Hamer, << HAYM uhr, >> Fannie Lou (1917-1977), was a leading Black American civil rights activist. Hamer was born in Montgomery County, Mississippi. The youngest of 20 children, she toiled as a sharecropper most of her life. Hamer began working for voting rights for Black people after she tried to register to vote in 1962 but was turned away. She succeeded in registering in 1963. Later that year, she was arrested for entering a “whites-only” restaurant. While Hamer was in jail, guards forced two prisoners to beat her.
In 1964, Hamer helped establish the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP) as a racially integrated alternative to the all-white Democratic Party of Mississippi. The MFDP tried but failed to get its slate of delegates seated at the 1964 Democratic National Convention. As part of this attempt, Hamer testified before a convention committee, telling of her experiences as a Black person and as a civil rights activist. Hamer’s testimony—which was nationally televised—did much to publicize the mistreatment of Black Americans and civil rights workers in the United States.
