP and black male leaders leaving women out of leadership roles in the Civil Rights Movement. I am becoming familiar with her story (Fannie Lou Hamer) and hope to piece together the life and legacy of Hamer.
October 21, 2022
Powerful history lesson that is glossed over or most often ignored in classrooms. While I was not born or too young to remember the news, it is not too late to pick up the call.
300+ years is too long to wait for what is rightfully yours.
300+ years is too long to wait for what is rightfully yours.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 118 reviews