banjobutch: Happy birthday, Fannie Lou Hamer! (October 6, 1917)A vital force in the Civil Rights Mov
banjobutch: Happy birthday, Fannie Lou Hamer! (October 6, 1917)A vital force in the Civil Rights Movement, Fannie Lou Hamer was one of the most prominent black women to occupy a leading role in the movement. An organizer of the Freedom Summer in her native Mississippi, Hamer helped to found the National Women’s Political Caucus, and co-founded the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, leading its delegation to the 1964 Democratic National Convention in opposition to the segregationist state party delegation. Continuing in her activism despite her ailing health, Hamer would help found an agricultural cooperative called Freedom Farm in Sunflower County, Mississippi, and run for elected office a number of times before her death in 1977.“I am sick and tired of being sick and tired.” -- source link