Dear Dartmouth,
Weak. Tired. Helpless. All have been used to describe infamous civil rights activist Rosa Parks, whom white American history has painted as a powerless old lady who was too tired to give up her seat on that bus. But do any of us find it that surprising her years of direct action, organizing, and fostering communist ideals in the Montgomery Improvement Association were washed away. This is the same simplification of history that martyrizes Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. but not Malcolm X, that grieves for four young girls killed in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church but tries to forget Emmett Till. As recent events remind us, it is easier for white Americans to stomach the activism and mourn the deaths of the meek and pacifist. I am not an exception because I am just as embedded in this system of whitewashing. But, in a concerted effort to amplify the history of Black Americans, I would like to share a little about a woman who demanded representation, Fannie Lou Hamer. If you’re thinking, I’d rather read for myself, more power to you! Check out the links at the bottom.
Fannie Lou Hamer, a Mississippi native, began her involvement in voting registration and activism in 1962 at the age of 45. She and her family worked as sharecroppers throughout her childhood. It took three times to register to vote due to the incessant intimidation and threats from white community members, and after Hamer increased her canvassing work with the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, SNCC, white police officers arrested and beat her nearly to death while in custody. She sustained permanent injuries to her legs and kidney, but she continued her activism throughout the year and into 1964, a year known as Freedom Summer in Mississippi. The Freedom Summer initiative brought mostly white college students from Northern states to work in Mississippi, mostly aiding voter registration.
The strategy, like today, theorized that less violence would be perpetrated against young white activists than black ones, and generally that tended to be the case. Hamer gained national acclaim when she led her delegation of the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party to the Democratic National Convention that year in Atlantic City. Her delegation was offered two non-speaking seats in the convention. Hamer, surrounded by seated white men scribbling on notes and barely listening, testifies on her own behalf and questions the ideals of a party that refuses to represent its Black members. President Lyndon B. Johnson requested an emergency press conference to cut off her testimony, which you can see live in a video linked below. One of her more famous quotes?
“I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.”
Hamer traveled back to Mississippi and continued her fight for voter registration, but she also advocated for getting Black families like hers out of sharecropping to own farms themselves. She started Freedom Farm in 1969, a commune for any families, white or Black, in the community to join for only $1 and take a share in the land, tools, and harvest. While the farm ultimately fell apart, it had lasting effects, like a pig farm that gave hundreds of families a single sow so that they could have pigs for generations. Her activism had practical applications that empowered Black families to own their land and condemn the practice of white landowners who exploited sharecroppers. There is much more to this story. Please check out some links below – if anything, listen to Fannie Lou Hamer sing.
I will end with a quote from Meena Harris that both editor Lucas Joshi and I love: “No one can do everything, but everyone can do something.” If you’re feeling overwhelmed at the amount of hatred in the world, ask yourself what is one thing you can do that spreads love – sign a petition, donate to a worthy organization, read, listen to a powerful woman sing.
More Sources
- Watch coverage of the DNC cut Hamer off and give the floor to President Johnson
- Read a Washington Post feature on Hamer
- Take a look at Hamer on the SNCC’s website:
- Listen to Fannie Lou Hamer sing
- Also, check out this book: Sisters in the Struggle: African-American Women in the Civil Rights-Black Power Movement by Bettye Collier-Thomas and V.P. Franklin
Much Love,
Sarah
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