Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff, a production of I Heart Radio, Hey
Speaker 1: Brainstuff Lorn Vogelbaum. Here. The words of civil rights activist
Speaker 1: Fanny Lew Hamer have resounded across generations. I am sick
Speaker 1: and tired of being sick and tired. They've been co
Speaker 1: opted in memes written on protest signs and uttered by
Speaker 1: contemporary activists and organizers. It makes sense that the pithy
Speaker 1: statement would resonate, since people still deal with frustration over
Speaker 1: social injustices. Hamer is rightfully celebrated for her oratory skills,
Speaker 1: and her legacy lives on in part through her speeches
Speaker 1: and testimonies. But Hamer had a storied life beyond her suffering,
Speaker 1: and her contributions aren't limited to adages. Hamer was born
Speaker 1: in nineteen seventeen, and her and her parents were sharecroppers,
Speaker 1: or farmers who worked land that someone else owned in
Speaker 1: exchange for a share of the crop that they produced.
Speaker 1: She picked cotton and worked as a time and record
Speaker 1: keeper on a plantation in Mississippi. Share Cropping was a
Speaker 1: notoriously exploitative practice that was popular in the wake of
Speaker 1: the Civil War, and Hamer's family lived in poverty. Hamer
Speaker 1: was conscious of the racial and economic inequality she faced
Speaker 1: every day, and she was drawn to do something about
Speaker 1: it herself. She claimed that she didn't even know that
Speaker 1: black people could register to vote. For the article this
Speaker 1: episode is based on hast work spoke by email with
Speaker 1: Dr Kate Clifford Larson, a historian and author of the
Speaker 1: forthcoming book Walk with Me, a biography of Fannie Lew Hamer.
Speaker 1: She says that this voting registration claim was a myth
Speaker 1: that Hamer herself spread, a quote she knew full well
Speaker 1: that they could or should be able to if it
Speaker 1: were not for the voter restrictions imposed on Mississippians and
Speaker 1: the oppressive nature of the ways those restrictions were used
Speaker 1: specifically to deny blacks the right to vote. She had
Speaker 1: participated in n double a CP membership drive, lives and
Speaker 1: met with Mississippi civil rights leaders during the nineteen fifties,
Speaker 1: but it wasn't until nineteen sixty two that she and
Speaker 1: seventeen other black people tried to register to vote in Mississippi.
Speaker 1: In order to register, the volunteers had to pass literacy tests,
Speaker 1: which were often used to keep black people from voting.
Speaker 1: Hamer was not only denied her right to vote, but
Speaker 1: she was also dismissed from the plantation where she worked
Speaker 1: because of her attempt to register. It was a pivotal moment.
Speaker 1: For the rest of her life, Hamer would be knee
Speaker 1: deep in politics and activism. Voter suppression tactics like literacy
Speaker 1: tests and poll taxes were rampant, and voting rights activists
Speaker 1: faced violence and terrorism, but Hamer was dedicated to the cause,
Speaker 1: and she worked as a field organizer with the Student
Speaker 1: Non Violent Coordinating Committee, which was a civil rights group
Speaker 1: that organized voter registration drives in the South. Mississippi had
Speaker 1: historically low levels of black voter participation, but Hamer had
Speaker 1: quote Mississippi and her bones. As civil rights activist Bob
Speaker 1: Moses said in the PBS documentary Freedom Summer, she spoke
Speaker 1: with black people in rural counties in Mississippi about registering
Speaker 1: to vote, and she gained support in places where enthusiasm
Speaker 1: for voting was low. Of policies preventing black people from
Speaker 1: voting proliferated, and the threat of violence against black people
Speaker 1: interested in politics loomed. Hamer was determined to make the
Speaker 1: state a better place for black people. Eventually, she became
Speaker 1: the field secretary for s n c C, and while
Speaker 1: she was in that role, the organization's voter registration drives
Speaker 1: added thousands of black voters to the rolls. In the
Speaker 1: summer of nineteen sixty four, hundreds of volunteers converged in
Speaker 1: Mississippi to increase the number of black registered voters in
Speaker 1: that state. Hamer was one of the key organizers of
Speaker 1: the project, known as Freedom Summer. A small percentage of
Speaker 1: the total number of black Mississippians who tried to register
Speaker 1: to vote were successful, but the project did lead to
Speaker 1: the creation of Freedom school which were temporary free schools
Speaker 1: for African Americans meant to help them organize for civil rights.
Speaker 1: It also raised awareness about the disenfranchisement of black people
Speaker 1: in Mississippi and marked a turning point in the civil
Speaker 1: rights movement. The effort got a lot of media attention,
Speaker 1: and it was a significant moment in the build up
Speaker 1: to the passage of the Civil Rights Act of nineteen
Speaker 1: sixty four and the Voting Rights Act of nineteen sixty five.
Speaker 1: In tandem with the Freedom Summer effort, Hamer also co
Speaker 1: founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party or m f DP
Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty four. Mississippi's Democratic Party at the time
Speaker 1: was all white, prosegregation and had a history of blocking
Speaker 1: black voter participation. The m f DP aimed to challenge
Speaker 1: the legitimacy of the Mississippi Democratic Party and to expand
Speaker 1: representation to black people. When m f DP delegates went
Speaker 1: to the Democratic National Convention in August of that year,
Speaker 1: they testified in front of the Credentials Committee to demand
Speaker 1: end that they be seated in the convention. Hamer's testimony
Speaker 1: was powerful. She said, if the Freedom Democratic Party is
Speaker 1: not seated, now, I question America. Is this America, the
Speaker 1: land of the Free and the home of the brave,
Speaker 1: where we have to sleep with our telephones off of
Speaker 1: the hooks because our lives be threatened daily, because we
Speaker 1: want to live as decent human beings in America. Hamer's
Speaker 1: voice was one of her most prominent features. Her speeches
Speaker 1: and songs were captivating. Larson said she challenged audiences to
Speaker 1: open their minds and see the immediacy of the moment
Speaker 1: through her gifted interpretations of Bible passages. She spoke from
Speaker 1: her own experience, thus connecting her to everyday people. Hamer
Speaker 1: died in seven after many more years of activism, political involvement,
Speaker 1: and community building. Though voter registration and political representation are
Speaker 1: still issues that organizers are navigating today in the United States,
Speaker 1: Hammer's words and actions continue to inspire contemporary movements for
Speaker 1: justice and human rights. Today's episode is based on the
Speaker 1: article Fannie lou Hamer from Sharecropper to civil rights and
Speaker 1: voting rights of icon on houstuffworks dot Com, written by
Speaker 1: Eve's Jeff Cope. To hear more from Eve's, check out
Speaker 1: her podcast This Day in History Class. Brain Stuff is
Speaker 1: production of I Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff
Speaker 1: Works dot Com and is produced by Tyler Klang. Four
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