Why civil rights icon Fannie Lou Hamer was “sick and tired of being sick and tired”

They didn't call it voter suppression back then, but civil rights activist Fannie Lou Hamer knew exactly how white authorities
in Mississippi had concerns about black voter turnout within the Sixties.

At a rally with Malcolm X in Harlem, New York, on December 20, 1964, Hamer described the brutal beatings She and other blacks fought for civil and voting rights in Mississippi.

One 12 months ago, in June 1963Hamer and a few of her friends attended a voter education workshop in Charleston, South Carolina. On the best way back to Mississippi, the bus driver called the police to remove Hamer and her colleagues from the whites-only section of the bus where they’d been sitting.

When they stopped in Winona, Mississippi, local police were waiting for them and promptly arrested them for disorderly conduct.

While in prison, Hamer told the Harlem rally, “I started hearing leaking noises and hearing screams. I couldn't see the people, but I could hear them. …They would call her horrible names. And I would hear when she would hit the ground again.”

After some time, Hamer said, she saw a friend walking past her cell.

“Her clothing was torn from shoulder to waist,” Hamer said. “Her hair stood on end. Her mouth was swollen and bleeding. And one of her eyes looked like blood. … And then three men came into my cell.”

Hamer was also beaten and suffered injuries that resulted in lifelong injuries to his eyes, kidneys and legs. The experience also left her no selection but to fight back. And she fought until her death on the age of 59 on March 14, 1977.

Challenging the establishment

The Harlem rally was organized to support the political party that Hamer co-founded as a member in 1964 Freedom summerduring which lots of of school students traveled to Mississippi and other southern states to assist register blacks to vote.

The Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party was a racially integrated alternative to the state's segregationist Democratic Party. Hamer was elected vice chairman of the party and in addition ran for a seat within the U.S. House of Representatives. In addition to Hamer's congressional campaign, one in every of her party's fundamental goals was to dam the seats of the state's five pro-segregationist U.S. congressmen.

In 1964, lower than 7% of the state's black population in Mississippi were eligible to vote, despite the fact that nearly 40% of the state's population was black.

LBJ's Southern Problem

Hamer's challenge to the split delegation couldn't have come at a worse time for President Lyndon Johnson.

At the time, Johnson was involved in a re-election campaign against right-wing conservative Barry Goldwater was afraid of losing Southern Democratic politicians and voters within the upcoming presidential election.

The fight in Mississippi erupted nationally when television networks broadcast Hamer's August 22, 1964, testimony before Congress Democratic Convention Credentials Committee, which determined who qualified to be a state delegate. In her try and get the committee to acknowledge her political party, Hamer spoke concerning the second-class, often violent treatment of black people.

“It’s all because we want to register to become first-class citizens.” she said.

To prevent further witness statements Johnson immediately held an impromptu press conference that may divert network television attention away from Hamer.

Despite Johnson's tactics Hamer's story Still widespread across the country, due partially to a series of rallies in northern cities, including Harlem.

“The truth is the only thing that can set us free,” Hamer said through the speech in Harlem. “When I testified before the credentials committee, I was interrupted because they hate to see what they knew all along, and that's the truth.”

Ill and drained

Born on October 6, 1917, in Montgomery County, Mississippi, Hamer was the twentieth and last child of sharecroppers Lou Ella and James Townsend. She began picking cotton on the age of six and was soon forced to go away school to assist her family survive.

“We worked 10 to 11 hours a day for three lousy dollars,” Hamer once said.

In 1961, during an operation to remove a uterine tumor, Hamer underwent a hysterectomy by a white doctor without her consent. Forced sterilization was one in every of the explanations Hamer joined the civil rights movement.

In the summer of 1962, Hamer attended their first meeting Non-Violent Student Coordinating Committee, a civil rights group of predominantly black college students that organized nonviolent protests against segregation and provided voter registration training. On August 31, 1962, Hamer and 17 others decided to place their education to good use by attempting to register to vote on the courthouse in Indianola, Mississippi.

Of the 18 people, 16 weren’t allowed to take the test required for voter registration. Only Hamer and one other person were allowed to take it – and each failed. These literacy tests consisted of Reading and interpreting Parts of the state structure, similar to habeas corpus, a constitutional right to guard an individual from illegal imprisonment.

Devastated, the group faced further harassment when local police stopped their bus and fined them $100 for an exaggerated accusation Bus was too yellow.

The insults and constant fear of violence were examples of on a regular basis black life in Mississippi, a story Hamer called tragic, unconstitutional and, unfortunately, all too familiar.

“And you can always hear this long sob story.” she said. “We have been giving them time for 300 years. And I’ve been tired for so long, now I’m tired of being sick and tired and we want a change.”